I'm very interested in naming, I always have been.
And the names we call things, how arrogant we are as humans.
Particularly, I think people of the United States
like to give names to things and then think of their name.
I've often said to my students, what
do you think a cow calls you?
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
You probably don't want to know.
I think it calls me great, because hamburgers
are my favorite food.
And they probably calls me a great slayer
of the bull and pounder of it up into small patties,
something like that.
And I started thinking about that in a lot of ways.
And I thought about Aunt Jemima.
I mean, was she my aunt and was Jemima her name anyway?
Looking at the box, this is the voice that came to me.
Aunt Jemima, white folks say I remind them of home,
I who have been homeless all my life except for their kitchen
cabinets.
I who have made the best of everything,
pancakes, better for chicken, my life.
The shelf on which I sit between the flour and cornmeal
is thick with dreams.
Oh, how I long for my own syrup, rich
as blood, my true nephews, my nieces, my kitchen, my family,
my home.