Yeah.
Thank you, Nicole.
And thank you, John.
I love that-- I love that poem a lot.
And I love the--
I'm working on a big project that I can't talk too much
about, but I'm working on a big project on Stagger Lee
right now.
And the history of Stagger Lee toasts and just like
world building around the Stagger Lee actual story.
And so what a great convergence.
I'm going to close by reading a poem that's not mine,
if that's cool.
It was just Arthur Lee's birthday,
Arthur Lee from the band Love.
And he is a musician-- a black musician
who lost time in his late career to incarceration.
And there are many black musicians of lost time
incarcerated, Billie Holiday.
I mean, the list is pretty long.
And in some cases, like in the case of Arthur Lee, that
has altered their trajectory of living,
as it did for Eddie Hazel, who I think about--
I think about Eddie Hazel all the time
because I think Eddie Hazel has performed one of the--
Maggot Brain is one of the greatest
pieces of music ever performed by a human playing
an instrument.
But shortly after that, his career
never flourished in the way that it could have.
He was jailed in 1973.
He had disputes with Parliament-Funkadelic
over distribution of payments in the early '70s.
And he never got on track in the way
that someone of his immense talent might have.
And I think about--
when I didn't start writing poems 'till like 2011.
And one of the first poems I ever read like in my life.
When I was coming up, teachers weren't
teaching living poets or much poetry at all in the school.
So one of the first poems I read by a living poet
was the poem, Maggot Brain by Adrian Matejka.
And it was the first poem I read where I was like, oh, shit.
I can do-- because my whole thing was like-- well,
I was a music critic.
So I was like, why would I write poems?
I just want to write about musicians.
I just want to write about like music shit.
And I read Maggot Brain, and I was like, oh, this is it.
I can do this.
And I think he does a good job of capturing
the story behind Maggot Brain that people remember and talk
about a lot, is George Clinton telling
Eddie Hazel play like your mama died-- play like your mama
just died.
But the full quote is much-- to me, much more interesting.
Because what he's actually asking to do was
consider a world where someone who has loved him all his life
is no longer present.
And he has to take measure of everything
happening in the world, and find a way to carry on.
But to me, that's more thoughtful
than just play like your mama had died.
But I get that the soundbite has to be the soundbite.
I know how music mythology has its soundbite,
so it's got to be.
But I wanted to read Maggot Brain by Adrian Matejka
because I think it does such a good job of humanizing
Eddie Hazel in the full life he lived.
So this is Maggot Brain for Eddie Hazel by Adrian Matejka.
Jawbone used for a washboard.
Scrape of knuckles, welped skin from washing bumps,
from washing needles or mosquitoes or fish scale rails,
maggot brain.
Teeth sticking along dream.
Click of brain, click of mouse trap
on the four fingered way down.
Click, that's what happens when George Clinton says,
play like your mama just died.
Everything else becomes a handful
of stomach aches, maggot brain.
The cavity of a jail cell smells like everything a man wants
gone, not funky but nasty.
Not nasty because no one's trying
to shake you in the shower.
It's just a big timeout with baloney sandwiches
and bad fruit.
Jail is a mouth full of twitches and aches, maggot brain.
Ain't you supposed to rise to the top of this mess
like some replicated heart?
Ain't that extra chamber below the frets
in charge of breathing?
I hear that thing wheezing like a breath still trying
to breathe.
Maggot brain, somebody, someplace
is losing a mama right now.
Go, maggot brain.
Thanks.
Wow.
Thank you, Hanif, for reading that poem by Adrian Matejka.
Adrian's actually going to be on our podcast--
our season three upcoming podcast that we're--
maybe season four.
I think it's season four.
So we're big fan of his work.
And he's been at the Poetry Center too.
So thank you for sharing that poem.
It's amazing.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I'm a big--
I mean, Adrian knows that his work is so important to me.
I'm such a big fan.
I'm excited for the new thing.
Yeah.
For sure.