Color is used in so many different ways in these poems. Poets can use color to describe, juxtapose, and subvert.One notable use of color comes from one of my favorite poems this week, Superhero by Kelly Norman Ellis. "super girl, not a white girl in tights but the real one-breasted amazon riding a black unicorn" The colors black and white are seen as opposites and in literature white usually represents good while black represents evil. Ellis is not using that classic trope, instead turning a magical creature of good, that is usually presented as bright white, black. She creating her own definition for black as something strong and powerful and good.
Another poem that uses color is Left by Nikky Finney. "The people are dark but not broken. Starving, abandoned, dehydrated, brown & cumulous, but not broken" This part of the poem has a sort of desperate tone to it. pleading and insisting that these people aren't broken. They are whole and worthy of rescue. telling the helicopter to look past color.
It doesn't exactly relate to the color prompt, but I want to end with a line that has stuck with me hard. My mind keeps going back to it. "Before I was born, I absorbed struggle. Just looking at history hurts."-The Identity Repairman by Thomas Sayers Ellis. This poem also has a line with very strong use of color "My heart is a fist. I fix Blackness. My fist is a heart. I beat Whiteness." but I don't think I fully understand it.
The first two poems, well no all three actually to me confronted uses of power. I think we (or maybe just me) often read about people of color from materials that provide so much depowering information; whether it's American propagandized history or more accurately, the horrific and traumatic accounts that colonialism and white supremacy inflicted. I'm not saying to forget about those very real and valid histories, but with the poems you mentioned I got the sense the writers were taking back their agency with respect to their histories. Superhero reminded me of some of my favorite visual artists who challenge Euro-centered dominant norms by painting images of strong LGBT Latinx's as La Virgen, or put a spin on the popular image of Rosie the Riveter, it's a reclaiming of an otherwise oppressive image that so many can relate and find healing from. I also found Finney's poem profound and emotional. I thought the way she incorporated that kids song or chant... added another element that I can't really describe other than how it made me feel. I don't think I'll hear that tune the same again.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not fully sure I understood the ending to Thomas Sayers Ellis' piece but I tried reading it several times looking for more meaning. After reflecting a bit longer, I feel that what he may be implying is that he can only beat whiteness through loving, non-violently.
Thanks for sharing, your points really helped me reflect on my own ideas this week.
-Dominique