WISE, WHY’S, Y’S
“Think of slavery as an education.”

“Wise, Why's, Y's” is Amiri Baraka’s epic poem “in the tradition of Charles Olson’s ‘Maximus Poems,’ Melvin B. Tolson’s ‘Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, William Carlos Williams’ ‘Patterson,’ and Langston Hughes’ ‘Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz.’”

“I wanted to write a long poem about history,” noted Baraka. “Can you tell your history in a poem? Forty poems, like 40 days, crossing the Atlantic Ocean.”

"I got that (title) from James Baldwin. Baldwin told me if you ask 'why' enough times, you'll get wise. Just keep asking why, why, why and you'll get wise." http://www.amiribaraka.com/

Twenty of the poems were staged at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis by e.g. bailey and Sha Cage in a synesthetic extravaganza with dance, jazz and a set painted by Ta-coumba Aiken. J. Otis Powell and Baraka read.

Baraka blasted afterwards. “Broadway keep us duped. Hollywood keep us duped. Your problem is you want to tell the truth. You don’t have an extravagant future.”

WISE 1

WHYS (Nobody Know the Trouble I Seen)
Traditional

If you ever find
yourself, some where
lost and surrounded
by enemies
who won't let you
speak in your own language
who destroy your statues
& instruments, who ban
your oom boom ba boom
then you are in trouble
deep trouble
they ban your
own boom ba boom
you in deep deep
trouble

humph!

probably take you several hundred years
to get 
out!

MONDAY IN B-FLAT
I can pray 
all day 
& God 
wont come.

But if I call 
911
The Devil 
Be here 

in a minute!

“We were here before God. We invented him. Why? That’s a good god-damned question.”

Did you know the Texas State Board of Education tried to write the word “slavery” out of its history textbooks? (The board ultimately voted to modify use of the term, with some conservatives lobbying to replace it altogether with "Atlantic triangular trade." The term was finally changed to the "trans-Atlantic slave trade.")

from “Wise, Why's, Y's (Africa Section)"
It's my brother, my sister. 
At the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean there's a 
railroad made of human bones. 
Black ivory 
Black ivory
...
Think of Slavery
as
Educational!

Hear the poet here: http://www.amiribaraka.com/Somebody.mp3