WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.710 --> 00:00:02.085 align:middle line:90% I feel like I had-- 00:00:02.085 --> 00:00:03.710 align:middle line:84% my first time around, I got so excited. 00:00:03.710 --> 00:00:07.640 align:middle line:84% I didn't-- express perhaps appropriate gratitude 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:11.150 align:middle line:84% to the Center, and to you, Diana, 00:00:11.150 --> 00:00:16.040 align:middle line:84% and to everyone involved, and to Duane, and to Tyler who is-- 00:00:16.040 --> 00:00:19.940 align:middle line:84% I'm obligated to mention is an Ohioan. 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:22.160 align:middle line:90% Yes, he is a very proud one too. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:23.930 align:middle line:90% Yeah, he's from-- 00:00:23.930 --> 00:00:26.360 align:middle line:84% I mean, he's not really from Columbus, 00:00:26.360 --> 00:00:27.560 align:middle line:90% but he might as well be. 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:31.490 align:middle line:90% It's 30 minutes away. 00:00:31.490 --> 00:00:34.940 align:middle line:84% And to John and Nicole who are two of my favorite poets. 00:00:34.940 --> 00:00:37.850 align:middle line:90% And it's also-- 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:39.740 align:middle line:84% I was thinking The Wire, but really, I 00:00:39.740 --> 00:00:44.150 align:middle line:84% have in this series of poems I wrote about Ferguson-- 00:00:44.150 --> 00:00:48.500 align:middle line:84% In 2014, I was in Ferguson twice for the uprisings. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:54.170 align:middle line:84% And as someone who, much of my life, 00:00:54.170 --> 00:00:57.830 align:middle line:84% has been engaged with on the ground action, 00:00:57.830 --> 00:01:00.080 align:middle line:84% here at home in Columbus, I still 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:03.290 align:middle line:84% will say that for being in Ferguson, quote unquote, 00:01:03.290 --> 00:01:10.840 align:middle line:84% "on the ground" during that time was just an immensely 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:12.730 align:middle line:90% terrifying experience. 00:01:12.730 --> 00:01:15.760 align:middle line:84% And, I think-- when I look at this summer and the landscape 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:20.370 align:middle line:84% of this summer nationally but also locally where I was at, 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:23.477 align:middle line:84% I do think some of the ways that the people have learned 00:01:23.477 --> 00:01:25.560 align:middle line:84% to take care of each other through these processes 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:32.730 align:middle line:84% of uprising and very much present in the streets 00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:35.670 align:middle line:84% type of resistance, those were lessons 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:38.670 align:middle line:84% that began for a new era, perhaps, in Ferguson. 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:46.270 align:middle line:84% But I think the toll and the ache 00:01:46.270 --> 00:01:50.083 align:middle line:84% that came with those lessons, I think, is immense. 00:01:50.083 --> 00:01:52.000 align:middle line:84% And so the second time I was there, of course, 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.840 align:middle line:84% was after Darren Wilson's acquittal. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.120 align:middle line:84% And there was a notorious photo of-- 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:00.940 align:middle line:84% it was around Thanksgiving, and there's 00:02:00.940 --> 00:02:04.138 align:middle line:84% a notorious photo of the season's greeting sign, hanging 00:02:04.138 --> 00:02:05.680 align:middle line:84% in the street, while there's tear gas 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:06.940 align:middle line:90% and protesters running. 00:02:06.940 --> 00:02:15.180 align:middle line:84% And so this poem's a little bit about that time for me. 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:19.020 align:middle line:84% "All the TV Shows Are About Cops." 00:02:19.020 --> 00:02:22.020 align:middle line:84% The psychic with the glowing windows next to the pizza shop 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:24.570 align:middle line:84% tells me, the thing about the end of the world 00:02:24.570 --> 00:02:27.130 align:middle line:84% is that it already happened before you were born. 00:02:27.130 --> 00:02:29.940 align:middle line:84% So I wander through the poisoned leaves of the forest. 00:02:29.940 --> 00:02:32.850 align:middle line:84% From my bare cupped hands, I drink from the brown river 00:02:32.850 --> 00:02:35.850 align:middle line:84% that divides Downtown Columbus between the haves 00:02:35.850 --> 00:02:37.050 align:middle line:90% and the have-nots. 00:02:37.050 --> 00:02:39.300 align:middle line:84% It is easy to understand why America so 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:42.810 align:middle line:84% adored the photo of tear gas winding its way around season's 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:45.060 align:middle line:84% greetings hanging over a street in Ferguson, 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:46.860 align:middle line:90% packed with cops in riot gear. 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:50.040 align:middle line:84% Somewhere beyond the baton's severing of winter's chill 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:51.900 align:middle line:84% and the glass being kissed into webs, 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:54.060 align:middle line:84% one might be able to imagine a family 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:57.270 align:middle line:84% placing boxes underneath a tree, wearing matching sweaters, 00:02:57.270 --> 00:02:59.310 align:middle line:84% and watching another movie about ghosts. 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:02.730 align:middle line:84% America loves its contrast, but never its history. 00:03:02.730 --> 00:03:05.280 align:middle line:84% The blades that feast their way through the tree's bark 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:07.710 align:middle line:84% remember only the sweetness of collapse, not 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:09.690 align:middle line:84% the joyful gathering, not the ornaments 00:03:09.690 --> 00:03:11.550 align:middle line:84% hand-painted from someone who survived 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:15.090 align:middle line:84% the riot, generations before the one howling at these doorsteps. 00:03:15.090 --> 00:03:17.520 align:middle line:84% Greetings to this new season of the bandanna 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:19.470 align:middle line:84% in the back pocket, and then swinging 00:03:19.470 --> 00:03:21.060 align:middle line:90% from a once familiar face. 00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:23.100 align:middle line:84% I breathe in the scent of my own living 00:03:23.100 --> 00:03:25.050 align:middle line:84% to avoid the cars on fire, the way 00:03:25.050 --> 00:03:26.880 align:middle line:90% the eyes burn themselves shut. 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:29.550 align:middle line:84% A seasonal greeting to the way my heart goes to its own rhythm 00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:30.930 align:middle line:90% when I text, "I love you. 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:33.120 align:middle line:84% Please tell me you're safe," and hear nothing 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:34.830 align:middle line:84% back in the time it takes for a person 00:03:34.830 --> 00:03:36.870 align:middle line:84% to be pulled from a car's open window 00:03:36.870 --> 00:03:40.350 align:middle line:84% to the worry that parks itself beneath the skin of my palms. 00:03:40.350 --> 00:03:44.055 align:middle line:84% My homie ran for a fence with a stolen cell phone in his pocket 00:03:44.055 --> 00:03:46.680 align:middle line:84% and didn't hear the cop yelling before he heard the gun go off, 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:48.960 align:middle line:84% or maybe there was no yelling at all. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:52.350 align:middle line:84% Witnesses say one sound can be swallowed by a louder, 00:03:52.350 --> 00:03:53.670 align:middle line:90% more violent ruckus. 00:03:53.670 --> 00:03:57.510 align:middle line:84% Somewhere beyond, a family places a box underneath a tree, 00:03:57.510 --> 00:04:00.030 align:middle line:84% and begins to shovel the already ended Earth, 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:04.780 align:middle line:84% wondering if this is all the apocalypse has to offer. 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:06.380 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:07.500 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:08.000 align:middle line:90%