WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:05.550 align:middle line:84% Now I'm going to go back to the cultural panorama 00:00:05.550 --> 00:00:09.810 align:middle line:84% and talking about that sniper moment. 00:00:09.810 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:84% This poem is also a poem about a cultural moment 10 years old 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:21.300 align:middle line:84% now probably, the cultural moment. 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:25.410 align:middle line:84% It's about that moment when Venus and Serena 00:00:25.410 --> 00:00:30.180 align:middle line:84% Williams suddenly materialized in the very white sport 00:00:30.180 --> 00:00:34.440 align:middle line:84% of tennis like something that had never been seen before. 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:36.540 align:middle line:84% And it was one of those moments where 00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:38.970 align:middle line:84% you know that something has changed 00:00:38.970 --> 00:00:41.310 align:middle line:90% but you don't know what it is. 00:00:41.310 --> 00:00:43.590 align:middle line:84% Maybe nobody knows, maybe the everybody's 00:00:43.590 --> 00:00:45.540 align:middle line:84% afraid to sort of say what it is, 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:48.060 align:middle line:84% but you could feel the vibration go through the culture. 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:49.770 align:middle line:90% You knew something had changed. 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:55.350 align:middle line:84% And so the poem is, the poem, I say 00:00:55.350 --> 00:00:57.060 align:middle line:84% the poem is about Venus and Serena 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:00.280 align:middle line:84% Williams who are disguised and different names are used. 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.660 align:middle line:84% But what it's really about is it's sort of about the White 00:01:03.660 --> 00:01:06.840 align:middle line:84% reaction to that, the sort of ripple 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84% through one part of the social scene in reaction 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:16.770 align:middle line:84% to another to a change because change is always scary. 00:01:16.770 --> 00:01:23.250 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to in a way write a poem about racial fear 00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:25.410 align:middle line:84% which is so much of a part of American life. 00:01:25.410 --> 00:01:28.980 align:middle line:84% Without apologizing for it or in a way explaining it, 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:30.630 align:middle line:84% I wanted to actually to embody it. 00:01:30.630 --> 00:01:33.940 align:middle line:84% So if you hear funny things in the poem, 00:01:33.940 --> 00:01:39.870 align:middle line:84% it's meant to vocalize those kinds of anxieties 00:01:39.870 --> 00:01:41.370 align:middle line:90% in the speaker's voice. 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:46.710 align:middle line:84% And that's over explaining it, but it's called "The Change". 00:01:46.710 --> 00:01:52.260 align:middle line:84% "The season turned like the page of a glossy fashion magazine. 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:57.840 align:middle line:84% In the park, the daffodils came up, and in the parking lot 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:01.350 align:middle line:84% the new car models were on parade. 00:02:01.350 --> 00:02:05.200 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I think that nothing really changes. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:09.300 align:middle line:84% The young girls show the latest crop of tummies, 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:11.580 align:middle line:84% and the new president proves that he's a dummy. 00:02:11.580 --> 00:02:14.520 align:middle line:90% 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:18.600 align:middle line:84% But remember that tennis match we watched that year? 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:23.820 align:middle line:84% Right before our eyes some tough little European blond 00:02:23.820 --> 00:02:28.140 align:middle line:84% pitted against that Black girl from California. 00:02:28.140 --> 00:02:32.790 align:middle line:84% Cornrowed hair and the Zulu bangles on her arms. 00:02:32.790 --> 00:02:37.080 align:middle line:84% Some outrageous name like Vondella Aphrodite. 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.690 align:middle line:90% 00:02:39.690 --> 00:02:42.000 align:middle line:84% We were just walking past the lounge 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.140 align:middle line:84% and got sucked in by the TV screen above the bar. 00:02:46.140 --> 00:02:48.240 align:middle line:84% And pretty soon we started to care 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:53.880 align:middle line:84% about who won, putting ourselves into each whacked return 00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:58.410 align:middle line:84% as the volleys went back and forth and back like 00:02:58.410 --> 00:03:02.850 align:middle line:84% some contest between the old world and the new. 00:03:02.850 --> 00:03:07.470 align:middle line:84% And you loved her complicated hair, 00:03:07.470 --> 00:03:10.980 align:middle line:84% and her to hell with everybody stare. 00:03:10.980 --> 00:03:15.030 align:middle line:84% And I couldn't help wanting the White girl to come out 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:19.800 align:middle line:84% on top because she was one of my kind, 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:25.410 align:middle line:84% my tribe with her pale eyes and thin lips. 00:03:25.410 --> 00:03:30.720 align:middle line:84% And because the Black girl was so big, so black, 00:03:30.720 --> 00:03:34.200 align:middle line:84% so unintimidated, hitting the ball 00:03:34.200 --> 00:03:37.290 align:middle line:84% like she was driving the Emancipation Proclamation 00:03:37.290 --> 00:03:40.260 align:middle line:84% down Abraham Lincoln's throat, like 00:03:40.260 --> 00:03:45.130 align:middle line:84% she wasn't asking anyone's permission. 00:03:45.130 --> 00:03:49.500 align:middle line:84% There are moments when history passes you so close, 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:51.930 align:middle line:90% you can smell its breath. 00:03:51.930 --> 00:03:57.060 align:middle line:84% You can reach your hand out and touch it on its flank. 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:01.020 align:middle line:84% And I don't watch all that much Masterpiece theater, 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:02.610 align:middle line:84% but I could feel the end of an era 00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:06.720 align:middle line:84% there in front of those bleachers full of people 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:11.310 align:middle line:84% in their Sunday tennis watching clothes as that Black girl wore 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:15.870 align:middle line:84% down her opponent then kicked her ass good, 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.019 align:middle line:84% then thumped her once more for good measure, 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:21.630 align:middle line:84% and stood up on the red clay court 00:04:21.630 --> 00:04:25.710 align:middle line:84% holding her racket over her head like a guitar. 00:04:25.710 --> 00:04:29.250 align:middle line:84% And the little pink judge had to climb up on a box 00:04:29.250 --> 00:04:32.370 align:middle line:90% to put the ribbon on her neck. 00:04:32.370 --> 00:04:34.440 align:middle line:84% Still managing to smile into the camera 00:04:34.440 --> 00:04:39.060 align:middle line:84% flash even though everything was changing. 00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:42.630 align:middle line:84% And in fact, everything had already changed. 00:04:42.630 --> 00:04:45.480 align:middle line:90% Poof, remember. 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:48.750 align:middle line:84% It was the 20th century almost gone. 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:51.960 align:middle line:84% We were there, and when we went to put it back 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:57.500 align:middle line:84% where it belonged, it was past us, and we were changed." 00:04:57.500 --> 00:04:58.000 align:middle line:90%