Trayvon Martin was both the subject and an ancestor invoked at the 23rd Annual “Break Word with the World,” recently hosted by Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville emeritus professor.
At the request of Ishmael Reed’s PEN/Oakland group, Redmond created the lyrical format, “Break Word with the World,” as a “town hall-style ‘conch/us/nest’ forum–that features an evening of satirical, serio-comic, ironic and direct assaults on bigotry, abuse, oppression, racism and scape-goating.”
It was a night of poets and poetry, history and current events, drums and drummers, all converging into cultural expression and dissonance. A Eugene B. Redmond (EBR) Writers Club’s annual event, “Word” was held at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus in East St. Louis. Like most Club events, it was co-sponsored by SIUE’s Department of English Language and Literature.
“We chose to spotlight Trayvon Martin this year to keep his memory alive,” said Redmond, former SIUE English Language and Literature professor. “And what better way to keep his memory alive than to have writers pay homage to him.
“This venue also gives writers a chance to vent about social justice in poetic form,” Redmond said. “This is our way of giving Trayvon poetic justice, and giving Zimmerman his ‘justice desserts.”
Trayvon Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old African American high school student who was fatally shot Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman. At the time, Zimmerman was a 28-year-old neighborhood watch coordinator. Zimmerman’s defense was based on Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” statute. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges on July 13, 2013.
The Trayvon commemoration included drumming provided by Sunshine Lee’s Community Performance Ensemble and the reading of kwansaba poems and prose by members of the Club’s
Soular Systems Ensemble: Roscoe “Ros” Crenshaw, Susan “Spit-Fire” Lively, Darlene Roy (EBRWC president) and Jaye P. Willis. Among the special guests and “open mic” participants were Michael Castro, Manuel and Treasure Shields Redmond.
“Many young black men who wear certain clothes always gets judged,” said Manuel, an SIUE senior and English major whose stage name is “Ackurate.” “The Stand Your Ground law did not give Zimmerman the right to cause violence against someone else.” During the poetry session, Ackurate performed his Trayvon poem, “Warm Embrace.”
The EBR Writers Club, chartered in 1986 by Sherman L. Fowler, Roy and Redmond, meets twice monthly. The Club created the literary device now widely known as the kwansaba. Both the name and the principles of the poetic device come from Kwanzaa, the seven-day African-American cultural holiday created by Dr. Maulana Karenga. A kwansaba is a seven-line poem with seven words on each line and no word containing more than seven letters.
The Club’s trustees are Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Avery Brooks, Haki R. Madhubuti, Walter Mosley, Quincy Troupe, Jerry Ward Jr. and Lena J. Weathers. For more information about the Club and Redmond, visit eugenebredmond.com/home/, email eredmon@siue.edu or call (618) 650-3991.
The following samples are portions of kwansabas about Trayvon Martin read at the poetry jam:
• From Crenshaw’s Trayvesty (A BeTrayal Kwansaba): “When Sanford’s savage son saw strange hooded fruit, his blood-racing pace shaped fairy tales of hostile night time side walking. . .”
• From Lively’s Shades of History: “. . . Like Emmett Till he was just being a boy –naïve face, white hoodie, dying to live in a safe naybor-hood . . . ”
• From Roy’s Racial Safari: “. . .‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws herald widely opened season on our pride of men.”
Photo Information:
Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville emeritus professor, welcomes an audience of approximately 50 people to the 23rd Annual “Break Word with the World,” paying homage to Trayvon Martin at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus in East St. Louis.
Performing kwansaba poems about Trayvon Martin are Darlene Roy, EBRWC president; and Roscoe Crenshaw, EBRWC member.