Adrienne Rich Research Paper

Martin Luther King Junior once stated that, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent.” This was a huge staple in the African American community previous to the 1960s. Does the fault solely lay on the fact that African Americans were so in fear of their life and the life of their loved ones to speak up? After all this was the time of murdering those who were believed to be looking at a Caucasian in any shape or form. It was also a time for murdering those who even considered making a social change in such a bigoted nation. However, the fault often more times than not, usually lays with more than one party. Who exactly is known to be the cause of such a lack of noise in the African American culture is not at the moment a colossal deal of concern. What is important is that someone finally took control and declared that they refused to be quiet. And when one person

decides to fight what is unjust given time, others will soon follow. Thus born the Black Arts movement.
The Black Arts is said to be fathered by an African American, named Imamu Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones. Baraka was someone who shared the ranks with some of the greatest Beats poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and Charles Olsen. So, the question is why would a man who seems to have so much would take his status and lower it just to make sure that his fellow brothers and sisters would be heard just as well as he is? The answer that most closely resembles the truth lays in the decade of the 60’s were many influential people trying to make a stride for desegregation were assassinated.
During 1960 African American women and men walked on their bone tired feet to and from work knowing that they had other means of transportation. Children skipped school knowing they would have an ass whooping waiting at home. College students of both the Caucasian and African American descent rode a bus from their safe place in the north into what can only be described hell on earth, the south, knowing there was a major chance that they wouldn’t make it back home. Why did they do that because they had heard the talks of some of the greats such as Martin Luther King Jr, a man who taught nothing but peace, and Malcom X, who might have had at some points suggested violence especially self defense, but ultimately wanted his people to be free and be taken care of, not to be lied to, not to be quieted. Both were silenced, Malcom X February 27, 1965 and King April 4, 1968. These horrific events of history were just the push needed for Imamu Amiri to start the Black Arts Movement by starting a black arts school.
Baraka open the doors of Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem. It was a place where blacks could dance to their hearts content. Writers could make poetry about their struggles with the whites and not be completely written off because they were not the superior ones. Actors/Actresses, could put on plays and pretend that they were anyone and could do anything, and make you believe that they truly were. This was where they came to find recognition for their God given talents and learn how to nourish them. Unfortunately, the school only stayed open for a little under a decade before its doors were closed. However, the impact that it left on society will stay forever written in stone. It allowed others who were oppressed to begin to speak up including, but not limited to Latinos/as, LGBT, and our generation of African American artists’ talents to be brought into the limelight It became more than just something physical, it became something spiritually. Bringing forth amazing works on the subject of oppression by writers such as Baraka himself, Nikki Giovanni, Adrienne Rich, and Phil Levine,
“Incident” by Baraka is a poem that uses a lot of repetition with words such as shot, different tenses of dying, and killer. The poem in total is about 16 lines. Neither the words or punctuation use in the poem are formal. The words and the punctuation are written in such a way that it is like you are sitting with family listening to an elder tell an exciting story where you can’t wait for them to get to the end. Where they talk in such an informal way and are blunt because they know you and are personal with you. With all these different techniques in the poem, the reader can’t help but believe that it is alluding to blacks arts and the assassination of many of the greats that took part in what this country labels the time as the civil rights movement.
The multiple use of the word shot can be linked to the fact that Malcom X body was decorated with over a half a dozen bullet holes. The word shot could also be talking about the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in the jaw and the bullet travel down his spine to find a resting place in his shoulder. Last, but not least shot could be talking about Medgar Evers who was shot in his back in the driveway of his own home. This can also help explain the use of the word killers use many times in two different ways. If we were to just conclude this poem to be talking about the death of Malcom X, then it can be use as a way to paint the illusion to the fact that he had multiple people to blame for his death. However, if we were talking about the collective bunch then it can be use as sort of imagery for the fact there was different killers in each of these circumstances in history, but they were all murdering for pretty much the same reason. They didn’t want their thrones of being superior overthrown.
The various times that he uses dying and the tenses that he uses it something major to look at. He uses the present and past tense of the word multiple times. The different tenses of dying can be seen as a story that has a beginning middle and end. Them becoming involved in an altercation with their killer is the beginning. Them being actually shot is the middle because they are truly dying, but they are just not quite there yet. Then finally after a lot of pain and a struggle to survive, they pass away. All three of them Evers, Malcom, and King, did not die as soon as they were shot. They tried to hold on, unfortunately they just weren’t strong enough. However, just like the legacy and the moral they left behind, they went down the only way they knew how. That was fighting.
The informal tone of this poem can be use as sort of an insight into each of these civil leader’s thoughts/feelings before they were murdered. For them in each of the instances in which they were murdered they were in this sense home. Malcom X talking to a group of his followers in a ball room. Evers was at his literal home. King in a hotel room where he lived for a couple of days trying to fight for equal wages for all trash workers. That had to believe in some sense that they were safe enough to allow themselves to stand on a balcony in broad daylight. To speak in front of a huge mass of people who they thought believed in the same things as them. To stand on their own driveway.
He uses all these techniques such as repetition, tenses, sensory words, and others to get across the point even when you think you are safe you are not. Even when you think you are with family you are truly truly with snakes. You make think you know the whole story, but there will always be parts missing. Eventually, no matter who you are, if your light becomes too bright someone one will try and sometimes succeed in snuffing it out. “And his spirit… sucks up the light. But he died in darkness darker than… his soul and everything tumbled blindly with him dying…down the stairs.”
“The Great Pax Whitie” by Nikki Giovani in a way shows some similarities to poems penned by Baraka and stories forged in the Bible by God inspired authors. The poem is written in the narrative of the Bible including repetition of certain phrases such as the lines “in the beginning” and “peace be still.” The tone is that of a prophet.
A prophetic narrative in the Bible is when a person comes forth claiming that they have some sort of knowledge given to them of God of things that have not yet come. In the Bible a lot of these prophets were either about the works of Jesus, the coming of Jesus, or the battles Jesus would have in his time here on Earth.
She starts off the poem with the words “In the beginning was the word.” This is parallel to the Bible as a whole because when being referenced the Bible is usually literally called, “The Word.” It is also parallel to the Bible in part because Genesis means the beginning. This is representative of the beginning of the African American history journey to the colonized lands on an over capacitated boat from Africa. From there on out it is just the continuation of the story/prophet.
While the poem in its entirety should be looked at to understand the full prophesized outcome of African Americans as if they were in biblical times, the poems length is too great. The lines that are able to illustrate the clearest picture are, “So the great white prince…Was shot like a nigger in texas …And our Black shining prince was murdered… like that thug in his cathedral” It is suppose to leave a lasting impression of the world in the mind of its reader. Jesus is considered a prince to the likes of many for his father was the creator of everything. We all know how his crucifixion came and went. His back torn up from a whip. His hands holding holes from where they drilled in nails to get him fixed on the cross they made him carry. On his head a crown of thorns as a way of mocking him. Many of these done to him were again done to an African American, whipped sometimes out of pleasure for the Caucasian man, or because they believed that something was done wrong. Crosses burned in yards to let them know their time has come. Mocked for believing that there is something different, something better that will eventually be reached. Jesus downfall was told and shown since the beginning and according to the text Giovanni so was African Americans.
Adrienne Rich is one of the most controversial and tell it like it is person that has ever graced this earth with her presence.

Not only was she a heterosexual woman who turned lesbian, but also she was a Caucasian woman who the majority of the time found herself on the side of the underdog in any argument. When it came to fighting for women’s right she declared herself a feminist and got to work. When it came time for the African Americans to speak up and be heard, she joined in. She was a woman who had mainly lived in upper-class white neighborhoods who moved and started working in urban New York with kids who were minorities. This allowed for her to witness first hand the injustices. She however knew that it would take a little work to make others listen. Many didn’t want to listen to the problems that had nothing to do with them or painted them in a negative light, so she did it in the only way she knew how, by using imagery of nature that was very popular up until them, to give an underlying meaning of oppression and inequality. This can be witnessed in her poem, “What Kind of Times are

These.”
The title of the poem “What Kind of Times are These” is a direct reference to a poem written by Bertolt Brecht. The poem was originally written in German and named “To Those Who Follow in Our Wake.” It was Brecht’s way of speaking on the matter in the 1930s where people would rather glorify nature instead of speaking of all the horrors surrounding them. By naming her poem after such a famous poem, she made it relevant to the time period she was living in. The time frame was different, but the message was not.
When she talks about the “place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill… and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows…near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted” it is meant to be an allusion, but the pictures she paints with her words are these remnants of real places. A meeting house during and before the 1960s were where most likely Caucasians would either auction off their “property” or get rid of those who are opposing whatever they are trying to do. For African Americans it would be where they discuss how they are going to stand up to the man whether it be peacefully or forcefully. This would mean starting a revolution, hence the term revolutionary road, which would be the gravel road that led up to the house with the polished grass and trees lining both sides. If the African Americans were caught they would be persecuted, most likely, put to death. If we were looking at this figuratively, then it would mean that whenever something is said that is not agreed with the spark that they set to the wood to start a fire, would quickly and effectively be stumped out. Stumped so much that there would be no chance of them starting a fire with it ever again.
“I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.” is again another reference to the fact that Americas white supremacist culture was willing to get rid of everything that didn’t fit into their manifest destiny. That quote alone is absolutely amazing, but what gives it a little more oomph is the lines in the preceding stanza "this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, …our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,” It is calling out Americans need to help other countries in their moments of crisis, but when it comes to seeing the destructions of our home land we tend to turn a blind eye. Especially, if we are the cause behind it. I think the whole poem is summed up in the last stanza. The need to stump out everything different, the need to dumb stuff down and take morality and ethics out of it to get people to listen. “And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you … anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these …to have you listen at all, it's necessary … to talk about trees.”