WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.500 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:02.940 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.320 align:middle line:90% I know that scene well. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.400 align:middle line:90% I know the show well. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.260 align:middle line:90% This is dope. 00:00:10.260 --> 00:00:11.730 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Diana. 00:00:11.730 --> 00:00:16.920 align:middle line:84% I want to echo Nicole's thank you to the Poetry Center, 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:21.930 align:middle line:84% to Tyler, to Dwayne, and this opportunity to get to read 00:00:21.930 --> 00:00:23.310 align:middle line:90% with these two people. 00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:25.065 align:middle line:84% Nicole and I go back a little ways. 00:00:25.065 --> 00:00:28.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:28.530 --> 00:00:32.189 align:middle line:84% And Hanif is one of the most generous dudes I know. 00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:36.300 align:middle line:84% When Diana was reading the bio, and she mentioned the essay 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:40.890 align:middle line:84% collection, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:43.530 align:middle line:84% and the first time I met Hanif was actually at AWP. 00:00:43.530 --> 00:00:45.660 align:middle line:84% And I was literally on my way to the book 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:47.820 align:middle line:90% fair to purchase that book. 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:49.510 align:middle line:90% And we ran into each other. 00:00:49.510 --> 00:00:51.330 align:middle line:84% And I remembered telling you, Hanif, 00:00:51.330 --> 00:00:53.190 align:middle line:84% that I'm about to go get your book. 00:00:53.190 --> 00:00:56.040 align:middle line:84% And Hanif, you guys, just pulled the book out of his bag 00:00:56.040 --> 00:01:00.970 align:middle line:84% and just handed it to me, and was like, here, here you go. 00:01:00.970 --> 00:01:04.057 align:middle line:90% And that was special. 00:01:04.057 --> 00:01:05.140 align:middle line:90% That was a special moment. 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:11.350 align:middle line:84% You don't really get that kind of vibe at AWP often. 00:01:11.350 --> 00:01:13.900 align:middle line:84% So it was just a magical moment and I'm 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:17.380 align:middle line:84% glad to have built a friendship with you. 00:01:17.380 --> 00:01:20.260 align:middle line:84% And I'm glad that we had this time together to read. 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:22.600 align:middle line:84% I'm actually going to change directions a little bit. 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:24.100 align:middle line:84% I was going to read something from the project, 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:26.558 align:middle line:84% and I'll come back to it maybe and say some words about it. 00:01:26.558 --> 00:01:29.620 align:middle line:84% But I wanted to read something that kind of piggyback off 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:32.560 align:middle line:90% Hanif's poem. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:37.590 align:middle line:84% You know, I don't pretend to be an expert 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:41.440 align:middle line:90% at all on the carceral state. 00:01:41.440 --> 00:01:46.860 align:middle line:84% But I do know that it begins long before prison, right? 00:01:46.860 --> 00:01:52.567 align:middle line:84% And Hanif's poem about the police, and our interaction 00:01:52.567 --> 00:01:54.900 align:middle line:84% and perception of the police, I think is right on point. 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:57.840 align:middle line:84% Because for a lot of us, that's our first interaction 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.870 align:middle line:84% with the law, but also law, yeah? 00:02:00.870 --> 00:02:03.180 align:middle line:84% And it really sets a precedence, I think, 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:06.390 align:middle line:84% for the way we process that and live through that. 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:12.190 align:middle line:84% And the way that it sets up this adversarial relationship 00:02:12.190 --> 00:02:16.270 align:middle line:84% between the community and the people policing the community, 00:02:16.270 --> 00:02:18.370 align:middle line:90% it's set early on. 00:02:18.370 --> 00:02:21.310 align:middle line:84% And then everything we do is kind of a reaction to that, 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:24.160 align:middle line:90% for better or worse. 00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:27.640 align:middle line:84% And yeah, in my first book, I wrote 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:33.120 align:middle line:90% a poem called Enter the Dragon. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:37.380 align:middle line:84% Enter the Dragon was the name of a Bruce Lee movie, 00:02:37.380 --> 00:02:42.050 align:middle line:84% as many people watching will know. 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:44.460 align:middle line:84% In that movie, the most compelling character-- 00:02:44.460 --> 00:02:47.130 align:middle line:84% most compelling actor for me and a lot of my peers 00:02:47.130 --> 00:02:52.120 align:middle line:84% was not Bruce Lee, but Jim Kelly. 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:58.297 align:middle line:84% Jim Kelly, in the '70s, before we had positive filmmakers 00:02:58.297 --> 00:02:59.880 align:middle line:84% putting positive images on the screen, 00:02:59.880 --> 00:03:03.450 align:middle line:84% like Lee Daniels, and Tyler Perry, and people like that, 00:03:03.450 --> 00:03:05.680 align:middle line:84% we were kind of left to our own devices. 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:09.990 align:middle line:84% And one of the first people we had to look to was Jim Kelly. 00:03:09.990 --> 00:03:12.450 align:middle line:84% In this film, there's a scene early 00:03:12.450 --> 00:03:15.360 align:middle line:84% on where he's either walking down the street 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.690 align:middle line:84% or driving down the street and is accosted by some police 00:03:18.690 --> 00:03:19.770 align:middle line:90% officers. 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:25.560 align:middle line:84% And I think the police officers are on the take from this mob 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:26.640 align:middle line:90% boss or something. 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:30.990 align:middle line:84% And they go to jack Jim Kelly up, 00:03:30.990 --> 00:03:34.770 align:middle line:84% but Jim Kelly is a martial artist, and it's a movie. 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:37.470 align:middle line:84% So he beats all their asses, jumps in the police car, 00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:38.860 align:middle line:90% and drives off. 00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:42.510 align:middle line:84% And I remember being at the movies with my father 00:03:42.510 --> 00:03:46.660 align:middle line:84% and watching that scene, and being really affected by it. 00:03:46.660 --> 00:03:48.510 align:middle line:84% So that was one of the first images 00:03:48.510 --> 00:03:52.290 align:middle line:90% that I saw of resistance. 00:03:52.290 --> 00:03:54.150 align:middle line:84% And that's where the poem starts. 00:03:54.150 --> 00:04:00.900 align:middle line:84% It starts in a movie theater in 1976. 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:05.520 align:middle line:84% For me, the movie starts with a Black man 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:11.460 align:middle line:84% leaping into an orbit of badges, tiny moons catching the sheen 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:14.910 align:middle line:90% of his perfect Black Afro. 00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:21.000 align:middle line:84% Arc kicks, karate chops, and 30 cops on their backs. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.280 align:middle line:84% It starts with the swagger, the cool lean into the leather 00:04:26.280 --> 00:04:29.790 align:middle line:84% front seat of the black and white he takes off in. 00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:32.970 align:middle line:84% Deep hallelujahs of moviegoers drowning out 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:34.560 align:middle line:90% the wah wah guitar. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:38.400 align:middle line:84% Salt & butter, high fives, right on, brother! 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:42.510 align:middle line:84% and Daddy glowing so bright, he can light the screen 00:04:42.510 --> 00:04:44.970 align:middle line:90% all by himself. 00:04:44.970 --> 00:04:49.560 align:middle line:90% This is how it goes down. 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.020 align:middle line:84% Friday night and my father drives us 00:04:52.020 --> 00:04:56.370 align:middle line:84% home from the late show, two heroes Cadillacking 00:04:56.370 --> 00:04:59.350 align:middle line:90% across King Boulevard. 00:04:59.350 --> 00:05:04.660 align:middle line:84% In the car's dark cab, we jab and clutch, Jim Kelly 00:05:04.660 --> 00:05:07.390 align:middle line:84% and Bruce Lee with popcorn breath, 00:05:07.390 --> 00:05:12.250 align:middle line:84% and almost miss the lights flashing in the cracked side 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:14.410 align:middle line:90% mirror. 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:20.200 align:middle line:84% I know what's under the seat, but when the uniforms approach 00:05:20.200 --> 00:05:24.580 align:middle line:84% from the rear quarter panel, when the fat one leans 00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:29.290 align:middle line:84% so far into my father's window I can smell his long day's 00:05:29.290 --> 00:05:35.980 align:middle line:84% work, when my father, this John Henry of a man, hides 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:41.140 align:middle line:84% his hammer, doesn't buck, tucks away his baritone, license 00:05:41.140 --> 00:05:44.770 align:middle line:84% and registration shaking as if showing a bathroom 00:05:44.770 --> 00:05:47.680 align:middle line:84% pass to a grade school principal, 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:54.340 align:middle line:84% I learn the difference between cinema and city, 00:05:54.340 --> 00:05:58.480 align:middle line:84% between the movie house cheers of old men 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:00.865 align:middle line:84% and the silence that gets us home. 00:06:00.865 --> 00:06:08.390 align:middle line:90% 00:06:08.390 --> 00:06:09.850 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much for that, John. 00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:11.920 align:middle line:84% And thank you also for talking a little bit 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.740 align:middle line:90% of a very known fact. 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:17.950 align:middle line:84% But it's sort of overlooked that the incarceration 00:06:17.950 --> 00:06:21.940 align:middle line:84% and that pipeline starts sometimes at birth. 00:06:21.940 --> 00:06:25.490 align:middle line:84% It sometimes starts at birth in the neighborhood. 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.750 align:middle line:84% So it's not just the first engagement with law enforcement 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:30.670 align:middle line:90% when someone is arrested. 00:06:30.670 --> 00:06:32.370 align:middle line:84% It's kind of like this thing that's 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:33.620 align:middle line:90% been going on for a long time. 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.120 align:middle line:84% So thank you for sharing that poem.