I appreciate the imagery, the rhythm and any time you conjure up the images of holy rollers and chicken being left on the stove, you've already taken me back to my childhood. My favorite stanza:
I am holy-roller sanctified Santeria worship
at Bed-Sty family reunions
biscuits &gravy at 4am
the fried chicken left on the stove all night
fresh city plucked chickens
wrung necks and feathers
fight the wash for space
on sagging alley clotheslines
Padron is unapologetic about who she is, hey "she rolls her sweat" in revolutionaries like Quixote, Garvey and Marx. She soars in and out of circles and could care less about Blacks who would never mention "fried chicken" in their poetry. She doesn't deny any part of her heritage or ethnicity, no more than she denies "Adele or Big Mama Sara." This poem is not grounded in one place because she's Uptown, Spanish Harlem, Mexico and Ybor City. She's essentially saying I am that I am, hence the reason so many stanzas begin with those two words. She chooses change constantly unlike the "niggers" the Last Poets refer to in their infamous "Niggers are scared of revolution poem." In this poem the reader also uses what some may call derogatory language by calling herself a "Spikanese" in her title. She does this to prove that she has a strong sense of pride and respects all people of color... no matter what.
The who she's speaking to in this poem is three different cultures: Chinese, Cuban and Black American...she even alludes to Jamaicans and Indigenous Americans. She educates as well as entertains in this piece. I found myself looking up Spanish words, titles of songs, goddesses and a novel. She's proving she's well versed, cultured, and spiritual but one could easily find her just hanging on the corner playing some conga drums in the hood. I felt as though this was a perfect intro poem and I was a little disappointed that she only had one piece in this anthology.
Because...
Lord Have Mercy
I love a revolutionary poem
From an evolutionary
Nikki Giovanni's work came to mind while reading this poem hence my title for this post. Giovanni travels the world in a similar way in "Ego Tripping" and explains how one person can have a revolution by doing natural things in "Revolutionary Dreams."
From an evolutionary
Nikki Giovanni's work came to mind while reading this poem hence my title for this post. Giovanni travels the world in a similar way in "Ego Tripping" and explains how one person can have a revolution by doing natural things in "Revolutionary Dreams."
V,
ReplyDeletelove the positive spin you find here. some people would push Padron as being satirical, but not denying, is also the point (as in Lee's Bamboozled)
cool,
e