WEBVTT

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So in 2019, 2020, I
went down to Mississippi

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with my two teenage kids.

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They were teenagers
at the time--

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and pulled them out
of Beverly High School

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in Beverly, Massachusetts.

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And we rerouted in Oxford,
Mississippi for the year.

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How many of you have been
to Oxford, Mississippi,

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or know about it?

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It really is kind
of a hidden gem.

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It's a lot like here.

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It's very sophisticated.

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William Faulkner was there,
so he has property there.

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And the Blues trail
goes right through,

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a lot of art and culture.

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It's quite different from
the rest of Mississippi.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But it really is
a wonderful place.

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It's a very green place.

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So before we went down, we
weren't sure what to expect.

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And then we had
seen the viral story

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about Emmett Till, the marker
by the Tallahatchie River,

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where he was pulled out
of the water back in 1955,

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was shot up by three
Ole Miss students.

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And so that was a
cause for concern.

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Like, what are we stepping into?

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It turned out to be fine.

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And it put me on the track to
learning more about Emmett Till

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and coming to terms with my
own views about the enslaved

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and what it means to
walk with that trauma.

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So I'm going to read
this first poem.

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It's called "Rebel
Rebel" in the book.

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It's the one that the publisher
let me put in a different format

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to accommodate the lines.

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This is my all-encompassing
Mississippi poem.

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It is a ghazal.

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And so you will hear the
repetition of the word "rebel"

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throughout the poem.

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You also hear me sing.

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My apologies ahead of time.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Rebel Rebel.

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in the town square where
the rebel flag once flew

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I buy a faded green sweatshirt
emblazoned with the words "rebel

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rebel."

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My poems brought me to Oxford
Mississippi a.k.a. the velvet

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ditch,

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A place you can fall
into, get comfortable

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among Confederate rebels.

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A Confederate statue guarded the
campus entrance for 114 years,

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A monument to grief,
to the lost cause.

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Our pain matters less
than dead white rebels.

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Rebel rags, rebel appliance,
rebel bookstore, rebel wine

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and spirits,

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Rebel paintball, rebel
fever, rebel fitness,

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rebel well, rebel radio.

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Rebel rebel.

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Until 2003 Ole Miss's mascot
was a plantation owner,

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Colonel Reb: long red coat,
white goatee, crooked cane.

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Home games played in
the dust of rebels,

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Catfish and grits,
garden and gun.

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Emmett Till's memorial marker
marked with bullet holes

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Again and again and
again and again.

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Rebel, adjective:

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One: opposing or taking
arms against a government,

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Or ruler of or
relating to rebels.

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Two: disobedient, rebellious.

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Noun: one who rebels.

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David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" is
a reverse riff of the Stones'

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"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

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Lightning bolt, hot
tramp, end of glam rebel.

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Every inch of this place
is touched by trauma.

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I feel it in the
hill, in the loam,

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in the wilt of wild daffodils.

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Who honors the enslaved rebels?

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That Confederate statue
relocated to a Civil War

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cemetery

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Overlooking Ole
Miss's football field.

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Athletes demanded a barrier.

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It looms over
practicing white rebels.

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My boyfriend traces his
lineage back to slaveholders.

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His guilt is my kink.

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What holds us together
is not exactly love.

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Our bodies rise like rebels.

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Magnolia trees splay
green and wide in January.

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So few Black folk downtown
but the blues are everywhere.

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My ancestors walk with
me, ghosts and rebels.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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So, with a name like
January, I have a tendency

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to put it in poem.

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And that's a form that
asks you to name yourself

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in the last couplet.

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But I do that with January.

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So it's a little bit of
a Where's Waldo for me.

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[LAUGHTER]