Frank X Walker

Poet Laureate of Kentucky

Appalachia

Walker coined the term ‘Affrilachia’ to signify the importance of the AfricanAmerican presence in Appalachia.

Affrilachia is also the title of one of Walker’s six books of poetry.

In 2013, Walker became the first African American to be Poet Laureate of Kentucky.

When Walker is honored as the new Poet Laureate, he reads three poems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2P0JmT90F0.

“Ultra Sheen” is a poem dedicated to his wife. It demonstrates the playfulness of poetry.

Unlike informative writing, poetry is as much about the journey as the destination, as much about the medium (language) as the message.

Poetry is meant to be heard, to be reread and savored.

Informative writing is a commute on I-380; poetry is a roller coaster ride or a leisurely drive through a park.

“Sorority Sisters” is from the Walker’s most recent book, Turn Me Loose:The Unghosting of Medgar Evers.

“Kentucke” helps demonstrate why Walkercoined the term ‘Affrilachia.’

Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers pays tribute to slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers.

Medgar Evers was the head of the Mississippi NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Evers was assassinated in 1963, the same year that President Kennedy was assassinated--five years before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The poems in Turn Me Loose are persona poems.

They are not in the poet Walker’s voice, but in the voice of several historical figures. None of these voices belong to Medgar Evers himself, but to the following people:

Myrlie Evers, Medgar Evers’ widow

Charles Evers, Medgar Evers’ brother

Byron de la Beckwith,Medgar Evers’ killer

Beckwith’s two wives—Mary Louise “Willie” andThelma—and anonymous sixth voice that, according to Walker, “works like a Greek chorus” in a tragedy.

Walker’s poems contain several historical and cultural allusions (references). The titles of his book’s five sections allude to two songs.

“Dixie” “Strange Fruit”

“Dixie”

• The song is now best known as a cheery tune that celebrates the South.

• The first verse and chorus are the most famous part.

• Some people see the song as racist.

“Dixie” was originally written shortly before the Civil War. In its original form, it was a sort of persona poem set to music.

A white man, Daniel Decatur Emmett, wrote it in the voice of a fictionalized former enslaved person who wants to return to the South.

Emmett wrote the song for a minstrel show, a popular entertainment with skits and songs featuring white people in “blackface” making fun of black people and fostering stereotypes such as the bumbling happy-go-lucky slave.

“Dixie” became the unofficial “national anthem” of the Confederacy.I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land. In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin', Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray! In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie, Away, away, away down South in Dixie, Away, away, away down South in Dixie.

Listen to a 1916: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff58W_m2ipk.

“Strange Fruit” was originally written by Abel Meeropol, a white teacher from the Bronx, in 1937. The poem was inspired by 1930 photo of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two black men who were lynched in Indiana.

photo by Lawrence Beitler

“More than 85 percent of the estimated 5,000 lynchings in the post-Civil War period occurred in the Southern states. . . . In most years from 1889 to 1923, 50 to 100 lynchings occurred annually across the South.”

The racism behind lynching was expressed by Benjamin Tillman, a South Carolina governor and senator, as he addressed the U.S. Senate in 1900:

We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him.

“Lynching in the United States.” Wikipedia. 15 September 2014.

Billie Holiday popularized “Strange Fruit.”

Find her performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs.

“Strange Fruit”

Southern trees bear a strange fruitBlood on the leaves and blood at the rootBlack bodies swingin' in the Southern breezeStrange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant SouthThe bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouthScent of magnolias sweet and freshThen the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluckFor the rain to gather, for the wind to suckFor the sun to rot, for the tree to dropHere is a strange and bitter crop

Rene Marie combines “Dixie” with “Strange Fruit,” thus highlighting the absurdity of a former enslaved person wanting to return to “Dixie”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjCJAs-56nI.

Compare the tone and style with which Rene Marie sings “Dixie” to the more popular version you just heard.

other allusions in Turn Me Loose:The Unghosting of Medgar Evers

“Dixie Suite”

Part 1

“Rotten Fruit” (5)“They put up a lil’ fight, at first / but sooner or later a lucky man / will get his hand on a cat…”

Misogynistic: reflecting or exhibiting hatred, dislike, mistrust, or mistreatment of women.

“How to lay / low, be patient and wait.”

This is a picture of Byron De La Beckwith on his front porch, with the confederate flag in the background.

“in a fair fight between his nigger, jack, / and that nigger, joe louis.”

Who is Joe Louis?Joe louis was an African American boxer and World Heavy Weight Champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight of all time.

Joe Lewis

“The N-Word”

Page 8

“...brings back the smell / of German shepherd breath…”

In the slaveholding South, German shepherds were used"for hunting, sport, and tracking runaway slaves."

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57784-2004Sep2.html

“of fresh gasoline / and sulfur air…”

Sulfur is a component of black gunpowder.

“of fresh gasoline and sulfur air…”

“I hear nine brave children / walking a gauntlet of hate in Little Rock…”

Little Rock Nine = nine brave students who started to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High in 1957

“...and four innocent little girls/lifted up to heaven too soon.”

“...and four innocent little girlslifted up to heaven too soon.”

In 1963, a Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed by white supremacist.

Four little girls (11-14) were killed, twenty others were injured.

(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmjustice3.html)

“Instead of a rebel yell / I hear a rifle bark.”

Rebel yell was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War to intimidate enemies.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_yell)

“BYRON DE LA BECKWITH DREAMING I”

Page 11

“...there was a sign saying “Welcome Home De lay” and when I go in the outskirts of Greenwood, there was another one. It brought tears to my eyes.”

There was a large sign posted on the outskirts of town as well

as people crowding on the streets screaming “Welcome

home” after the trial of Byron De La Beckwith. (

Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes

By James L. Dickerson, Alex A. Alston, Jr)

“Mamma’s holding a baby / with perfect blue eyes”

“She drops it when a tea kettle / screams”

“she reaches for me / but I start to float away”

“there is a sound like a loud / hand clap and suddenly...” Both trials ended in mistrials with all-white, all-male juries unable to

reach verdicts.

De La Beckwith was twice tried for murder in 1964

“I’m floating face up / in a thick warm soup”

There was a third trial in 1994, before a jury of eight African-Americans and 4 whites. The only new evidence brought to his third trial was Byron Beckwith’s boasting of the murder at Ku Klux Klan rallies over the past three decades, after the crime.

“the air smells like our bathroom

when Willie’s on the rag

I drink down all the soup and a crowd

gathers around me singing ‘Dixie’”

“’Dixie’ made the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage. This was accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comicblack dialect implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(song)

Beckwith was convicted for murder and died in prison in 2001.

“Southern Dreams”Part 2

“Fire Proof” (15)

• How guilty is Willie? How directly involved is she? How much did she know?– As guilty as her husband. She’s not directly

involved, but she knows exactly what she is doing. She doesn’t know the specifics, but she knows enough to know it’s wrong.

• There are no photos or any real record of Mary Louise “Willie” Williams that can be found on the internet. Nor is there any record of Willie De La Beckwith.

“White of Way” (18)

• Why is it formatted like a dictionary entry?– What De La Beckwith believes

to be the definitions of these words: “[white] power”, “[white] pride”, and “[white] privilege.”

– Written after A. Van Jordan, and twisted to fit De La Beckwith’s own views.

• Who is A. Van Jordan?– An African American Poet. Born

in Akron, Ohio in 1965.

“Music, Niggers, & Jews” (19)• Is De La Beckwith racist against

everyone that is not a white Christian?– Yes, based on how his views and

opinions are shown in the poem. For instance, “ the Jews that control television is even less.”

• Who was Johnny Cash and George Jones? Who was Johnny Carson and Dick Clark? What was “HeeHaw”?– They were both famous musicians

and singers. Carson was the front man for the Carson Show, and Dick Clark tried to integrate the “American Band Stand”. “HeeHaw” was a “Saturday Night Live” kind of show, which showcased country music.

“Unwritten Rules For Young Black Boys Wanting to Live in Mississippi Long

Enough to Become Men” (23)

• Why must young black boys adhere to these rules so strictly?– If they didn’t they ran

the risk of being beaten, murdered, tortured, raped, maimed, burned, lynched, drowned, and killed through the use of automobiles.

PART 3“LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY…”

“After Dinner in Money, Mississippi” (29)

• This poem was written after Tyehimba Jess, who was born in Detroit and who earned his BA from the University of Chicago and his MFA from New York University.

• What is a “75-lb cotton gin fan”?

Emmett Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River with a 75 lb. cotton gin fan as a weight.

“After dinner in Money, Mississippi” (29)

Left side: recipe for pecan pie

These two complete different pictures are getting connected in this poem. It makes it seem like both things were daily activities and that killing a black person is on the same level as baking a pie.

Right side: “recipe” for killing black people

“Corn syrup, vanilla… and butter… a thin crust… with pecans…”

““any nigger looking at white women… wait till after… open wounds”

“ready when brown and puffy”

“World War Too” (30)

• Jim Crow Army

Jim Crow army was a black army from the USA that fought in the frontline and horrible positions at war.

• Blitzkrieg

An intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory. (German army during the second world war)

• Messerschmitts

Was a German aircraft manufacturing corporation and known for their World War II fighter aircraft.

Medgar and Charles fought in World War II in the Jim Crow Army

After they came back from the war they had to fight for their rights.After they risked their life for their country they had to fight for being a part of it.

“Believing in Hymn” (31)

• Music helped these people to not fight back in a violent way.

• “God would come in a song / wearing a black woman’s voice”

• “so much space there was no room to hate back.”

Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”(April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959)

• “Every Time she laid down a verse over the roar / of fire hoses, attack dogs, and police batons, / our own voices would join hands, pick it up / and let the chorus carry us as far as we needed to go.”

Music was something that helped to deal with their situation and to fight back in a non-violent way.

“Southern Bells” (32)

“When our grandfathers strutted back

from the slave quarters

still unzipped and whiskey-eyed

and on occasion forgetting

it was a sweet southern belle

they were now wringing”

• What does Walker mean when he says “unzipped and whiskey-eyed”?

• The grandfathers were in the “slave quarters” raping the slaves, coming back with their pants still “unzipped”.

“Fighting Extinction” (33)

“Allowing the free mixing of colored and white / is worse than too much pepper on a bowl of grits.”

This certain stanza in this poem was very powerful message. It was making it seem like integration was never going to be accepted.

“Harriet Tubman as Villain: A Ghost Story”( 34)

“There was a scary ol’ black woman ghost / that carried a shotgun and snuck into the quarters / at night to steal little picaninnies an’ field hands.”

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery at the age of 29 before the American Civil War began. She wanted to become an abolitionist. She returned many times to rescue both family members and non-relatives. Tubman led many to freedom. She was known as the “conductor” of the Underground Railroad.

“We could only find solacelooking out over the Mississippi,watching that dark womanswallow the sun.”

Who is the dark woman?

The dark woman is the Mississippi River.

The KKK, people who don’t like someone based on theirethnicity and color, are those who are

responsible for the murder of all these people.

Who is responsible for all these deaths?

“After the FBI Searched the Bayou” (36)

“After the FBI Searched the Bayou” (36)

Bayou: a marshy part of a lake

Who were Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney?

They were American civil rights leaders. They were shot in 1964 by members of the KKK and the Philadelphia Police Department located in Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were trying to

get African Americans registered to vote.

“Haiku For Emmett Till” (37)Who was Emmett Till?

“Emmett Till was an African-American teenager who was murdered in Mississippi the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago visiting his relatives in Mississippi, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, several nights later, Bryant's husband and his half-brother went to the house where Till was staying. They took Till away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river.” (Wikipedia)

eyeball rape: Till’s supposed flirtationwith a white woman

come home in a box: the box Tillcame home in was a casket

mongrel: racist word fora person of mixed descent

After the murder of Emmett Till, Evers was investigating the murder,and he had a target on his back from thewhite supremacists.

Medgar Evers’ Involvement in the Till Case

“No More Fear” (38)

Lamar Smith was an organizer for voter registrationfor the African-Americans. He was shot in front of

the courthouse.

Uncle Mose was Till’s Great Uncle

They were found "Not Guilty." Six weeks after the murder trial, a Leflore County grand jury

refused to indict Bryant and Milam on kidnapping charges, and both men were

released from custody.

What happened to Emmett Till’s killers?

Who was Lamar Smith?

Who is Uncle Mose?

Lamar Smith

“When Death Moved In” (39)U.S. marshals escorted James Meredith, a nine-year U.S. Air

Force veteran, onto the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford as the school’s first African-American student.

Meredith being escorted into the university

“Gallant South”Part 4

“After Birth” (44)

“Just laying there covered with blood, / (laughs) but already trying to crawl.”

A newborn squirms/tries to crawl after being born and someone who is about to be murdered is squirming or trying to crawl to survive.

“Sorority Meeting”(45-46)

• What event made Myrlie, Willie, and Thelma become sisters?– Definition of sorority is a society for females that

attend a university or college, mainly used for social purposes.

– The three became sisters because they were all sort of trapped in their own situation that seemed to overlap with the other women’s lives.

• What are the secrets that they will take to their graves?– The secrets of their husbands? Byron being a killer?

Did Medgar have some secrets as well?

“Sorority Meeting” Continued

• What is “country ballad”?– Definition of country ballad is a song that tells a

story and can have different themes such as: romantic, dramatic, funny, sad, etc.

• Myrlie sleeps with the ghost of her husband while Willie is sleeping with Medgar’s killer.– Medgar was killed by Byron and Myrlie finds

herself sleeping with a ghost because of her husband’s death. Willie is sleeping with a killer because Byron was the individual that took Medgar’s life for no reason.

“Big-Hearted”(50)

• Big-Hearted is not at all how this poem should be titled instead it should be called Cold-Hearted.

• Thelma is saying that Byron is not a monster. Instead, she was saying that Byron was being “generous” by shooting Medgar in the back rather than in the face. Shooting someone is never an act of generosity.

“What They Call Irony”(52)

• In Mississippi, did white men on trial always lie? Was there a reputation of lying and being caught?

• What is Judases?– An individual that betrays another under friendship

• What is the connection between the lynching postcard and playing jump rope with a tree?– Jump rope is something that is generally fun so maybe the

disturbing connection is that lynching is fun to those doing it.

• What is carpetbaggers?– Northerners who move to the South to take advantage of

the unstableness occurring. Called Carpetbaggers because of the bags they carried that were made of carpet.

“What They Call Irony” Continued

De la Beckwith is saying that being found guilty is like seeing himself being lynched. Frank X Walker says “it’s like Christmas” because Beckwith being convicted was a gift to everyone that hated him and what he did.

“On Moving to California” (53)• Who is Fannie Lou Hamer?

– She was an American voting rights activist

and civil rights leader. Died at the age of 60

because of heart failure.

• Why was it important to include her in this poem?– She was a strong individual and showed others

how to stand up for what they believe in and encouraged other blacks to vote.

• What does the title mean?– The title has a lot to do with the poem. After

Medgar was killed, Myrlie and the children moved from Mississippi to California where Myrlie became a civil rights activist.

“Bitter Fruit”

Part 5

“One Missisippi, Two Missippis” (57)

Parchman Prison

• Giant plantation

• Slept in cages

• Started in January 1901

• 12 male camps, 1 female camp with racial segregation

Thomas Sayers Ellis…

• Professor at Sarah Lawrence College

• Poet and author of “The Maverick Room”

• Helped found The Dark Room Collective, a group of black writers

Debutante Balls

• An event where a young woman, sometimes a young man, is formally introduced into society

• Typically dressed in all white ball gown dresses, or all white military uniform

• “Coming of age” party

“You got debutante ballsWe got juke joints”

“Now One Wants to Be President” (59)An Educated Mongrel

• Normal definition: Any other animal resulting from the crossing of breeds.

• Offensive definition: A person of mixed descent.

• Referencing to how Obama is our first African American President and “Thelma’s thoughts on it.

“forty-five years to raise another boy

man enough to send home in a box”

“Epiphany” (60)

An epiphany is a sudden realization about the nature or meaning of something. Epiphany can often come from a person’s life experience.

“The Assurance Man” (64)Alvin Alcorn

• African American trumpet player in New Orleans.

• Successful African American in the south.

“White Knights” (62)KKK Then and Now

Today there are 152 chapters of the KKK, which means 5,000 to 8,000 members.

“White Nights” continued

For every hateful act in the world, there is someone out there still trying to do good.

This presentation was created by members of Mount Mercy University’s Fall 2014 composition class, EN114 Writing and Social Issues.

The introductory slides were created by instructor Mary Vermillion.

The slides related to Part 1 were created by Mary Starks, Nikola Janatova, and Dana Ukari.

The slides related to Part 2 were created by Quinn Burke, Autumn Miene, and CheyleeOctavio.

The slides related to Part 3 were created by Heather Horstman, Makayla McIntyre, and Tomas Zaijfert.

The slides related to Part 4 were created by Receva Duos, Shelby Sorensen, and Rylie Worm.

The slides related to Part 5 were created by Alivia Clark, Sarah Jirik, Katie Rolfes, and Eric Stevenson.

All of the videos and images in this presentation were taken from online sources.