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.
EMBODIED AGENCY 63<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves from certa<strong>in</strong> implications—<strong>the</strong> juxtaposition of “<strong>the</strong> ones<br />
you fear most of all” with “you” forces readers to reconsider <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
actions as <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct from <strong>the</strong> villa<strong>in</strong>ous.<br />
If “For <strong>the</strong> Record” is provocative and righteous, Amiri Baraka’s<br />
“Somebody Blew Up America” has added doses of aggressiveness,<br />
defiance, and many would argue, offensive language. Most readers are<br />
likely aware of <strong>the</strong> controversy surround<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> poem, so it is unnecessary<br />
to review <strong>in</strong> depth Baraka’s career as a “persistent chronical of<br />
controversies, most of <strong>the</strong>m hav<strong>in</strong>g been provoked by Baraka’s own<br />
deliberately <strong>in</strong>cendiary polemics” (Smith “Amiri Baraka” 235). The<br />
poem, written <strong>in</strong> response to 9/11, was first delivered to <strong>the</strong> public on<br />
September 20, 2002, at <strong>the</strong> Dodge Poetry Festival <strong>in</strong> Waterloo,<br />
New Jersey, where it created a maelstrom of compla<strong>in</strong>ts, most<br />
of which focused on <strong>the</strong> poem’s commentary on Israel. At <strong>the</strong> time of<br />
<strong>the</strong> read<strong>in</strong>g, Baraka was Poet Laureate of New Jersey, and<br />
Governor Jim McGreevey, two years prior to his own controversy,<br />
asked Baraka to resign. Baraka refused. It would be dis<strong>in</strong>genuous to<br />
ignore <strong>the</strong> poem’s criticism of Israel or its lament for <strong>the</strong> genocide of<br />
European Jews dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> Holocaust; <strong>the</strong>refore, I focus on its rhetorical<br />
strategy and authoritative agency. Though such an approach could<br />
be seen as ignor<strong>in</strong>g, overrid<strong>in</strong>g, or even exacerbat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> anti-<br />
Semitism, it is important to look at a poem that ignited such controversy<br />
due to its rhetoric <strong>in</strong> a study of <strong>the</strong> rhetorical strategies of<br />
<strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong>. Inflammatory rhetoric, after all, is a crucial element of<br />
many <strong>political</strong> poems of authoritative agency and many <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Black<br />
Arts Movement, although it is folly to ascribe to what James<br />
Smethurst calls a “great-man <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>in</strong> which Baraka’s work becomes<br />
a metonymy for all Black Arts literature” (261). This poem, moreover,<br />
is meant to <strong>in</strong>cite, to be an uncompromis<strong>in</strong>g, authoritative utterance.<br />
Overtly confrontational poems such as “Somebody Blew Up<br />
America” are unusual <strong>in</strong> contemporary American <strong>poetry</strong>. Politically<br />
engaged hip-hop and spoken-word artists have taken up <strong>the</strong> mantle<br />
assumed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1960s by G.I. poets oppos<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> Vietnam War, and<br />
by Black Arts Movement and Chicano Movement poets oppos<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>in</strong>stitutionalized racism of <strong>the</strong> United States. Not only is <strong>the</strong> poem’s<br />
strategy anomalous <strong>in</strong> pr<strong>in</strong>ted <strong>poetry</strong>, its length (233 l<strong>in</strong>es) departs<br />
significantly from many contemporary <strong>political</strong> poems, unless it is considered<br />
as a spoken-word performance piece or a hip-hop song, which<br />
are usually longer than written poems. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States,<br />
unlike <strong>in</strong> many countries <strong>in</strong> Lat<strong>in</strong> America, where <strong>poetry</strong> is a “fugitive<br />
means of expression” and offers <strong>the</strong> practical advantage of be<strong>in</strong>g easier<br />
to copy, distribute, memorize, and chant or perform publicly than