Poetry in a New Race Era

Korina Jocson Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 The buzz is on. It is the beginning of summer and the anticipation is thicker than the layer of smog above the skyline. More than ½ve hundred youth poets from across the United States and around the world are gearing up for the 13th Annual Brave New Voices (bnv) International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, to be held in Los Angeles, Califor- nia, in July 2010. I can feel the excitement in the city. I imagine intimate words bouncing off the walls inside the Saban Theater on a night co- hosted by rapper and actor Common and actress Rosario Dawson. Who knew the convening power of poetry could reach so far? I remember my days as a novice educator, when poetry was con- ½ned to classrooms and, during open mic nights, to select cafés and clubs. More than ½fty thousand youth poets converged KORINA JOCSON is an Assistant in local and regional competitions to determine Professor of Education at Wash- who would constitute the representative teams ington University in St. Louis. that moved on to the July nationals. Once in Los Her research and teaching focus Angeles, these teams faced rounds of competi- on literacy, youth, and cultural bnv studies in education. Her recent tion during the weeklong festival to narrow publications include “Unpacking the ½eld even further. In the end, four teams– Symbolic Creativities: Writing in Albuquerque, Denver, New York, and the San School and Across Contexts,” Re- Francisco Bay Area–battled onstage for this year’s view of Education, Pedagogy, and crown of new grand slam champion. Cultural Studies (2010); “Steering While the competition remains an integral part Legacies: Pedagogy, Literacy, and Social Justice in Schools,” The of the festival, the chance to consider the themes Urban Review (2009); and Youth that youth participants tackle in their writing– Poets: Empowering Literacies In and voice, identity, citizenship, and leadership in the Out of Schools (2008). twenty-½rst century–is equally important. What

154 Dædalus Winter 2011 do these themes suggest about the possi- presence of racism shape the world to- Korina bilities of poetry in a new race era? Indeed, day, in even the mundane interactions Jocson what do they convey about inhabiting a of daily life; to ½nd language to express new race era? what may at times be dif½cult to invoke; In the age of Obama, race has surfaced and to acknowledge indignation without in new ways. Terms such as post-racial concretizing victimhood, disregarding have been used liberally. With the elec- optimism, or eschewing possibility. Post- tion of the ½rst black president of the race thought calls for moving forward United States, the notion that race has and facing race head on, maintaining become a thing of the past is indicative hope–the audacity of hope–in (re)con- of the politics and vestiges of color blind- ½guring steps toward a more democrat- ness. With Obama in the highest posi- ic order. As Leonardo conceives it, this tion of power, it has been argued that moment is an opportunity to express Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 American society has either entered or ambivalence toward racialization with- reached the promise of a post-racial era.1 out encouraging race-blind analysis. Whether we embrace Obama’s politics His conception envisions not a society or critique his administration’s domes- without race, but one aspiring to that tic and foreign policies is beside the point. goal–and getting there by going through On the one hand, the stage was set with race, not around it. the historic electoral win on November 4, 2008. On the other, the stage was also I was in Washington, D.C., last year when extended for new conversations to take the subject of this essay ½rst came to me.4 place, inspired, perhaps, by a renewed It was late October, nearly one year since sense of the need to ask, what is at stake President Barack Obama’s historic elec- in these new times? To say that we are toral win in 2008. I was thinking about in a post-racial era without acknowledg- youth culture in America today: who is ing the historical permanence of race shaping it? What has transpired, and and the everyday processes of racializa- what has been signi½cant in recent years? tion in America is not enough. That is, What is it about the growing literary arts race as skin color and racialization based movement in various metropolitan areas? on difference continue to perpetuate In particular, what is it about poetry? It assumptions and produce hierarchy in seemed to me that there is a window of society.2 It is still necessary to pry open opportunity through which discourses such matters in discursive spaces and about youth and, in turn, youth culture envision hope without shying away from are being shaped. I wondered about the politics. The age of Obama–reflecting connection between this window of op- the cultural intricacies of the man him- portunity, the new race era, and poetry. self–is not the end of race but rather In youth poetry, identity and cultural the beginning of new ways of engaging politics are central to the art. Youth poet- the complexities of it. In other words, ry encourages conversations that make it is an opportunity to assess the future explicit the asymmetrical relations of of race. power based on various markers of dif- According to social and education the- ference, including, but not limited to, orist Zeus Leonardo in an essay on race race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, ambivalence,3 post-race thought in a so- ability, age, and language. It merges a called post-racial era requires vision: the particular genre of writing with existing vision to recognize how the history and practices of hip-hop culture. It differs

Dædalus Winter 2011 155 Poetry from an essay, play, or novel partly be- Listen to me when I tell you in a New cause it blends elements of literary pre- What’s on my mind Race Era cision and performance with the univer- The truth sal cache of hip-hop music, language, Twisted up but I spit it out and style. The af½nity for poetry is not So let it be known without the influence of the culture in What the guns in their hands is all about which it is embedded, and vice versa. You Youth poetry allows micropolitics to Don’t see me converge, individuals to mobilize differ- You see right through me ent identities (sometimes collectively), You want me locked up as much as the and norms of identi½cation to play out.5 next man It makes apprehensive truths transparent. Do I look like a hoodlum to you? Poetry resonates with many individ- I’m not the black you know Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 uals in various contexts; its language I’m the black you will know exposes social realities that are often So I ask steeped in the margins, especially for Once more the young who are frequently attracted Can you see me? to reading and writing it because it is Poetry is not a new phenomenon, but accessible to experimentation in a way it has (re)emerged as more inclusive than that prose is not. In a study conducted ever, as well as more visibly connected to in northern California, for example, I politics. For instance, President Obama’s found that many high school students inauguration consisted of a celebration turn to poetry as a literacy practice of the arts with world-renowned musi- inside and outside the classroom.6 cal guests and artists. It also featured a Carolyn, a seventeen-year-old African commissioned poem, “Praise Song for American student, wrote the following the Day,” by Yale University professor poem to denote everyday experiences: Elizabeth Alexander. The moment was Can you see me? not the ½rst of its kind. Robert Frost When you think black shared a poem at the inauguration of You think guns going glack glack President Kennedy, as did Maya Ange- Sending shots through your neighborhood lou and Miller Williams, respectively, Stores at the ½rst and second inaugurations of There’s no turning back President Clinton. Every inauguration You wack, you scared has had its share of artistic performanc- Can you compare es. But Obama’s choice of Alexander To all the lashes I got across seemed a conscious attempt to reach out My back to a particular school of black poetry– Seek represented by Cornelius Eady, Toi Der- The curse in my eyes ricotte, Carl Phillips, Nathaniel Mackey, The flare of my nose and Yusef Komunyakaa–that distinctly The adrenaline in my chest blends poetics and cultural politics, and The grinch in my teeth that is both complex yet accessible in The bitch in my breath many of its references to readers of col- Why the hell or. These poets are the children of the You gotta be so black literary and performance poets of Dif½cult the 1960s and 1970s, just as Obama him-

156 Dædalus Winter 2011 self is. At such a highly visible event, tal- tion, and, in some instances, coordinat- Korina ented artists ½ll the stage and let their ed group performance. The power of this Jocson craft do its work. On a smaller scale, and collective voice in one room is bracing. complementary in spirit, are the local, re- Not long ago, emerging and seasoned gional, and national venues where emerg- poets alike graced the same stage in an ing writers, who range in age and hail hbo series called Russell Simmons Presents from various cities and towns, share their Def Poetry, hosted by rapper and actor passion, thought, and experience. Mos Def. Successful in its late-Friday- Literary arts organizations such as night time slot, the show ran for six sea- Youth Speaks in the San Francisco Bay sons. The bnv slam competition and Area and Urban Word in New York City documentary series demonstrate a re- lead the way in serving youth ages thir- surgence of literacy as a means for young teen to nineteen, providing them with people not only to write about their lives Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 mentorship and learning opportuni- and share their words with a large audi- ties through after-school writing work- ence but, more important, to craft life shops, internships, and, most of all, trajectories with a literary cadence that formal spaces for sharing their work challenges social norms and inequali- in front of large audiences. The peda- ties. The writing is a celebration of life gogical approach to spoken word poetry and its meanings. has been modeled after successful pro- Putting such passion, thought, and grams such as Poets in the Schools and experience into the language of poetry Poetry for the People, which not only has real-world implications; it is indica- have influenced how poetry is taught in tive of the everyday practices of young the classroom, but also have led to the people. Featured poems from the 2009 proliferation of other programs.7 Inno- slam competition include titles such as vative in its approach, bnv (with repre- “Fish, Grits & Buttermilk Biscuits” by sentative teams from San Francisco, eighteen-year-old African American New York, Chicago, Hawaii, Santa Fe, Britney Wilson, a bnv poet from New Fort Lauderdale, Ann Arbor, and Provi- York. The challenge of having cerebral dence, to name a few) now includes a palsy intertwined with the courage to Brave New Teachers program. Train- break social molds takes on a particular ing sessions and workshops have be- force as she describes her own battles, come a critical component of the week- ambitions, and dreams. Another poem, long festival. “Change,” by nineteen-year-old African Aside from its popularity in hip-hop, American B. Yung, also a bnv poet from theater, and literary arts circles, bnv is New York, points to the historical strug- also a documentary series on the hbo gles of being a young black male in Amer- cable network.8 The series is approach- ican society. He performed his four-min- ing another season, featuring rapper ute poem at the Urban Word nyc Slam and actress mc Lyte as narrator (Queen Finals; here is an excerpt: Latifah narrated previously). The pro- Every time I write a slave poem, my paper vocative topics presented onstage, pro- bleeds jected by a single or by multiple micro- [ . . . ] phones, are complex and often person- Society never wanted me to make it al. Social issues and forms of inequality So I guess the gravity ain’t the only thing that teen poets encounter in their lives That’s been holding me down lately take the form of words, gestures, intona-

Dædalus Winter 2011 157 Poetry But I don’t hate you, as a matter of fact I Never, nowhere, anywhere in a New don’t even despise you This is why–NO WAR Race Era I think I love you more than I can love half In an artist’s statement released by Zu of my ignorant brothers Zu Films,11 twenty-something Kelly Tsai And I know, I know my brothers ain’t as noted the relevance of the spoken word personable video: But you got to understand, it’s kind of hard Teaching high school boys that whips and In 2003, I was asked to perform at the Not chains In Our Name Rally in Chicago, which over And “whips” and “chains” are symmetrical 4000 people ultimately attended. I felt So from the bottom of my heart moved and compelled to write a poem at I am sorry that we are the way we are the most human level that spoke to the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 But you got to understand, these mother- existence of war throughout our lives even fuckers told us in times of so-called peace. My hope was That change was going to come to tear ourselves away from polemics and And I am just so tired of waiting9 rhetoric to understand at a fundamental level that war affects us all and that for every one person that suffers at our hands ther examples of poetry come in a O whether near or far, we all bear the conse- variety of multimedia formats. Chinese quences as we deprive each other and our- Taiwanese American Kelly Tsai’s “By- selves from the essential human right to Standing: The Beginning of an Ameri- peace that gives us the opportunity to live can Lifetime,” a ½ve-minute spoken our lives however we choose. Unfortunate- word video and winner of the War and ly nearly 4 years later, the message is still Peace Award from Media That Matters, relevant today. was featured in its Seventh Annual Film Festival in New York.10 The following Similarly, numerous spoken word art- excerpt signals humanity and responsi- ists have produced their own videos and ble action in a multiracial society: used YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and other social media sites to share or dis- My friends, my family, my lovers, myself tribute their work. Armed with such new We who sit back into what our lives were media technology, artists have a growing like before interest in taking poems from the page Making our convictions seem trendy to the stage and onto the screen. Conver- Yesterday, I went to study happy people at gence and remix are at the fore of pro- Navy Pier duction. A recent example involves the They don’t go to rallies or conferences ½ctional character Claireece Precious They don’t talk about war Jones, from novelist and poet Sapphire’s They wait for a sunny day and go to Navy Push.12 In the novel, writing poetry plays Pier a key role in various stages of Precious’s They smile beneath their sunglasses life. The character pens her pains and They hold each other–close struggles and, in the end, offers many They eat ice cream that they paid too much lessons about life as it is experienced money for by some youth in impoverished urban They take advantage of the opportunity– communities. One of the poems that to love appears in Push, “Everi morning,” con- They are lucky and everyone in this world veys that experience: should be as lucky

158 Dædalus Winter 2011 everi morning of words in the movement toward indi- Korina i write vidual and social transformation. My Jocson a poem own research af½rms the idea that poet- before I go to ry can be used as a form of critical litera- school cy both inside and outside school. That marY had a little lamb is, rooted in the poetry process are litera- but I got a kid cy practices that assess traditional and an hiv social texts to negotiate the relations of that folow me power that inform them. As a medium to school of expression, poetry can be one means one day. for moving educators a step closer to im- proving educational practices and, ulti- Precious, the 2009 ½lm adaptation of Push, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 mately, can accelerate literacy achieve- garnered critical acclaim: directed by Lee ment for traditionally underserved stu- Daniels, the ½lm received various major dents. It creates learning environments awards, including the 2009 Sundance that allow youth to take part more fully Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and three in their own learning process. Likewise, Screen Actors Guild Awards.13 Although it can give adults a way to make sense my intention is not to argue for the per- of youth’s social worlds–to enter every- petuation of the culture of poverty or the day imagination and lived experience. commodi½cation of youth culture, it is It extends words into action for the sake important to note that there are econom- of alleviating human struggle. Words ic as well as political and cultural factors as speech acts perform actions in them- that open up different opportunities and selves or convert to action in the process spaces for minorities to be represented of recontextualization. In my encounters in the media. Some representations chal- with youth poets and other emerging lenge existing stereotypes, for example, writers, I have discovered that the dia- of black and brown youth from impov- logue we have through writing is some- erished communities as pathologized times a necessary reflection to ease the beings; others reinforce them, often to pain of experience with courage and great success at the box of½ce.14 How- clarity. Sometimes, it is about releasing ever, it is beyond the scope of this essay fantasies and taking pleasure in the sub- to address the role of culture industries, lime, or celebrating the randomness that media marketing strategies, and com- springs up daily in our lives–the kid who plex economic apparatuses in building jumps at the chance to play, laugh, and on the “popular” to create and sell cul- love or be loved. Other times, it is about tural products and, in turn, shape cul- working through indignation without ture.15 The primary point here is that dwelling on anger and deepening wounds. poetry has emerged in youth culture as A personal anecdote is illustrative of more powerful than ever. It is worth ex- my point. I teach at Washington Uni- ploring the possibilities for verse to in- versity in St. Louis, live in a residential form ongoing programs and policies neighborhood near campus, and speak that support young people. English. (I also speak Tagalog and Span- ish.) I am a Filipina American. Recently, As we negotiate matters of identity I approached a white local contractor and cultural politics in a new race era, to erect a fence in my backyard. In our we must remember the potential power interaction, he asked what I am, where

Dædalus Winter 2011 159 Poetry I come from, what I do for a living, and for a linguistic accent, and being treated in a New how I learned to “speak English well.” It as inferior: all these experiences occur in Race Era was as if I needed to legitimize my status day-to-day interactions, making them and personhood to this white male con- mundane and ordinary; yet when sus- tractor. In hindsight, and perhaps in fair- tained over time, they can produce ness, this small business contractor may harsh and extreme effects. To chal- have found it necessary to ask such pre- lenge the contractor during our inter- liminary questions because of problem- action, I posed the same questions atic experiences with past clients; it may back to him. Later, I jotted down what have been a wise business practice to transpired between us. It was the impe- gather a bit of information before com- tus for an art-making process. I drew mencing a job. Perhaps I reacted hastily on the experience, rei½ed it in words, to my suspicion that, had I been white, and in the end transformed it to share Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 the interrogation would not have oc- with you, the reader. The process paral- curred. Whatever the case, the encounter lels what emerging and seasoned writ- triggered memories of other moments in ers have done with their subjective which I had been made to feel similarly experiences. The following poem at- singled out. Was it a race moment that tempts to capture my experience: called forth the stereotypic assumption Microaggression. When are racist and of Asian as “forever foreigner”? Did sexist jokes not the English language binding us in that Racist and sexist? One could argue that moment evoke a common yet shifting they depend on ground of who is American (or who is The context, person, or tone. To whom? not)? Perhaps it was a matter of gender Too many have and gender relations underscoring who Let their guards down and dangerously had power in that moment. Perhaps it assume jokes are was a matter of attribution or even para- Only jokes. Subtle ones, at best, betwixt. noia prompted once again by difference. Comfortability Such thoughts came to my mind. And camaraderie at each end, inevitably In the ½eld of critical race theory, such soft laughter negative interactions have been labeled In between. The privileged (in this case a microaggressions.16 There are different middle-aged forms, some subtle, others more explic- White male) does not realize the joke, the it in nature. In documented studies of rami½cations African Americans and their families, Of the joke or transparency through which psychologists and sociologists have long the joke reveals held that microaggressions result in Itself. Normalcy of ignorance and sense of stress over time.17 The stress of having entitlement suffered repeated indignities, whether Privilege the teller to say what is really on they are committed wittingly or not, his/her mind. impacts the psyche and worldview of There are untold stories here. Stones still individuals whose lives are shaped by unturned. It is such seemingly small yet ubiquitous Time once again to rage about curiosities, and constant forms of oppression. Be- the elephant ing refused service, being followed in a In the room. It is time to revisit the past. store, being ridiculed for having particu- Otherwise, we lar observable traits, being stigmatized

160 Dædalus Winter 2011 Risk the chance of bequeathing dangers us. Naming infractions and injuries Korina we have known offers a beginning for expanding dis- Jocson For several generations. All bets are on the course in a new race era. As youth po- table. ets have demonstrated in notebooks, classrooms, workshops, slams, and elsewhere, writing about what matters The quest for answers continues– most is where the possibilities lie. Our whether in thought, in poetry, or in lives–and the lives of those who have other forms of writing. If we are to en- yet to put their truths into words– vision a hopeful world, a place rid of depend on it. Time will tell who will oppression, then we ought to will our- broadcast the loudest chants and de- selves to engage in deeper conversa- liver the most compelling poems.18 tions. The stakes are higher in these Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 times, yet they are opportunities for endnotes 1 Thomas L. Friedman, “Finishing Our Work,” The New York Times, November 4, 2008; Shelby Steele, “Obama’s Post-Racial Promise,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2008. 2 Derrick Bell, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (New York: Basic Books, 1992). 3 Zeus Leonardo, “After the Glow: Race Ambivalence and Other Educational Prognoses,” Educational Philosophy and Theory (forthcoming). 4 Many thanks to Zeus Leonardo for an engaging conversation then and the continued dialogue present here. 5 Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Politics of Identity,” Dædalus 135 (4) (2006): 15–22. 6 Korina Jocson, Youth Poets: Empowering Literacies In and Out of Schools (New York: Peter Lang, 2008). 7 Maisha Fisher, Writing in Rhythm: Spoken Word Poetry in Urban Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 2007); Korina Jocson, “‘Taking It to the Mic’: Pedagogy of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People and Partnership with an Urban High School,” English Edu- cation 37 (2) (2005): 44–60; Ruth Kim, “Spoken Art Pedagogies: Youth, Race & the Cul- tural Politics of an Arts Education Movement,” unpublished dissertation (University of California, Santa Cruz); Jen Weiss and Scott Herndon, Brave New Voices: The Youth Speaks Guide to Teaching Spoken Word and Poetry (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2001). 8 For more information on each organization, visit Youth Speaks, http://www.youthspeaks .org, and Urban Word nyc, http://www.urbanwordnyc.org. For schedule and details on bnv’s Annual Youth Poetry Slam Festival, visit http://www.bravenewvoices.org. Video clips of past episodes on hbo as well as sample poems performed by various teams are available at http://www.hbo.com/bravenewvoices. The series based on the bnv Festival held in Los Angeles aired on hbo in Fall 2010. 9 These and several other poems from teams Ann Arbor, Fort Lauderdale, Hawaii, Phila- delphia, San Francisco, and Santa Fe are featured on hbo’s website, http://www.hbo .com. Full episodes of the bnv series, interwoven with narratives about each poet, may also be viewed via hbo On Demand or purchased as a dvd set. 10 The video can be accessed via http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/½lms. For more information on the artist, visit http://yellowgurl.com. 11 http://www.zuzu½lms.com.

Dædalus Winter 2011 161 Poetry 12 Sapphire, Push (New York: Vintage, 1996). in a New 13 Race Era Precious was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Pic- ture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Drama); actress Mo’Nique was nominated, and won, in the latter category. Additionally, Precious was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Actress in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Di- rector, Film Editing, Best Picture, and Adapted Screenplay. Mo’Nique won in the category of Actress in a Supporting Role, as did Geoffrey Fletcher for Adapted Screenplay. 14 For a related discussion, see Zeus Leonardo and Margaret Hunter, “Imagining the Urban: The Politics of Race, Class, and Schooling,” in International Handbook of Urban Education, ed. William T. Pink and George W. Noblit (New York: Springer, 2007). 15 Theodor Adorno, The Culture Industry, Classics Series (New York: Routledge, 1991); Henry A. Giroux, Fugitive Cultures: Race, Violence, and Youth (New York: Routledge, 1996); Henry A. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/140/1/154/1829915/daed_a_00067.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Giroux, Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability (New York: Palgrave, 2009). 16 Daniel Solorzano, Miguel Ceja, and Tara Yosso, “Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggres- sions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experiences of African American College Students,” The Journal of Negro Education 69 (1–2) (2000): 60–73. 17 Grace Carroll, Environmental Stress and African Americans: The Other Side of the Moon (West- port, Conn.: Praeger, 1997); Chester M. Pierce, “Offensive Mechanisms,” in The Black Sev- enties, ed. Floyd B. Barbour (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1970), 265–282. 18 I would like to thank Gerald Early for the invitation to contribute to this volume. His critical feedback pushed the writing and further shaped the ideas presented in this essay. I would also like to thank all the poets and writers whose works are included, allowing for a fuller illustration of the topic.

162 Dædalus Winter 2011