Last week, in the aftermath of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson in Ferguson, I wanted to write a poem and bring it to my local poetry slam, @UrbanaPoetry (Tuesday nights at Sidewalk Cafe in New York City). So I wrote a poem called When a Cop Finally Kills a White Kid, which kinda fell flat. No one was really in the mood to hear that. So it was with fascination that I read yesterdays New York magazine interview with Chris Rock. Frank Rich asked, When you’re looking for subjects, do you go with your gut? Chris Rock: You keep notes. You look for the recurring. What’s not going away? Boy, this police-brutality thing — it seems to be lingering. What’s going to happen here? You don’t even have the joke, you just say, “Okay, what’s the new angle that makes me not sound like a preacher?” Forget being a comedian, just act like a reporter. What’s the question that hasn’t been asked? How come white kids don’t get shot? Have you ever watched television and seen some white kid get shot by accident? Those are some of the very same questions I was asking in my poem. Im encouraged that I can land on the same page as Rock, whom I deeply respect as a performer and thinker. Maybe I should be writing for him? Maybe Im a standup comic pretending to be a poet? Maybe there are good and trenchant observations that simply cannot come from some people? Maybe . . . I AM Chris Rock disguised as a white guy? Has anyone ever seen us in the same place at the same time? Or maybe those are not the questions to ask. What are?
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:39:25 +0000
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