My performance of "The Dead: A Stream of Consciousness"

A performance of my original poem "The Dead: A Stream of Consciousness" was recorded on July 10, 2020, at the What Matters Now live, global, online event. You can watch it through this link.

The statement below is a transcript of my introduction to the poem (which you will also hear on the link):

I wish I could make words as instantaneously descriptive as images, which of course they can never be. But words are what I've got. I'm asking you to fill in the blanks.

"The Dead: A Stream of Consciousness" consists of words that I've been experimenting with during the ongoing protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.

The words are inspired by the righteousness and manifold beauties of the protesters and by their courage, strong against the backdrops of a global pandemic and continuing state-sanctioned, state-sponsored violence against people of color.

I want to remember those who've died during this dark time, and those who live on, hoping and working and fighting for a future time of light.

I wish for us to be in solidarity and to share strength with one another.


Please check out the other amazing What Matters Now speakers/performers here. I wrote a short post about the program here.

What Matters Now

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I would be reading a poem as part of the What Matters Now online, global event.

UPDATE: It happened, and it was fantastic!

Not only did I have a blast sharing my poem, but every single talk and performance in the program—I think there were 18 five-minute presentations in all—was compelling and inspirational.

Topics ranged from innovative programs to keep library patrons engaged during COVID to native, perennial food production in the Sahel region of Niger; Wikipedia's response to COVID to decolonizing museums; fighting against disinformation in advance of the US's upcoming presidential election to uniting the divided island of Cyprus through music; and so much more.

You can watch the talks and performances here.

What Matters Now?

On July 10, 2020, between noon and 1 pm. EST, I will share my new poem "The Dead: A Stream of Consciousness" as part of  What Matters Now.

What Matters Now is a free, online, global event to address our options and obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing protests against systemic racism and police brutality.

All are welcome. I hope you can join us!

For more information, and to register, please follow this link.

Rumors of War, by Kehinde Wiley

Rumors of War by Kehinde Wiley
Photo: LSE

I've listened to Bob Marley's song "War" many times, but I never paid particular attention to the phrase "rumors of war" until today, when I went to Richmond, Virginia, to see Kehinde Wiley's Rumors of War. It stands in front of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

The statue has been described as a response to the many Confederate war monuments that still stand in Richmond and other places around the U.S. (An equestrian statue of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate general, stands just a few blocks away.)

Wiley's gorgeous and imposing statue portrays a contemporary African-American man riding a horse in this same European/American equestrian tradition. The artist's website says that the statue, along with a series of paintings also called Rumors of War, reflects "Wiley's interest in the aestheticization of power and masculinity." 

According to Wikipedia, Wiley took the title "Rumors of War," from a bible verse. But I know the phrase from Bob Marley's classic song, and I wonder whether Marley took it from that same verse.

The lyrics of "War" consist almost entirely of a near-quote from Haile Selassie I's 1963 speech before the United Nations, in which he advocates for an end to international exploitation (particularly of Africa), equality for all, and nuclear disarmament. From what I can tell, the phrase "rumors of war" wasn't in his speech; Marley added it to the song.

Taken together, the phrase "rumors of war," its (possible) biblical source (Matthew 24:6-13), and the song's initial strident, minor riff create an air of prophetic doom -- but also some of the same militancy that I see in the statue.

"War" by Bob Marley

Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior

Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned

Everywhere is war

Me say war.

And until there's no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation

Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes

Me say war

Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race

Dis a war

Until that day

The dream of lasting peace

World citizenship

Rule of international morality

Will remain but a fleeting illusion

To be pursued

But never attained

Now everywhere is war

War

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola

In Mozambique, South Africa

Sub-human bondage

Have been toppled

Totally destroyed

Everywhere is war

Me say war

War in the east

War in the west

War up north

War down south

War, war

Rumors of war

And until that day the African continent shall not know peace

We Africans will fight we find it necessary

And we know we will win

As we have confidence in the victory

Of good over evil...

War, war. Rumors of war. 

I'm afraid that the growing disregard for human rights during the last few years has brought the possibility of war closer in this country. 

Justice will not be put off forever. I begin to understand the power and the dread of the phrase "rumors of war."

But I also get chills whenever I hear that last verse. 

Back view of Rumors of War by Kehinde Wiley.
Photo: LSE