WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.125 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.125 --> 00:00:04.180 align:middle line:84% I wanted to write some poems about when I was a girl. 00:00:04.180 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:90% I was born in '36, do the math. 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.920 align:middle line:84% And I was born in Depew, New York, which is near Buffalo. 00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:13.345 align:middle line:90% Anybody here from Buffalo? 00:00:13.345 --> 00:00:14.970 align:middle line:90% You can't get out. 00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:16.290 align:middle line:90% Buffalo was the snow-- 00:00:16.290 --> 00:00:19.150 align:middle line:84% oh, somebody is from Buffalo right there? 00:00:19.150 --> 00:00:22.500 align:middle line:90% there Oh! 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:23.550 align:middle line:90% You've heard about me. 00:00:23.550 --> 00:00:25.320 align:middle line:84% I'm the Black person born in Depew. 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:27.540 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHS] 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:31.030 align:middle line:90% My brother is the other one. 00:00:31.030 --> 00:00:32.820 align:middle line:84% And when I was a girl, I worked at-- 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:36.720 align:middle line:84% I got my first job, full time job, I was 12. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:46.200 align:middle line:84% And I used to work in Buffalo at the unemployment insurance. 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:48.690 align:middle line:84% They used to call me the Polish colored girl. 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:51.590 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.590 --> 00:00:52.890 align:middle line:90% And I spoke Polish. 00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:53.730 align:middle line:90% I understood Polish. 00:00:53.730 --> 00:00:54.870 align:middle line:90% I don't know any of that. 00:00:54.870 --> 00:00:56.160 align:middle line:90% That's all gone now. 00:00:56.160 --> 00:00:57.960 align:middle line:84% And I was trying to be kind to people, 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.000 align:middle line:84% because they couldn't help not having a job. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:01.500 align:middle line:84% But they had to feed their kids too. 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:05.220 align:middle line:84% At that time, the most money you got was $50. 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:06.330 align:middle line:90% How could we live on that? 00:01:06.330 --> 00:01:08.550 align:middle line:90% How could they live on that? 00:01:08.550 --> 00:01:12.450 align:middle line:84% And I was a proper college girl at that time. 00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:15.050 align:middle line:90% 00:01:15.050 --> 00:01:18.440 align:middle line:84% Anyway, my birth family calls me Lu. 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:20.000 align:middle line:90% Other people call me Lucy. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.020 align:middle line:84% And now, kids call me Lucille Clifton. 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:27.140 align:middle line:90% Lu, 1942. 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:32.540 align:middle line:84% What I know is this is called gravel. 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:38.570 align:middle line:84% You must not eat it, you must not throw it at your brother. 00:01:38.570 --> 00:01:42.710 align:middle line:84% What I know is over there is our house. 00:01:42.710 --> 00:01:44.870 align:middle line:90% Our sidewalk too. 00:01:44.870 --> 00:01:46.820 align:middle line:90% There is no grass. 00:01:46.820 --> 00:01:50.180 align:middle line:84% Grass is for the white folks section. 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:54.830 align:middle line:84% What I know is something is coming. 00:01:54.830 --> 00:01:58.880 align:middle line:84% Mama calls it war, calls it change. 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:00.860 align:middle line:90% Mama loves me. 00:02:00.860 --> 00:02:03.830 align:middle line:90% Daddy loves me too much. 00:02:03.830 --> 00:02:07.880 align:middle line:84% What I know is this is in the middle. 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:10.610 align:middle line:90% I am in the middle. 00:02:10.610 --> 00:02:13.530 align:middle line:84% Come in, come in, my momma calls. 00:02:13.530 --> 00:02:16.570 align:middle line:90% You can't stay there forever.