WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.590 align:middle line:90% I'm very pleased-- 00:00:01.590 --> 00:00:03.690 align:middle line:84% I'm very pleased to be back in Tucson. 00:00:03.690 --> 00:00:05.700 align:middle line:90% I feel at home here. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.580 align:middle line:84% I've been here-- I think this might be the fourth time. 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:14.330 align:middle line:84% And just like anybody who's been away and comes back to home, 00:00:14.330 --> 00:00:16.440 align:middle line:84% there are so many things I want to tell you. 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:17.460 align:middle line:90% What I've been doing-- 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:18.960 align:middle line:84% you don't know what I've been doing. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.360 align:middle line:90% What's been going on-- 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:23.580 align:middle line:84% I tend to not know what I'm going to read, 00:00:23.580 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:84% but there are some poems that I think so. 00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:28.750 align:middle line:84% And also I have some new poems I haven't heard very much. 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:32.140 align:middle line:90% And so I want to hear them. 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:34.590 align:middle line:84% I am reminded by what happened with the mic-- 00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:36.600 align:middle line:84% I don't know if this is working or not. 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:40.260 align:middle line:84% But I was at a conference at Princeton University one time, 00:00:40.260 --> 00:00:43.770 align:middle line:90% and it was a conference on-- 00:00:43.770 --> 00:00:46.530 align:middle line:84% the theme was something like "Whatever 00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:49.050 align:middle line:90% Happened to the Soul?" 00:00:49.050 --> 00:00:50.940 align:middle line:90% I was the only poet there. 00:00:50.940 --> 00:00:52.470 align:middle line:90% I was the only person of color. 00:00:52.470 --> 00:00:54.390 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's a redundant question to me-- 00:00:54.390 --> 00:00:55.640 align:middle line:90% whatever happened to the soul? 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:00.450 align:middle line:84% But beside all that, we were waiting 00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:03.360 align:middle line:84% for a very well known writer, who 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:05.489 align:middle line:84% has written a lot about the gospel 00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:08.920 align:middle line:84% and the Gnostic tradition and all of that. 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84% And she came late, so that annoyed everybody. 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:15.610 align:middle line:84% And then, when she came, the mic wasn't working. 00:01:15.610 --> 00:01:18.780 align:middle line:84% And so the audience was pretty much clergy-- 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:21.060 align:middle line:90% clergy and clergy types. 00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:23.940 align:middle line:90% And what was interesting to me-- 00:01:23.940 --> 00:01:28.410 align:middle line:84% what was interesting to me was that when the mic wouldn't 00:01:28.410 --> 00:01:31.017 align:middle line:90% work, everybody was frazzled. 00:01:31.017 --> 00:01:33.600 align:middle line:84% (IMITATING AUDIENCE) "You've got to talk louder, come on now!" 00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:38.640 align:middle line:84% These are nuns and things getting attitudes. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:41.160 align:middle line:84% And what was interesting to me, when I stood up, was-- 00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:43.710 align:middle line:84% I said when we're talking about, "Whatever 00:01:43.710 --> 00:01:46.140 align:middle line:90% Happened to the Soul?"-- 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:49.860 align:middle line:84% we've just failed the first test. 00:01:49.860 --> 00:01:54.240 align:middle line:84% Because according to the Biblical tradition, 00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:56.340 align:middle line:84% it is said be still and know that I am God-- 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:57.960 align:middle line:90% is that right? 00:01:57.960 --> 00:02:02.130 align:middle line:84% And everybody here was wanting the speaker 00:02:02.130 --> 00:02:07.000 align:middle line:90% to speak louder, harder. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.610 align:middle line:84% And nobody was willing to listen harder and louder. 00:02:11.610 --> 00:02:12.840 align:middle line:90% Isn't that odd? 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:14.920 align:middle line:84% I just want to tell you what was odd. 00:02:14.920 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84% Now, I would like to start with a poem written 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:22.230 align:middle line:84% by a lady who was a great woman and a great poet. 00:02:22.230 --> 00:02:24.810 align:middle line:90% 00:02:24.810 --> 00:02:28.350 align:middle line:84% I like to think that somewhere in-- if there is a heaven-- 00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:32.460 align:middle line:84% somewhere there-- in the last month or so, somebody did 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:33.690 align:middle line:90% a Mickey Rooney thing-- 00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:35.970 align:middle line:90% let's have a show. 00:02:35.970 --> 00:02:39.600 align:middle line:90% So they called Esther Rolle. 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:42.270 align:middle line:90% And then they call Flip Wilson. 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:43.770 align:middle line:84% And then, on Monday, they said we've 00:02:43.770 --> 00:02:45.353 align:middle line:84% got to have somebody write this thing. 00:02:45.353 --> 00:02:49.990 align:middle line:84% So they called Margaret Walker, who died on Monday. 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:55.320 align:middle line:84% And I would like to read three sections of Margaret Walker's 00:02:55.320 --> 00:02:58.230 align:middle line:90% wonderful poem, "For My People." 00:02:58.230 --> 00:03:01.590 align:middle line:90% Honor to Margaret Walker. 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:04.470 align:middle line:84% "For my people everywhere singing their slave 00:03:04.470 --> 00:03:08.580 align:middle line:84% songs repeatedly; their dirges and their ditties 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:13.710 align:middle line:84% and their blues and jubilees, praying their prayers nightly 00:03:13.710 --> 00:03:18.180 align:middle line:84% to an unknown god, bending their knees humbly 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:21.240 align:middle line:90% to an unseen power-- 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:26.430 align:middle line:84% for my people standing staring trying to fashion a better 00:03:26.430 --> 00:03:31.500 align:middle line:84% way from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding, 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:36.150 align:middle line:84% trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people, all 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:39.600 align:middle line:84% the faces, all the adams and eves 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:45.360 align:middle line:84% and their countless generations; let a new earth rise. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:47.790 align:middle line:90% Let another world be born. 00:03:47.790 --> 00:03:51.970 align:middle line:84% Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. 00:03:51.970 --> 00:03:56.130 align:middle line:84% Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; 00:03:56.130 --> 00:04:00.270 align:middle line:84% let a people loving freedom come to growth. 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:05.610 align:middle line:84% Let a beauty full of healing and a strength of final clenching 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:09.510 align:middle line:84% be the pulsing in our spirit and our blood. 00:04:09.510 --> 00:04:12.390 align:middle line:84% Let the martial songs be written, 00:04:12.390 --> 00:04:15.000 align:middle line:90% let the dirges disappear. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:21.240 align:middle line:84% Let a race of men now rise and take control." 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.650 align:middle line:84% -- Margaret Walker, rest in peace. 00:04:24.650 --> 00:04:33.000 align:middle line:90%