Books by Mona Lisa Saloy

Red Beans and Ricely Yours: Poems

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Mona Lisa, Lakeside and the N-Word

Poem, Parent Letter, and Poet’s Response

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The letter below addresses an incident on Dec. 10, 2008, and offers a window on how the school is attempting to deal with racially charges subjects like language. In this case, it was the use of the "n" word in a poem read by African-American guest speaker, poet, and folklorist Mona Lisa Saloy that stirred things up. Source: Crosscut

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Dear Upper School Parents and Guardians,

I want to keep you up to date on an emerging event that no doubt had an impact on many upper school students yesterday. We had invited a speaker, Professor Mona Lisa Saloy, to join us in some classes and to do an assembly presentation. An associate professor at the historically black Dillard University in Louisiana, Professor Saloy is a poet and folklorist whose work has been dramatically affected by Hurricane Katrina. She was recommended by an interested student, and her visit was sponsored by the Affinity groups, Dr. Lindsay Aegerter’s Postcolonial and Diaspora Literature and African American Literature classes, and the Assembly committee.

Several members of the English department were already familiar with her award-winning poetry, and, as is our practice, we researched much of Professor Saloy’s work, discussed the topic of her visit (how her poetry and scholarship as a folklorist capture Pre- and Post-Katrina New Orleans) and informed her of who we are and what we were hoping she might add. Further, Dr. Aegerter had regular correspondence with Professor Saloy to discuss how she would use the class time in both of her senior electives, and indeed those classes went according to plan.

After a significant discussion of aspects of New Orleans life in her assembly presentation, Professor Saloy chose to finish her talk by reading some of her poetry. The very last poem she chose to read employed the “n-word” many times in a litany of expressions. We were not in any way aware that Professor Saloy would choose to read this particular poem in this particular context, and we remain perplexed as to why she might have chosen the poem for a high school setting. We suspect that she did so because she intended to be provocative, but her decision to do so, especially without first providing any educational context for the poem or leaving sufficient time after the reading for a discussion with the entire student body, was disappointing.

She did spend considerable time after assembly discussing the poem in a salon held in the library, but only a small group of students was able to attend this discussion. It is indeed unfortunate that we must now react as a school rather than being able to work proactively with students on a topic and a word that is divisive and hurtful for many, a word that is antithetical to Lakeside’s spirit of safety and inclusion to all members of the school community. Although there may be a rich artistic and academic history around the deconstruction and recuperation of this racist term, Professor Saloy did not provide that context, leaving the school and students with many unanswered questions.

As you might expect, students had a wide variety of reactions to the poem. Some were amused, others appalled, many were hurt, some were stimulated and appreciative and others report being unaffected. We will be working in advisory groups to discuss this assembly and this poem, and we will also be offering a voluntary discussion opportunity for students and adults wishing to explore this topic further. We can also offer helpful articles for any interested students and parents.

We wanted to keep you apprised and informed of yesterday’s events in case your student comes home with questions or wants to discuss it further as a family. If you have further questions or if there are things that we can help with, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Than Healy,

Upper School Director

and Assistant Head

Lakeside Prep, Seattle

Source: Crosscut

Red Beans and Ricely Yours

By Mona Lisa Saloy

Winner of the 2005 T. S. Eliot Prize

Reviews, including A Life Won with Blood & Tears

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Dear Lakeside School Administrators, Upper School Parents, and Guardians, the Affinity groups, Dr. Lindsay Aegerter, Abe Wehmiller, and the Assembly Committee:

Since the Lakeside Administration’s correspondence on the Crosscut Blog and some confusion around my intent was made public, let me clarify.   Both the extent of introductory materials on New Orleans culture and my reading was planned in advance.  I was invited to Lakeside School to present what no one else could on the culture and history as new knowledge and a basis for further appreciating my creative works.

I introduced my final poem with a brief history of the controversial nature of the poem and stated that a high-school teacher in Virginia thought it brilliant for her students, that the poem was subsequently banned in the state, and that the University of Virginia Press published the poem in the anthology Furious Flower: African American Poets from the Black Arts Movement to the Present.  The poem itself opens on the historic controversy surrounding the social movement to end the use of “The ‘N’ Word.”  It is in effect an argument, yes with litany effect, but largely with both humor and irony.  While my poem “The ‘N’ Word” is meant to entertain, it’s point is cultural information and insight.

Early Blacks in America survived centuries of degradation and injustice, oppression and humiliation all the while being denied language, native language, worship, the ability to family and procreate at will.  How?  Blacks survived by keeping their stories, their moans and hollers, their rhythms and chants.  When given food not meant for human consumption, Blacks made “Soul Food.”  When toiling in fields, Blacks made works songs into “The Blues.”   Having come to American shores with a great sense of The Divine, to worship, Blacks invented “Spirituals,” what W.E.B. DuBois called “Sorrow Songs.”  

When Creoles were turned out of their quarters in New Orleans, they took their knowledge of European musical notation to their new “Colored” quarters—the home of those chants, moans, hollers, blues, spirituals, and Blacks developed “Jazz.”  As a result, one of the greatest African retentions is a linguistic prowess that allows Blacks to turn anything negative into something good.  Take for instance the word “bad.”  Black popular usage turned “bad” into “good,” really good, now appropriated by everyone. 

My Poem “The ‘N’ Word” catalogues just how Blacks did that; Blacks took a heinous racial slur and made it into a term of endearment, a marvel often overlooked by the larger culture.  As an artist, writer, I must write my time, my culture, and interpret it creatively. There is no monolithic Black culture here or in the Mother/Fatherland, but there are many things on which we can agree, and the affectionate use of  The ‘N’ Word among Blacks is a testimony of cultural longevity and uniqueness.  The book talk after my reading was the platform for explanation; the students and teachers attending received further context and explanation.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,           

Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy

December 16, 2008

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Mona Lisa Saloy is associate professor of English and Director of creative writing at Dillard University (before Katrina). She won the 2005 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry for this collection. She has also won fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from the United Negro College Fund/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Her poems have appeared in anthologies, magazines, journals, and film. She received her PhD in English and MFA in creative writing from Louisiana State University and her MA in creative writing and English from San Francisco State University. Displaced by hurricane Katrina, Saloy is a visiting associate professor of English and creative writing at the University of Washington for the 2005/2006 academic year.  Mona Lisa Saloy Bio

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Responses

Rudy,  Just a word about Mona.

The respondent is typical of those who would rather deny and omit in light of assimilation into their culture on their terms.  I'm not speaking of the politically black/white thing but European culture which created all of the mess over the last 500 or so years.

Mona is a friend who is always welcomed in my house.  She, Kalamu ya Salaam, John Sinclair were among the first to perform at the Poetry Jams back in the 90'ls at the Louisiana State Museum, a program series that helped push forward spoken word activities and, since the advent of new folk and my departure, is no longer a part of the programming...too bad.

I, for one, am not afraid of the word "nigger" and Mona's piece (according to her apologist) DID the right thing by making the young folk ask questions (isn't that what education is supposed to be about?)...

More power to Mona, it is the duty of the artist to keep the audience from slipping into that dreaded state called ennui. Kindness, joy, love, and happiness.

 . . . Rhonda and I were discussing the N word and some interesting things came up.  One was about Mona's poem which was done before the latest wave of political correctness swept ashore.  As you know, I'm a timeline freak when it comes to history and I brought that up in the conversation.  I find that, for your bibliophiles, it works both ways. I recommend in whatever order seems appropriate to the reader that they read Dick Gregory's Nigger, The N Word (in the middle) and Randall Kennedy's book Nigger.  Kennedy's is basically a history (needed) and Gregory speaks with the zeitgeist of the '60's as his motivation.  As I said, if Mona's piece is in the middle, somehow all of this makes sense —Chuck Siler

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Yes there is also Rap Brown's H. Rap Brown's Die Nigger Die!: a book that was used to tell some awful truths about America and the political role of race. When I think of the recent movements for "political correctness," I usually think of social respectability. That is a reductionism of movement, that provides the shell that one is involved in movement. That is probably not too unlike the overestimation of Obama and what he can do to change the race dynamic for those at the bottom who most need for the dynamic to change. Maybe there is a need to change teenager use of the N-Word in classrooms, especially among those knuckleheads who do not understand the power of words and the discrete use of them. But Ban the N-Word movements are more reactionary than revolutionary and more static than dynamic. There are always pitfalls—Rudy

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posted 30 December 2008