Janice Strasser-King

5 February 2004

“Friendly Town #1” –Safiya Henderson-Holmes

Bio:

Safiya Henderson-Holmes, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister-warrior, poet, writer, playwright, performance artist, and educator, born on December 30, 1950 and died on April 8, 2001 from complications following a long battle with cancer. She was 50.  Safiya grew up in the Bronx*. Her fire--passion and compassion--was born from lessons learned and memories etched while growing up*. It seems impossible that such thunder and lightning could have come from a woman who was so soft-spoken*, stylish, and beautiful. She was versatile as a literary artist, but Safiya will be best remembered as a poet, whose life exemplified "the poet as an agent of social change*." Her words of fire could send both cold chills and illuminating flames; they released anger, and displayed a sharp dissecting wit, a subtle laughter at how ridiculous life can be*.

Objectives:

1d. “The Color Code”

Literature discusses skin color only occasionally…

Objective 2 

To observe representations and narratives (or images and stories) of ethnicity as a means of defining minority categories.

Literary term:

Imagery: Image is language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

"Diction A writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal diction represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words. Poetic diction refers to the way poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that deviates significantly from the common speech and writing of their time, choosing words for their supposedly inherent poetic qualities. Since the eighteenth century, however, poets have been incorporating all kinds of diction in their work and so there is no longer an automatic distinction between the language of a poet and the language of everyday speech" (Meyer).

<Read poem: “Friendly Town #1” >

Discussion questions:

What is your interpretation of the poem?

            What do you think was the poet’s intent when writing this poem?

                        What do you think of “little” Safiya?

What is the evidence of imagery?

            Through the use of this imagery what is the poet implying?

What, if anything, stands out in the poem?

What’s to be said about the title of the poem?

What objective would you have chosen? < http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/hsh/whitec/litr/4332/sylsched/syl2004.htm >

What literary term would you have chosen? < http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/index.html >

My interpretation of the poem:

Another “lowercase” poem.

For the most part she uses the plural noun> “we were shirely…

Holmes yields the term “inner city” to it’s stereotype.

She conscientiously notes colors, skin colors> She has been conditioned (as is evident in her other poems) to distinguish or even obsess over color.

“Debra eating the apple, but not swallowing the skin” > sums up her focus for the first part of the poem.

Note diction* >Parts not whole> i.e “faces” not children> the reader is lead to believe that the counselor is white from her blonde hair.

Diction*> “escaping” possibly from the dangerous city.

In her description of the country, nature (the grass, tress, and air) seems to offer the children freedom that the reader could conclude that they did not have> question is where didn’t they have freedom- at home? In the city? In school? Or on this bus?

Also, she does not use colors when describing the country.

“regular cats and dogs that fight and regular birds that never fly?” > two negatives that could possibly symbolize inner city life.

Focus on color >repetition of “white” lunch bag.

Though Edward, a child, pops the bag, Holmes notes that this “innocent” action also “popped” the counselor’s smile into a scream.

One view could be that the counselor is wary of the children or that she is wary of the neighborhood > in the country there are no gunshots.

Paulette’s crying could be the sadness she’s feeling for leaving her home but then she imagines the “teeth” of barking dogs chasing their bus = dangerous inner city.

2003 Presenter’s comments:

“Henderson-Holmes uses “inner city” as an ethnic label.  She talks about the “forty-seven inner city tens” referring to her classmates and their ages.  In line 4-5 she uses the color “blueblack” and “brownbeige” to describe the different skin tones.  One class has 47 children noting the overcrowding later written about in lines 6 and 7.

The teacher lines the children up in 2’s to keep track of them.  In stanza 4 Henderson-Holmes writes about imaginary wings and this seems to be a reference to freedom.

The “inner city” children are not the only stereotypes in the poem.  Her description of the “friendly town” and even the school counselor is a stereotype of the “All American Girl.”

Henderson-Holmes uses color to make subtle statements about the children’s situation.  The red apple, white labels and the kids names written in blue are the colors of the American flag and freedom, but in this instance seem to be restrictions for the children of the inner city.

Starting in stanza 8 she begins describing the children creating the feeling that no matter what the color of skin, kids are kids and act the same.  The school counselor has a preconceived idea about the children and the children know this so when Edward explodes the lunch bag she ducks for cover.” --Lisa Runnels class of 2003