WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:84% Thanks to also Reginald Dwayne Betts. 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:12.270 align:middle line:84% Dwayne, who was like just such a touchstone 00:00:12.270 --> 00:00:14.010 align:middle line:90% while I wrote these poems. 00:00:14.010 --> 00:00:17.010 align:middle line:84% And I very like cutely and shy was 00:00:17.010 --> 00:00:21.240 align:middle line:84% like, what should I read while I'm writing these poems? 00:00:21.240 --> 00:00:25.260 align:middle line:84% This dude sent me like 20 files, and I read them all, 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:29.410 align:middle line:90% and was sad for a year. 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:31.320 align:middle line:84% And one of the things that he sent 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:38.640 align:middle line:84% me was actually this profile done by GQ of all places that-- 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:90% it's called "Buried Alive." 00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:52.920 align:middle line:84% And it specifically focuses on the various aspects of, 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.970 align:middle line:84% not just incarceration, but specifically 00:00:56.970 --> 00:01:01.890 align:middle line:84% isolation-- the isolation and what 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:03.990 align:middle line:84% it means to be in the box, what it means 00:01:03.990 --> 00:01:05.430 align:middle line:90% to be in solitary confinement. 00:01:05.430 --> 00:01:07.680 align:middle line:84% And it actually-- if you get a chance to check it out, 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:08.970 align:middle line:90% I would do that. 00:01:08.970 --> 00:01:13.350 align:middle line:84% It's difficult but it's like beautiful, necessary read. 00:01:13.350 --> 00:01:15.420 align:middle line:84% And I started thinking a lot about-- 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:16.920 align:middle line:84% I mean, a lot of these are profiles. 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:21.150 align:middle line:84% So I started thinking a lot about Kalief Browder, who was-- 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:26.640 align:middle line:84% originally-- he's a teenager who was kidnapped-- 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:29.070 align:middle line:90% state-sanctioned kidnapped-- 00:01:29.070 --> 00:01:33.240 align:middle line:84% for-- he was accused for stealing a backpack. 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:37.920 align:middle line:84% He spent 800 days in solitary confinement as a 17-year-old. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:45.100 align:middle line:84% And his charges were dropped and he ended up dying by suicide. 00:01:45.100 --> 00:01:49.980 align:middle line:84% He's dude from the Bronx and I wanted 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:57.690 align:middle line:84% to try to approach his story by negotiating 00:01:57.690 --> 00:02:04.500 align:middle line:84% the form of the ballad, which I learned is like-- 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.720 align:middle line:84% the ballad is in the folk tradition. 00:02:07.720 --> 00:02:10.740 align:middle line:90% So it is a song-- 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.050 align:middle line:84% there's a poetic ballad and there's also music ballads. 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:19.350 align:middle line:84% But ballads are sort of supposed to be the song of the unsung, 00:02:19.350 --> 00:02:23.010 align:middle line:84% so of the underdog, the people's person. 00:02:23.010 --> 00:02:27.720 align:middle line:84% And the underdog is sort of whatever you want to say it-- 00:02:27.720 --> 00:02:32.640 align:middle line:84% I took it to mean like there's something 00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:37.830 align:middle line:84% that the structure or the system refuses to see that is also 00:02:37.830 --> 00:02:41.220 align:middle line:90% the only thing that people see. 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:44.520 align:middle line:84% So this is "Ballad of Kalief Browder" 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:45.795 align:middle line:90% and it begins with two quotes. 00:02:45.795 --> 00:02:56.020 align:middle line:90% 00:02:56.020 --> 00:03:00.370 align:middle line:84% "Any imposition of solitary confinement beyond 15 days 00:03:00.370 --> 00:03:03.790 align:middle line:84% constitutes torture," Juan Mendez, 00:03:03.790 --> 00:03:08.260 align:middle line:84% United Nations special reporter August 5, 2011. 00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:16.230 align:middle line:84% And the second one is "it's the prison of prison," Sean Smith 00:03:16.230 --> 00:03:20.670 align:middle line:84% Kalief Browder was stolen, not a backpack. 00:03:20.670 --> 00:03:24.210 align:middle line:84% They took him, put in a cell on an island 00:03:24.210 --> 00:03:27.750 align:middle line:84% off no more than a fleeing whisper. 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:33.570 align:middle line:84% Went in our lovely boy, came out our lovely shell. 00:03:33.570 --> 00:03:38.250 align:middle line:84% He said, "You're not going to make me say something 00:03:38.250 --> 00:03:40.590 align:middle line:90% I didn't do." 00:03:40.590 --> 00:03:46.680 align:middle line:84% 800 days in the box is 8,000 days older. 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.580 align:middle line:84% Held his head toward a sky he could not see. 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:54.660 align:middle line:84% Only 16 but dusted off a plea deals like dirt 00:03:54.660 --> 00:03:55.710 align:middle line:90% on his shoulder. 00:03:55.710 --> 00:04:00.570 align:middle line:84% 12 by eight metal cage, mattress, sink, a toilet, 00:04:00.570 --> 00:04:02.280 align:middle line:90% mice plump as sin. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:07.950 align:middle line:84% Weight loss, vision loss, paranoia, hallucination began, 00:04:07.950 --> 00:04:12.900 align:middle line:84% anxiety pulling his spirit taut, spinning it like a harlequin. 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:17.700 align:middle line:90% Sometimes I can still smell it. 00:04:17.700 --> 00:04:22.560 align:middle line:84% The mildew and algae, the flood and piss. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:23.940 align:middle line:90% His sweaty palms. 00:04:23.940 --> 00:04:25.170 align:middle line:90% He paced the floor. 00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:27.510 align:middle line:90% The voices he dismissed. 00:04:27.510 --> 00:04:32.280 align:middle line:84% Two weeks and no shower, needle heat of July. 00:04:32.280 --> 00:04:37.170 align:middle line:84% Oh, oh, the scramble in his head, guards to break him. 00:04:37.170 --> 00:04:41.820 align:middle line:84% So the game is time, begging for ice, and begging for bread. 00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:47.010 align:middle line:84% The backpack just a phantom now, the Lord is a window. 00:04:47.010 --> 00:04:50.700 align:middle line:90% You hope a plane flies over. 00:04:50.700 --> 00:04:54.120 align:middle line:84% Resilience is a form of moral genius. 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:58.035 align:middle line:84% Innocence, his home now, Innocence, his mother. 00:04:58.035 --> 00:05:01.480 align:middle line:90% 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.720 align:middle line:84% Avoiding a brand and marked by another, 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.790 align:middle line:90% he fits the description. 00:05:06.790 --> 00:05:08.350 align:middle line:90% Come stubborn flock. 00:05:08.350 --> 00:05:11.950 align:middle line:90% Come unyielding field. 00:05:11.950 --> 00:05:16.330 align:middle line:84% His "no, I didn't do it," his "no," his shield. 00:05:16.330 --> 00:05:22.810 align:middle line:84% Kalief Browder, gap toothed and golden, he's somebody somebody. 00:05:22.810 --> 00:05:25.720 align:middle line:90% He was somebody stolen. 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:31.780 align:middle line:84% Venida Browder kissing his swollen face, somebody's baby. 00:05:31.780 --> 00:05:34.180 align:middle line:90% Every court date in stands. 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:36.700 align:middle line:84% What he went through, she went through. 00:05:36.700 --> 00:05:40.840 align:middle line:84% Her heart striking still, a retribution it demands. 00:05:40.840 --> 00:05:43.960 align:middle line:84% The box it taught Kalief to jump-- the box, 00:05:43.960 --> 00:05:45.430 align:middle line:90% the clock, the cover up. 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:46.960 align:middle line:90% The box, it flickers. 00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:48.700 align:middle line:90% The box, the sheet he cut. 00:05:48.700 --> 00:05:53.500 align:middle line:84% The worst part every day is you wake up. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:54.000 align:middle line:90%