WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.810 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:04.650 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to start with a poem
called "American Inferno."

00:00:04.650 --> 00:00:08.290 align:middle line:90%


00:00:08.290 --> 00:00:11.740 align:middle line:90%
The prison system is divine.

00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:14.950 align:middle line:90%
A comedy of errors.

00:00:14.950 --> 00:00:19.780 align:middle line:84%
Funny how, like God,
we've carved out layer

00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:25.300 align:middle line:84%
upon layer of just the
right amount of hell

00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:27.460 align:middle line:90%
for each offense.

00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:34.150 align:middle line:84%
A downward spiral from juvie
to eternal life behind bars,

00:00:34.150 --> 00:00:39.400 align:middle line:84%
from social and civic death
to that lowest ring of fire,

00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:41.530 align:middle line:90%
death row.

00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:45.000 align:middle line:90%
Like God, we act on wrath.

00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.960 align:middle line:84%
Insist there's a price
to pay for worshipping

00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.250 align:middle line:84%
at the altar of greed
or heedless pleasure,

00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:57.000 align:middle line:84%
for disrespecting
authority, insist

00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.910 align:middle line:84%
that some must die
in the wilderness

00:00:59.910 --> 00:01:05.040 align:middle line:84%
without ever seeing the
promise of the land.

00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.190 align:middle line:84%
No free bread dropping
out of nowhere

00:01:08.190 --> 00:01:14.580 align:middle line:84%
to fill the emptinesses, no
Beatrice, to be or not to be.

00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:20.000 align:middle line:90%


00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:27.080 align:middle line:84%
This poem-- I think and thought
every day that I was working

00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:31.340 align:middle line:90%
on this manuscript about what--

00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:35.460 align:middle line:84%
oh, my God, I'm blanking
from nervousness.

00:01:35.460 --> 00:01:37.220 align:middle line:90%
Juliana, thank you.

00:01:37.220 --> 00:01:40.670 align:middle line:84%
What Juliana said
in opening us up

00:01:40.670 --> 00:01:45.830 align:middle line:84%
about making space for people
to tell their own stories.

00:01:45.830 --> 00:01:52.175 align:middle line:84%
That's a thing that I struggled
with in working on these poems.

00:01:52.175 --> 00:01:55.130 align:middle line:90%


00:01:55.130 --> 00:02:01.720 align:middle line:84%
And so I hope that
consciousness comes through.