WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.810 align:middle line:84% So the thing that's connected to what I think 00:00:06.810 --> 00:00:09.900 align:middle line:84% is interesting about Ai, is when I started thinking, well, 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:13.890 align:middle line:84% what if I wanted to write a persona poem, like, 00:00:13.890 --> 00:00:17.325 align:middle line:84% this question of empathy for something like that, 00:00:17.325 --> 00:00:20.378 align:middle line:84% could you write from his point of view? 00:00:20.378 --> 00:00:22.170 align:middle line:84% And then, I was just thinking about models. 00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:27.190 align:middle line:84% I like models, I like form, I like frames for context. 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:31.920 align:middle line:84% And I just couldn't think of any poets really that look really 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:33.750 align:middle line:90% in the mouth of a violent act. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:37.590 align:middle line:84% So again, I feel metaphor allows us to often look away 00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:40.660 align:middle line:84% from spectacle, even though it's all around us all the time. 00:00:40.660 --> 00:00:43.500 align:middle line:84% And so, the only poet that I can think of that 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:48.090 align:middle line:84% does it, or did it, as a regular practice was Ai. 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:50.070 align:middle line:84% And so, I thought, well, what would I 00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:52.680 align:middle line:84% write if she was writing a poem in the voice of this boy, 00:00:52.680 --> 00:00:54.180 align:middle line:90% in the voice of Dylann Roof? 00:00:54.180 --> 00:00:56.700 align:middle line:84% And then, rather than just working through that, 00:00:56.700 --> 00:00:59.310 align:middle line:84% I thought, oh, I'll write a poem in the voice of Ai, 00:00:59.310 --> 00:01:01.200 align:middle line:90% pretending to be Dylann Roof. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:02.560 align:middle line:90% I knew that's very complicated. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:04.360 align:middle line:90% But it's a trick, right? 00:01:04.360 --> 00:01:06.180 align:middle line:84% It's just me trying to, well, how do 00:01:06.180 --> 00:01:08.010 align:middle line:90% I get myself to feel empathy? 00:01:08.010 --> 00:01:11.250 align:middle line:84% How do I get myself, you know, again, it's my hometown. 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:14.460 align:middle line:84% I know Lexington, I know everything he's from. 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:16.885 align:middle line:84% And so I thought, she's the only model. 00:01:16.885 --> 00:01:18.510 align:middle line:84% And so we could have that conversation, 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:22.237 align:middle line:84% I guess, about her, about the practice. 00:01:22.237 --> 00:01:24.570 align:middle line:84% Is that the practice of empathy, or is that the practice 00:01:24.570 --> 00:01:29.212 align:middle line:84% of drama, to try to embody that to make spectacle 00:01:29.212 --> 00:01:30.420 align:middle line:90% part of looking at something? 00:01:30.420 --> 00:01:32.100 align:middle line:84% Even though, she's always inside of it, right? 00:01:32.100 --> 00:01:34.500 align:middle line:84% This is what I meant about the outside bearing witness 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:35.970 align:middle line:84% and then getting down inside of it. 00:01:35.970 --> 00:01:39.450 align:middle line:90% So this is the last poem. 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:41.850 align:middle line:84% And it's called "The Poet Ai as Dylann Roof." 00:01:41.850 --> 00:01:44.910 align:middle line:90% 00:01:44.910 --> 00:01:47.160 align:middle line:84% In the hall of my grandmother's house 00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:50.370 align:middle line:90% stood an old upright piano. 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:56.460 align:middle line:84% Wherever I touch the keys, sound sang and sprang out. 00:01:56.460 --> 00:01:59.850 align:middle line:90% I never called anyone "nigger." 00:01:59.850 --> 00:02:04.940 align:middle line:84% I never stood at the edge of a choir afraid to sing out. 00:02:04.940 --> 00:02:10.410 align:middle line:84% Behind my white face, I wear the mask of a Black woman's face. 00:02:10.410 --> 00:02:13.950 align:middle line:90% I am lonely enough to murder. 00:02:13.950 --> 00:02:19.890 align:middle line:84% I am lonely enough to hate everything in my face. 00:02:19.890 --> 00:02:25.710 align:middle line:84% The poet sees a blackbird stoned in a field. 00:02:25.710 --> 00:02:30.060 align:middle line:84% The blackbird lives next to the stone like a lover with her 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:34.470 align:middle line:84% arms thrown open, with her small mouth open, 00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:40.110 align:middle line:84% and out of which springs a song the boy cannot decipher. 00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:44.400 align:middle line:84% Inside the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:51.420 align:middle line:84% Church, nine beautiful niggers pray in the pews like birds. 00:02:51.420 --> 00:02:56.440 align:middle line:84% And I say, Jesus fucking Christ, to myself, 00:02:56.440 --> 00:03:01.910 align:middle line:84% and my gun is heavier than the weight of a life. 00:03:01.910 --> 00:03:06.020 align:middle line:84% When I was young, I found a blackbird with a broken wing 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:08.090 align:middle line:90% in a field. 00:03:08.090 --> 00:03:10.780 align:middle line:84% And as I stoned the bird, I imagined 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:16.880 align:middle line:84% I was stoning a face until I was splattered with awe. 00:03:16.880 --> 00:03:20.600 align:middle line:84% And when I got home from the field and went to my room, 00:03:20.600 --> 00:03:25.960 align:middle line:84% I sang out a song of inevitable sorrow. 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.370 align:middle line:84% When I looked in the mirror and saw the eyes in a Black woman's 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:35.730 align:middle line:84% face, the skin, a glow in the distance, murder 00:03:35.730 --> 00:03:38.310 align:middle line:90% is filled with sorrow 00:03:38.310 --> 00:03:40.420 align:middle line:90% I don't know who cares. 00:03:40.420 --> 00:03:42.420 align:middle line:90% I don't care who knows. 00:03:42.420 --> 00:03:47.550 align:middle line:84% I am lonely, I am lonely, I am lonely. 00:03:47.550 --> 00:03:49.440 align:middle line:90% All right y'all. 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:52.790 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:52.790 --> 00:03:54.000 align:middle line:90%