Riot: 60's
Riot: 60's poetry detailing the situation in the 60s when the riot occurred. The lighting: 100 watts. Newark, Detroit and New York.
Poem
Our
YOUR FRIEND CHARLIE pawnshop
was a glorious blaze
I heard the flames lick
then eat the trays
of zircons
mounted in red gold alloys
Easter clothes and stolen furs
burned in the attic
radios and teevees
crackled with static
plugged in
only to a racial outlet
Some
thought the FRIENDLY FINANCE FURNITURE CO.
burned higher
When a leopard print sofa with gold legs
(which makes into a bed)
caught fire
an admiring groan from the waiting horde
“Absentee landlord
you got that shit”
Lighting: a hundred Watts
Detroit, Newark and New York
Screeching nerves, exploding minds
lives tied to a policeman’s whistle
a welfare worker’s doorbell
finger.
Hospitality, southern-style
corn pone grits and you-all smile
whole blocks novae
brand new stars
policemen caught in their
brand new cars
Chugga chugga chigga
git me one nigga
lootin’ n burnin’
he won’t git far
Watermelons, summer ripe
grey neck bones and boiling tripe
supermarket roastin like the
noon-day sun
national guard nervous with his shiny gun
goose the motor quicker
here’s my nigga picka
shoot him in the belly
shoot him while he run
(Maya Angelou)
Racism Issue
As in these race riots of the 60s, Angelou switches between different cases. From these protests to those in Ferguson or in Baltimore 50 years later, little has changed. Angelou sits with a smirk in this triumphant clash of prejudice, classism, and poor and oppressive classes, thus recording main attitudes. Setting the scene, we see bright and burning colors coming from a pawnshop in the first two stanzas. The focus of the "radios and teevees" shows how the people of the 60s were tuned into these activities, but since they were "crackled with static" one can also conclude that specific information was not obtained by these individuals.
The incidents are easily distorted by news stations as they unfold. Some may report that the "waiting horde" seems to be aloof and uncaring about the tragedy that is affecting their world. No one really seems worried about what the riots were really trying to fight for (as shown by the lack of details in the other four stanzas). In a sea of madness, the message is lost. Meanwhile, the great incidents of police violence that unfold and the unbearable stress created by survival in these horrific situations are occurrences that are overshadowed. As the whole area stands on the edge in fear of the next issue about to erupt in their neighborhood,' screeching nerves' are commonplace.
Reference
- Angelou, Maya. Riot: 60's. Retrieved January 1 2020.
- A Year of Angelou: Riot: 60's. Retrieved January 1 2020.