WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:04.650 align:middle line:84%
In that vein, I
would like to share--

00:00:04.650 --> 00:00:08.580 align:middle line:84%
I usually start a reading by
sharing some other poet's work

00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:09.540 align:middle line:90%
that I admire.

00:00:09.540 --> 00:00:12.930 align:middle line:84%
And tonight, I want to
share some words with you

00:00:12.930 --> 00:00:15.780 align:middle line:90%
from poet No'u Revilla.

00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:18.210 align:middle line:90%
She is a Kanaka Oiwi poet.

00:00:18.210 --> 00:00:22.350 align:middle line:84%
And right now, as we speak,
she is holding poetry classes

00:00:22.350 --> 00:00:25.515 align:middle line:84%
at Pu'u Huluhulu at
the site of Mauna

00:00:25.515 --> 00:00:29.010 align:middle line:84%
Kea at their newly
installed university,

00:00:29.010 --> 00:00:30.540 align:middle line:90%
happening right now.

00:00:30.540 --> 00:00:33.690 align:middle line:84%
And from No'u, from
Mauna Kea, she says,

00:00:33.690 --> 00:00:36.690 align:middle line:84%
"We are the model,
not the shame.

00:00:36.690 --> 00:00:37.920 align:middle line:90%
We can feed ourselves.

00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:39.810 align:middle line:90%
We can organize ourselves.

00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:41.520 align:middle line:90%
We can protect ourselves.

00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:46.200 align:middle line:84%
We can educate ourselves
all in kapu aloha."

00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.995 align:middle line:84%
So I'd like to read a poem of
No'u's called "Rope Tongue."

00:00:49.995 --> 00:00:53.650 align:middle line:90%


00:00:53.650 --> 00:00:56.350 align:middle line:84%
"Grandma was a
lizard at our age.

00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:59.620 align:middle line:84%
She walked first, the
story goes, and learned

00:00:59.620 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:84%
to climb up the stiff, metal
pole, up and over the hanging

00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:09.220 align:middle line:84%
head, up until she was
up and it was down.

00:01:09.220 --> 00:01:13.150 align:middle line:84%
The lamp post, I thought,
was a cervix to the sky,

00:01:13.150 --> 00:01:15.490 align:middle line:90%
but, no, not female.

00:01:15.490 --> 00:01:19.270 align:middle line:84%
It belonged to the
pier and, thus, us.

00:01:19.270 --> 00:01:24.520 align:middle line:84%
We pissed everywhere-- on the
bridge, on the concrete floor,

00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:28.300 align:middle line:84%
on the steps running down to
the tires in the ocean where we

00:01:28.300 --> 00:01:30.670 align:middle line:90%
waited for others to jump--

00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:35.470 align:middle line:84%
young, territorial,
everywhere pissing.

00:01:35.470 --> 00:01:38.890 align:middle line:84%
There was rope that hung
from one end of the pier

00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:42.310 align:middle line:84%
to the other, rope that
hung like a tongue,

00:01:42.310 --> 00:01:45.550 align:middle line:84%
the kind of tongue we wished
to have in our little girl

00:01:45.550 --> 00:01:46.810 align:middle line:90%
mouths--

00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:52.270 align:middle line:84%
sick, twisted, tasting salt
in broad daylight-- big girl

00:01:52.270 --> 00:01:53.530 align:middle line:90%
tongue.

00:01:53.530 --> 00:01:57.340 align:middle line:84%
In the water, we mounted it,
squeezed it between our legs,

00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:01.750 align:middle line:84%
like she said,
slyly reproductive.

00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:05.770 align:middle line:84%
Grandma jumped into the ocean
with her legs spread, landed,

00:02:05.770 --> 00:02:08.650 align:middle line:90%
and the water turned to foam.

00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:13.900 align:middle line:84%
The rope was dry for 13 days,
one for every child that

00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:16.180 align:middle line:90%
swam out of her.

00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:19.210 align:middle line:84%
We dreamed of sex
in tents, on cliffs,

00:02:19.210 --> 00:02:22.930 align:middle line:84%
in the morning, out of wedlock,
of making eyes, biting lips,

00:02:22.930 --> 00:02:30.280 align:middle line:84%
saying, I want, I will, I do,
and meaning the fuck out of it.

00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:34.390 align:middle line:84%
The fuck of it formed like
vowels between our legs,

00:02:34.390 --> 00:02:37.420 align:middle line:84%
not like the other
girls and their ABCs.

00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:44.890 align:middle line:84%
We knew rope like A-E-I-O-U.
One child from her forehead,

00:02:44.890 --> 00:02:46.600 align:middle line:90%
one from her tongue.

00:02:46.600 --> 00:02:51.040 align:middle line:84%
Another rolled out from
her sweet jump spot.

00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:55.000 align:middle line:84%
After another, after
another, after another

00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:56.890 align:middle line:90%
from her mo'o toes.

00:02:56.890 --> 00:02:59.590 align:middle line:90%
They climbed like her.

00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:00.940 align:middle line:90%
Grandma.

00:03:00.940 --> 00:03:02.320 align:middle line:90%
Lizard.

00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:04.840 align:middle line:90%
At our age."

00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.670 align:middle line:90%
No'u Revilla.

00:03:07.670 --> 00:03:10.420 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:12.000 align:middle line:90%