Culture Thursday: "Citizen: An American Lyric"

Happy Thursday, Barflies!

We continue our series celebrating the First Art and National Poetry Month by visiting Citizen: An American Lyric. 

Written by poet Claudia Rankine, it is a book-length poem which addresses this country's enduring sin, anti-Black racism:

The lyrical blocks of prose poem address issues ranging from the poet’s experience with microaggressions, the racist treatment of Serena Williams, the murders of James Craig Anderson and Trayvon Martin, the verbal error during Obama’s first inauguration, racism and language, and more. Between the sections of writing are photographs, drawings, paintings, and screen grabs depicting Black life. This poem is in your face and unapologetic while explaining the everyday racism that is ever present in a “post-racial” United States.

Some background on Ms. Rankine:

Rankine was born in Jamaica, but she moved with her family when she was seven to the Bronx, where she attended Catholic primary schools. Her father worked as a hospital orderly; her mother a nurse's aide. They were avid readers. Rankine remembers her mother reading her Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" shortly after they moved to the U.S. It was in her youth that she also learned to see American culture both from within and as an outsider. "My mother would say things like 'American blacks' or 'American whites,' identifying herself as a Jamaican as she was trying to make sense of a new culture.... I was always negotiating two cultures as a child" (The Spectacle).

As always, we'll have a video of the poem, and then an analysis to help guide you in its understanding.

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