american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
172 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
Five <strong>in</strong>vented phrases such as “Throw your hands <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> air and wave<br />
<strong>the</strong>m like you just don’t care!” (20). Call-and-response staples such as<br />
this one help to structure live hip-hop. They provide <strong>the</strong> work<strong>in</strong>g<br />
bluepr<strong>in</strong>t for <strong>the</strong> fashion<strong>in</strong>g of collective identity and collective<br />
agency; <strong>in</strong> each of <strong>the</strong> follow<strong>in</strong>g case studies call-and-response anchors<br />
performer/audience collaboration.<br />
On February 15, 2003, when <strong>the</strong> San Francisco-based group<br />
Liv<strong>in</strong>g Legends performed on <strong>the</strong> “Creative Differences” tour at<br />
Cat’s Cradle, it was just over one month away from President Bush’s<br />
declaration of war aga<strong>in</strong>st Iraq, dur<strong>in</strong>g a time when it was becom<strong>in</strong>g<br />
obvious that such a course of action was imm<strong>in</strong>ent. Although Liv<strong>in</strong>g<br />
Legends, a collection of eight MCs, was primarily <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> enterta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>the</strong> audience, <strong>the</strong>re was no shortage of social and <strong>political</strong><br />
commentary. The prom<strong>in</strong>ence of calls for peace and demonstrations<br />
of peace signs <strong>in</strong> call-and-response between stage and audience, often<br />
done <strong>in</strong> explicitly stated reference to <strong>the</strong> build<strong>in</strong>g war effort, was one<br />
of <strong>the</strong> most salient features of <strong>the</strong> even<strong>in</strong>g. The crowd was buoyant<br />
and responsive, thus enabl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> features Arendt claims are necessary<br />
to constitute this public space of action—courageous <strong>in</strong>dividual performance,<br />
<strong>in</strong>tersubjective relations between relative strangers, “act<strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong> concert,” and collective identity. The participatory form of <strong>the</strong><br />
show created a politics of engagement between audience and performers<br />
and with<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> audience that superseded <strong>the</strong> actual <strong>political</strong><br />
content. Each time <strong>the</strong> audience called for peace <strong>in</strong> response to Liv<strong>in</strong>g<br />
Legends, it was “act<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> concert” and creat<strong>in</strong>g a collective identity.<br />
Nearly a year earlier, on April 12, 2002, <strong>the</strong> Oakland-based rap<br />
group The Coup, widely considered one of <strong>the</strong> most <strong>political</strong> groups<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> hip-hop community, performed at Cat’s Cradle. This show,<br />
unlike most of Liv<strong>in</strong>g Legends’ performance, united explicit <strong>political</strong><br />
content with <strong>the</strong> <strong>political</strong> form <strong>in</strong>herent <strong>in</strong> small club hip-hop shows.<br />
On <strong>the</strong>ir latest album (Party Music 2001), MC Boots Riley uses<br />
Marxist rhetoric to attack mult<strong>in</strong>ational corporations, <strong>the</strong> oppression<br />
of wage laborers via exorbitant rents and unfair wages, American<br />
imperialism, unchecked capitalism, and <strong>in</strong>stitutionalized religion’s<br />
willful ignorance of socioeconomic justice issues, all <strong>the</strong> while<br />
proclaim<strong>in</strong>g pro-union, pro-Zapatista, and pro-revolution stances.<br />
The proletarian message is best distilled <strong>in</strong> one l<strong>in</strong>e, rendered <strong>in</strong><br />
Spanish: “Pro-La Raza say<strong>in</strong>’ ‘Fuck La Migra!’ ” (“Ride <strong>the</strong> Fence”).<br />
This exclamation is an explicit refusal to accept <strong>the</strong> immigration<br />
authority’s likely attempts to send Chicanos out of California from<br />
land that was ceded from Mexico <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Treaty of Guadalupe–Hidalgo<br />
<strong>in</strong> 1848. The result of such moves by official power structures and <strong>the</strong>