Civic term 2: the sequel

This year around, there was another week in the civic term between thanksgiving and winter break, making the civic term 4 weeks long. Over these 4 weeks, I was in a class called ‘Poetic Justice’,  where we explore the question “How can you be a poet for social change?”. Throughout the course, we explored poetry about injustices related to incarceration, immigration, identity, diaspora, and natural disasters. The purpose of the action project was to write a 2-3 minute long political poem, and combine all of the poems into a chapbook.

Here’s the final poem that i wrote:

Repetition

BD

When the Eyeties came to American shores, in hopes of a better life,

They didn’t know that America would carry different forms of strife.

When the Nativists shunned and shamed on them for believing in the pope.

The Italians never lost sight for a future and for hope.

From New York to San Pedro, the Italians would spread. 

Eleven of them by the locals of New Orleans were beaten dead.

Though southern Scots and the New York Prots, Catholics made them cope, 

The Italians would never give up their culture or their hope. 

Eventually was the hate replaced, inter-christian borders fell, 

And from the south more people came, from civil wars of hell. 

Because these people were not white, politicians they made mope,

Though the people were new they always kept the burning flame of hope.

Will it ever end the cycle of hate, or will it only grow? 

Why do so many people care about where other people go?

I know that these words that I wrote are “cringe” and “sus” and “woke”,

But at this point it’s too late for me to give up all my hope.

Artist statement:

I wrote this because the idea of comparing the struggles of two waves of immigrants that I hadn’t researched came to me while i was thinking of what to write about. There’s some personal connection here because two of my great grandparents were Italian. What I attempted to do in this, was to point out the ironies of certain politicians of Italian descent who were being less than friendly (to use a G rated term) to immigrants from Latin America, because their ancestors suffered the same hatred. The specific event involving New Orleans refers to March 14, 1891 when 11 Italian Americans who had been suspected of murdering the chief of police were killed by a mob after some had been aquitted.

“Southern Scots” refers to the large population of those of ulster Scottish decent in the US south

“Prot” or “Prots” is a shortening of the word “protestant”, sometimes used for insults.

“Eyeties” is an old world meaning “Italians”, coming from the mispronunciation of “eye-talian”

My biggest takeaway from this course is that love is the reason for all kinds of radical change, because this was a major reoccurring theme throughout the course. I found writing poetry challenging during this course, because I’ve never had to express myself via writing before.

For reference, here’s a map of Americans with Italian heritage:

And here’s the entire class chapbook:

 

Works cited:

Blakemore, Erin. “The Grisly Story of One of America's Largest Lynching.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 25 Oct. 2017, www.history.com/news/the-grisly-story-of-americas-largest-lynching. 

“Mexico's Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-long-war-drugs-crime-and-cartels. 

“Operation Condor: The Cold War Conspiracy That Terrorised South America.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america. 

“File:Italian Americans (-s per State).Webp.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Italian_Americans_(-s_per_state).webp.