Original subtitles

SONIA: Hello and welcome to First and Last Words.

I'm your host, Sonia Sanchez.

Today's feature...

profiles poet Essex Hemphill with Larry Duckette.

ESSEX: To Some Supposed Brothers.

ESSEX: You judge a woman LARRY: by the length of her skirt

ESSEX: by the way she walks BOTH: talks, looks, and acts

ESSEX: by the colour of her skin you judge and will call her "bitch!"

"Black bitch!" if she doesn't answer your

"Hey, baby, whatcha gonna say to a man"

ESSEX: You judge a woman LARRY: by the job she holds

ESSEX: by the number of children she's had

LARRY: by the number of digits on her cheque

BOTH: by the many men she may have lain with

and wonder what jive murphy you'll run on her this time

you'll run on her this time

ESSEX: You judge a woman LARRY: by what she can do for you alone

ESSEX: but there's no need LARRY: for slaves to have slaves

ESSEX: You judge a woman

LARRY: by impressions you think you've made

BOTH: Ask and she gives take without asking

beat on her and she'll obey throw her name up and down the streets

ESSEX: like some loose whistle LARRY: knowing her neighbours will talk

BOTH: Her friends will chew her name

Her family's blood will run loose like a broken creek

ESSEX: And when you're gone LARRY: a woman Is left

BOTH: healing her wounds alone

ESSEX: But we so-called men LARRY: we so-called brothers

BOTH: wonder why It's so hard to love our women

ESSEX: when we're about loving them LARRY: the way America

ESSEX: loves us

ESSEX: You judge a woman LARRY: for slaves to have slaves

ESSEX: by what she can do for you alone

LARRY: but there's no need ESSEX: for slaves to have slaves

SONIA: With shouts, screams, songs and show...

performance poet Essex Hemphill...

vocalises sexual and political themes...

with candour, humour, and sensitivity.

A native of Washington, D.C...

Essex founded BeBop Books...

which has published several of his works:

Earth Life, Conditions, Heavy Breathing, and Soft Targets.

Always looking for ways to, as Hemphill puts it...

“take poetry out of that sedate, sleepy-time arena”...

he uses several voices, along with multimedia devices...

to work in words and emotions among people.

His performances include Voicescapes, Earth Life...

From the Potomac to the Anacostia...

and his most recent work...

Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart.

Hemphill has collaborated and performed with the trio Cinque...

comprised of himself, Wayson Jones, and Larry Duckette...

as well as with artists like Michelle Parkerson...

Chris Prince, Brenda Files, and Sylvia Thompson.

In this profile, musician Larry Duckette shares with Hemphill...

in conversation and duo as well as solo recitations of his works.

ESSEX: The work that I do, in terms of performance poetry...

is surely different from what other performance poets...

in this area and even in this region present.

The evolution of music in the work...

the involvement of voices in the work...

all of that's been a process of elimination, of bumping around.

When Larry and Wayson and I were doing Cinque...

there was nothing like it in Washington or even the surrounding area.

I think what set us apart...

was taking a risk with the kind of material I was writing.

So I think that if I hadn't had...

Larry's and Wayson's support with Cinque...

I might still be a few years back because a lot of...

my homosexual blossoming, if you will...

or my "coming out” in my work began there.

Because I would say that when I began to write...

I was writing from a Black Nationalists perspective...

which I have grown to basically deny now...

only in terms that the Black Nationalist's perspective...

So why should I pay loyalty to It...

if it's not going to accept where I'm coming from?

So I'm looking now for a more humane...

look at the troubles and the conditions, if you will...

that we all live under...

realising that it's not always white people that are the problem...

but that Black people, we ourselves...

can be much, much more destructive...

only because we're so close to that destruction...

Just by being Black.

Heavy Breathing, excerpts.

I am only sure of this

I continue to awaken in a rumpled black suit

Pockets bulging with tools and ancestral fossils

LARRY: A crusty wool suit with salt on its collar

ESSEX: I continue to awaken shell-shocked

LARRY: wondering where I come from

ESSEX: Beyond Mother's womb LARRY: Father's sperm

ESSEX: My past may be lost beyond the Carolinas North and South

LARRY: I may not recognise the authenticity of my Negritude

ESSEX: So slowly I awaken

LARRY: Science continues dismantling chromosomes

LARRY: Tampering with genetic codes

LARRY: I am sure of this as I witness Washington

change Its eye colour from brown to blue

ESSEX: What kind of mutants are we now?

Why is some destruction so beautiful?

BOTH: Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited towards annihilation

with a scrotal sack full of primordial loneliness

swinging between my legs like solid bells?

ESSEX: At the end of heavy breathing

At the beginning of grief and terror

On the X2, the bus I call a slave ship

The majority of its writers, black

pressed to journey to Northeast

Into the voodoo ghettoes

festering on the knuckles of the Negro dream

The X2 is a risky ride

A cargo of block boys, urban pirates

The Colt 45 and gold neck-chain crews

are all part of this voyage

Like me, rooted to something here

The women usually sit at the front

The unfortunate ones who must ride in the back with the fellas

often endure foul remarks

The fellas are quick to call them out of name

as If all females between eight and 80

are simply pussies with legs

The timid men scattered among the boat crew and crack boys

LARRY: The frightened men pretend invisibility

ESSEX: or fake fraternity with a wink or nod

LARRY: But they look the other way ESSEX: They have a sister on another bus

LARRY: A mother on some other train ESSEX: enduring the same treatment

LARRY: There Is never any protest ESSEX: no chemistry

LARRY: No peer restraint ESSEX: no control

BOTH: no one hollers, "Stop!"

For Mrs Fuller, for Mrs Fuller

LARRY: A Black mother murdered in an alley near home

ESSEX: Her rectum viciously raped with a pipe

BOTH: Repeatedly sodomised before a crowd

that did not holler, "Stop!"

ESSEX: Some of those watching knew her LARRY: knew her children

ESSEX: knew she was a member of the block

LARRY: Every participant was Black ESSEX: Every witness was Black

BOTH: Some were female and Black Some were female and Black

Now don't get me wrong Some were female and Black

Some were female and Black

BOTH: There was no white man nearby shouting, "Black man

"take some crack, shove It in her ass take some crack, shove it in her ass

ESSEX: "and the rest of you watch”

ESSEX: I think we'd better chill.

[Larry laughing]

ESSEX: Larry, let's slow it down a little bit. LARRY: Yeah.

ESSEX: "Cause it's going like it's Family Jewels.

LARRY: I know.

[Larry laughing]

ESSEX: Larry and I-- LARRY: Same old story.

ESSEX: I know. This Is in the archives.

[Larry laughing]

ESSEX: Larry auditioned for a collaborative work...

Michelle Parkerson and I were working on...

Murder on Glass...

which played at Washington Project for the Arts.

Larry was one of the performers who came out and auditioned...

but there were certain character types that we were looking for...

and he wasn't able to make it in for that particular production.

I at that time had also begun to work out The Brass Rail...

and I realised, through Michelle's suggestion...

that perhaps I should turn to Larry...

in regard to his being the second voice, in terms of the duet...

that The Brass Rail is.

For instance The Brass Rail Is a poem done...

upside-down and right-side-up...

and then combined in a duet fashion.

Which you would not typically think:

"Oh, well, I'm going to read this poem from the bottom up”...

because you're trained to read from the top of a page...

down to the bottom.

So that in and of itself challenged Larry and I both, and then...

the history of The Brass Rail...

and the fact that we both knew and had our own experiences in that place.

You know, it just brought more pressure on that piece.

The Brass Rail.

ESSEX: I saw you last night

LARRY: Many occupants are never found

ESSEX: in the basement

LARRY: Many canoes overturned

ESSEX: of The Brass Rall

Your dark, diva's face

a lake

I hear the sea

LARRY: Your voice

LARRY: screaming ESSEX: falling from the air

LARRY: Behind your eyes

ESSEX: Dancing with the boys on the edge of funk

LARRY: Twilight

ESSEX: The boys dance, darling

BOTH: touching you indiscreetly My tongue walks

ESSEX: along your thighs like a hermit

LARRY: Your body, a green light

ESSEX: I have been naked with you

LARRY: Urging them

ESSEX: Dear diva darling

ESSEX: You were in the mirrors LARRY: The light

ESSEX: Their arms LARRY: The boys whispered about you

ESSEX: Singapore Slings toasted you

LARRY: Under the music pumping from the jukebox

ESSEX: They were promises chilled by ice cubes

LARRY: They were promises chilled by ice cubes

BOTH: The boys whispered about you

BOTH: under the music pumping from the jukebox

ESSEX: You were in the mirrors LARRY: The light

ESSEX: Their arms LARRY: Your body a green light

Dear diva darling I have been naked with you

My tongue has walked along your thighs

I have found the scent

Twilight I hear the sea screaming behind your eyes

LARRY: Your dark, diva's face, a lake ESSEX: I saw you last night

BOTH: Many canoes overturned in the basement of The Brass Rall

LARRY: Many occupants are never found

ESSEX: In the instance of The Brass Rail...

we went back and forth, even though I had it broken down...

Larry coached me in terms of...

kinds of feeling to give through that piece.

He had feelings as well, emotion as well.

And over time we just groomed It and got it...

to the point that it's a science between us. We breathe The Rail.

And that's what happens if the collaboration is sincere.

The work begins to live between the both of you...

in a sort of symbiotic fashion over time.

You can't expect that kind of result in a short-term way.

LARRY: Cordon Negro.

1 drink champagne early in the morning

instead of leaving my house

with an M-16 and nowhere to go

I die twice as fast

as any other American

between 18 and 35

This disturbs me

but I try not to show It in public

Each morning I open my eyes is a miracle

The blessing of opening them is temporary on any given day

I could be taken out I could go off

I could forget to be careful

Even my brothers, hunted, hunt me

I'm the only one who values my life

and sometimes I don't give a damn

My love life can kill me

I'm faced daily with choosing violence

or a demeanour that saves every other life

but my own

I won't cross-over

It's time someone came to me

not to patronise me physically

sexually, or humorously

I'm sick of being an endangered species

sick of being a goddamn statistic

So what are my choices?

I could leave with no intention of coming home tonight

go crazy downtown and raise hell on a rooftop with my rifle

I could live for a brief moment on the six o'clock news

or masquerade another day through the corridors of commerce

and American dreams

I'm dying twice as fast

as any other American

So I pour myself a glass of champagne

I cut it with a drop of orange juice

After I swallow my liquid Valium

my private celebration

for being alive this morning

I leave my shelter

I guard my life with no apologies

My concerns are small and personal

That's one piece that...

I relate well to. I don't know what that says about me.

But there's a lot of tension in that piece.

There's a lot of confusion.

There's a little desperation there.

I see this attitude all the time.

This character is just maybe a few days or maybe a week...

from maybe taking that M-16 out into public.

But I think he represents a lot of Black men...

and what they're trying to deal with.

Some of them make mistakes in dealing with that.

That's why we have so many murders.

ESSEX: In terms of turning self.... LARRY: Mm-hmm.

ESSEX: Even in some instances, self-hatred back.

The first time Larry presented that piece...

was at a house party here in Washington.

Remember?

ESSEX: You did that impromptu reading? LARRY: Yeah.

ESSEX: That was the very first time he touched that piece.

So it has been a stamp of his. Chris Prince...

who has also performed my work and does an excellent job as well...

has performed that piece. But I must say that Larry gives it...

all the dimension that it's supposed to have.

That tension, that anger, that confusion...

that being right near the edge of it.

He gives It. I've seen other men approach It...

but he does give it supreme.

So it's that kind of thing that the work has to do.

I'm not conscious of that when I write.

When I sit down and write, I'm really working out my problems.

You know what I'm saying? It's my therapy.

I don't have to pay someone $75 an hour to sit there and tell me what's wrong...

when I can sit there and struggle over my typewriter until I figure out...

what's wrong. And if that energy Is sincere...

and if I'm being purely honest, 1 think the next person who picks it up...

will get that energy, too. They'll feel something, a jolt...

a connection.

Even If they connect but don't like the idea, the fact that...

the purity is there is what's important.

LARRY: In the Life.

Mother

do you know I roam alone at night?

Wearing colognes

tight pants

chains of gold

Searching for men

willing to come back to candlelight

I'm not scared of these men

Though some are killers of sons like me

I learned

there is no tender mercy for men of colour

for sons who love men

like me

Do not feel shame for how I live

I chose this tribe of warriors and outlaws

Do not feel you failed some test of motherhood

My life

has borne fruit no woman could have given me anyway

If, one of these thick-lipped wet

black nights while I'm out walking

I find freedom In this village

If I can take it with my tribe

I'll bring you here

And you will never notice the absence of rice

and bridesmaids

What inspired that was Joe Beam's In the Life.

When Joe was working on that anthology, In the Life kept playing in my head.

“In the life" is a phrase that was used during Bessie Smith's era...

and probably sometime prior to that. It was a code...

to refer to people who were sleeping with same sex.

What was so inspiring was to see Joe...

finally pulling together Black gay men around the country and saying:

“Look, it's time for us to speak.”

Because for the longest time as a writer here in Washington...

and I think Larry will tell you this...

I felt isolated because there are not many Black gay men...

who are writing, who are willing...

to come forth and deal with their sexual experiences...

or the experiences that their sexuality will lead them to encounter in life.

So when Joe came on the scene, it was, like:

"Oh, there's a saviour here. I'm not the only one.”

And then I discovered the men in New York writing.

And so In the Life evolved...

and sort of paid tribute to not only him...

in an indirect way, but very much so to our mothers...

who many of us tend to be very close to...

who we tend to have very strong rapports with...

who tend to be very protective of us...

even when they discover that we are "in the life."

Because they know that not only as Black men...

what kind of shit we're going to face in this country...

but then to be Black men and gay.

ESSEX: Just take a gun and put it to your head and pull the trigger.

And we want to continue to include our mothers in our lives.

LARRY: Exactly. ESSEX: Despite the fact that...

we have an alternate lifestyle.

There's still that need to have her there.

For My Own Protection.

I want to start an organisation

to save my life

We should be able to save each other

LARRY: If whales, snails dogs, cats

Chrysler, and Nixon can be saved

ESSEX: the lives of Black men are priceless

and can be saved

LARRY: We should be able to save each other

ESSEX: I don't want to be the living dead

LARRY: pacified with drugs and sex

I don't want to wait for the Washington Post

ESSEX: To publish an article stating, "Black men are almost extinct”

If a human chain can be formed

around missile sites

LARRY: then surely Black men can form human chains

BOTH: around Anacostia, Harlem South Africa, Wall Street

Hollywood, each other

ESSEX: If we have to take tomorrow with blood are we ready?

I'm not concerned about the attire of a soldier

LARRY: Do our S-curls, dreadlocks and Phillies

make us any more ready than a bush or a conkalene?

ESSEX: I don't want to be the living dead

LARRY: I'm not concerned about the attire of a soldier

ESSEX: I want to start an organisation

to save my life

LARRY: All I want to know for my own protection

ESSEX: If a human chain can be formed

Is are we capable of whatever

whenever?

LARRY: If a human chain can be formed

ESSEX: Whatever

LARRY: If a human chain can be formed

ESSEX: Whenever

LARRY: If a human chain can be formed

ESSEX: When?

ESSEX: Larry and I, in all of the collaborations, I'll take the work in.

I'll have preconceived ideas and instances.

At other times, I'm wide open, I'm fresh.

"What do you think we should do to this?"

If we all agree we want to do it first. We got to all agree we want to do It.

I cannot say that any particular work has solely...

in the performance sense, been solely created by me.

Larry will say, "Okay, let's do these lines this way.”

I'll say, "Okay, let's do these lines this way.”

Whoever I'm collaborating with...

we bring to bear upon the work...

all of our resources.

LARRY: Well, with Essex's work...

I'm aware of some of the inspiration, some of the motivations.

I'll read a line and I know what it means.

I can identify the emotion. And that's what I go after...

that emotion. Because it's a turn-on.

And to be able to take somebody else's emotion...

and work on relating to It...

and selling it as If it were your own is a challenge...

and it's a challenge I like meeting.

ESSEX: Do another one.

LARRY: [Singing] Horoscopes

BOTH: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: A little higher.

BOTH: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: Not that high.

LARRY: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: A town bewitched by mirrors

BOTH: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: Not that high. LARRY: Do it again.

ESSEX: A town bewitched by mirrors

BOTH: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: No, we do it higher than that.

[Singing] Horoscopes

LARRY: [Singing] Horoscopes

ESSEX: Yeah. LARRY: Okay.

Family Jewels.

BOTH: I live in a town

I live in a town-town

I live in a town

where pretence and bone structure

prevail as credentials

of status and beauty

A town bewitched by mirrors, horoscopes

and corruption

I intrude on this nightmare

Arm outstretched from kerbside

I'm not pointing to Zimbabwe

I want a cab Damn

I want a cab Damn

I want a cab

to take me to Southeast 80 I can visit my mother

I'm not ashamed to cross the bridge that takes me there

No matter where I live or what I wear

the cabs speed by

Or they suddenly brake a few feet away

spewing fumes in my face to serve a fair skinned fare

a fair skinned fare

I live in a town

where everyone Is afraid of the dark

I stand my ground unarmed

facing a mounting disrespect

a diminishing patience a need for defence

In passing headlights I appear to be a criminal

Shaggy green hair sprouts all over me

My shoulders hunch and bulge. I growl

as blood drips from my glinting fangs

My mother's flowers are wilting while I wait

Our dinner is cold by now

I live in a town

where pretence and structure are devices of cruelty

A town bewitched by mirrors

[Singing] Horoscopes

LARRY: The process is rough sometimes.

I'll express an idea, Essex will express an idea and what we get Is:

"Gee, we never thought about that.”

The preconceived ideas usually aren't the ones...

that we end up using.

[Laughing] I guess that's why we deal with the shouting.

We're two intense people.

We have strong convictions.

LARRY: And we believe in our own ideas. ESSEX: Mm-hmm.

LARRY: And so It's necessary for us to knock heads a couple of times.

Which, I think, helps the work ultimately, ‘cause I think If it was...

easy, smooth sailing all the time, we would be bored.

And I found that to be the case with almost everyone I've personally collaborated with.

If it's easy, then it doesn't work.

If it's got just a little bit of feistiness in it, a little bit of a tension...

somehow you take that to the stage...

and that just makes the work come out that much more.

LARRY: But we throw away a lot, too. ESSEX: Mm-hmm.

LARRY: Like in the instance of Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart.

The piece we did at the kitchen...

that program was changing up to the time the curtain went up.

We want, and Essex does.

You're getting ready to go on stage, he says:

"Strike the second line from the bottom."

[Laughing] And he's cutting up until the time you go on stage.

ESSEX: Because I'm looking for the best impact.

On the page, it's one thing.

I write to make sure the work will make it into a book.

But when we go onto the stage, if you've got to scream...

scream It like in Heavy Breathing where we go....

[Essex grunting]

ESSEX: And all of that, that's not written down on the page.

But because it's not for the page, then...

but for the air, for you to feel and witness...

then we got to make it that much more alive.

The way we say it, you know, "Times are lean, pretty baby."

Or Larry may give that tight, sort of restrained edge...

to things, or a very soft and loving stroke.

I mean, those are things that just come out of working it out and working it out.

And If we don't like it in our own heads, we know y'all are not gonna like It.

So we throw it out. And I'm famous for throwing it out.

LARRY: Oh, yes. ESSEX: I'll throw it out in a minute.

But you have to admit...

LARRY: What? ESSEX: ...over time, it's worked.

LARRY: [Laughing] Yeah....

ESSEX: But see, my whole approach Is that whatever is here....

I mean, there are times when there are some lines that do need to be taken out.

ESSEX: Particularly when we're playing a character...

LARRY: Yes.

ESSEX: And the description of the character does not fit your own physical description...

but with me, I see It as a challenge.

Let's find some way to make it work.

My father is a book

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: I am 9 years old

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: I am 20 years old

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: I was Illiterate

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: Every morning he leaves

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: I wonder, should the world be careful?

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: Or should he be careful of the world?

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: My father is a magic fountain

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: My sisters go to him

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: Close their eyes

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: Toss new pennies

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: And wait for their wishes to come true

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: My father is a sunset

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: And just because it's dark

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: We don't be afraid

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: Every time he falls

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

ESSEX: He rises

[Larry repeating in Spanish]

SONIA: We hope that you have enjoyed listening to words of...

Essex Hemphill and Larry Duckette.

First and Last Words is engineered by Miyoshi Smith...

Lee Stevens and Joseph Waters.

Musical textures by Doctor Gibbs.

[Soft jazzy instrumental music]

SONIA: I've been your host, Sonia Sanchez.

ESSEX: Poetry is probably my strongest weapon.

If I had to tear down a society...

or a community or a house, I would do it with a poem...

because I never have to put my hand on you...

the police can never come after me for bodily harm.

They can only come after me for my mind and my heart.

And that would be the extent of it.

So all I try to do Is be truthful to my work.

1 try to just do the best I can with my art.

Basically, to help other people after I help myself.

I have to be...

worthwhile as a human being first...

and then if I can be that, hopefully, through the work...

other people can find...

the kinds of relief or support or affirmation...

or even a place to cry or love in the work.

I thank God every day, not only for being alive...

but that I'm still a vessel...

worthy of receiving creative energy. Because you have to maintain that.

You can't assume that your creativity...

[Laughing] is going to just be there like your eyes, or like your nose.

You just can't assume that because it's such an intangible thing.

And I think if I ever stop writing, I'll know that I'm dead.

Even if I'm walking on the earth, if I can't write, I'll be dead.

[Soft jazzy instrumental music]

SONIA: First and Last Words was produced by Miyoshi Smith...

for New Liberty Productions and Triumph Productions.

This project was funded in part by a grant from...

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts...

Pennsylvania Radio Theatre and the PIFA Subsidy Programme.

Special thanks to Marty Ehrlich for theme music...

from his Pliant Plaint album on Enja Records...

Homer Jackson...

E. Ethelbert Miller...

Richard Nichols...

Barbara Sheehan...

and a very special thanks to Michael Simmons...

for the remix of this profile.

[Soft jazzy instrumental music continues]

Please forward all comments and enquiries to:

First and Last Words...

5700 North Woodstock Street...

Philadelphia...

Pennsylvania, 19138.