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Saturday 30 June 2012

Lorenzo Thomas: Downtown Boom


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Los, with his partner and emanation Enitharmon; plate 100 of Jerusalem: William Blake, 1804-20, etching with pen, watercolour and gold, 146 x 222 mm (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven)
 
 


There are no gospel singers
Anymore


On the corners
They held down for Jesus
Valets park cars
At restaurants for fancy people
On expense accts or dates

So many times
People come up to me
And say, Billy
Hey wait a minute
You not Billy! 

You can see the new ballpark
Just past the Courthouse

But which way is redemption?





Lorenzo Thomas (1944-2005): Downtown Boom, from Time Step (2004)



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Valet Boy, Puduraya District, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: photo by L joo, 17 July 2007


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 Valet Boy, Puduraya District, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: photo by L joo, 17 July 2007

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Gospel singers on the Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington: photo by Marmaduke Percy, 5 June 2010


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Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas, interior view, with J,P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo buildings visible in background
: photo by Amir Assadi, 15 May 2004

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  Minute Maid Park Houston, exterior: photo by WhisperToMe, 20 July 2008
 

Gospel singer Yolanda Adams of Houston at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Fair Grounds, New Orleans, Louisiana: photo by Kim Welsh, 29 April 2012 


Gospel singer Shemekia Copeland at Chicago Folk and Roots Festival: photo by Thee Erin, 10 July 2010


Gospel singer Shemekia Copeland at Houston International Festival: photo by fossilmike, 26 April 2008


Harris County Courthouse (built 1910, semi-retired), Houston, Texas: photo by Mick Watson, 19 January 2009


Harris County Courthouses, Houston, Texas: photo by Mick Watson, 19 January 2009

Friday 29 June 2012

One Nation, Invisible: Lorenzo Thomas: Back in the Day


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http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/04300/04304v.jpg

Man on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial holding a banner for the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention, at Black Panther Convention
: photo by Thomas J. O'Halloran/Warren K. Leffler, 19 June 1970 (U.S. News & World Report Collection, Library of Congress)





When we were boys
We called each other "Man"
With a long n
Pronounced as if a promise

 
We wore felt hats
That took a month to buy
In small installments
Shiny Florsheim or Stacy Adams shoes
Carried our dancing gait
And flashed our challenge

 
Breathing our aspirations into words
We harmonized our yearnings to the night
And when old folks on porches dared complain
We cussed them out
....under our breaths
And walked away
....And once a block away
Held learned speculations
About the character of their relations
With their mothers

 
It's true
That every now and then
We killed each other
Borrowed a stranger's car
Burned down a house
But most boys went to jail
For knocking up a girl
He really............truly
............deeply............loved
............really............truly............deeply
 
But was too young
Too stupid, poor, or scared
To marry


Since then I've learned
Some things don't never change:

 
The breakfast chatter of the newly met
Our disappointment 

 
With the world as given
 
Today,
 
News and amusements
Filled with automatic fire
Misspelled alarms
Sullen posturings and bellowed anthems
Our scholars say
Young people doubt tomorrow

 
This afternoon I watched
A group of young men
Or tall boys
Handsome and shining with the strength of futures
Africa's stubborn present
To a declining white man's land
Lamenting
As boys always did and do
Time be moving on
Some things don't never change
And how

 
......back in the day
Well
......things were somehow better
They laughed and jived
Slapped hands
And called each other "Dog"



Lorenzo Thomas (1944-2005): Back in the Day, from Time Step (2004)





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Negro going in colored entrance of movie house on Saturday afternoon, Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, October 1939 
 
Railroad station, Manchester, Georgia

Railroad station, Manchester, Georgia: photo by John Vachon, May 1938

Secondhand clothing stores and pawn shops on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee

Secondhand clothing stores and pawn shops on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, October 1939

Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee


Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, October 1939

Sign above moving picture theater, Waco, Texas

Sign above moving picture theatre, Waco, Texas: photo by Russell Lee, November 1939

Theatre in Leland, Mississippi  

"Rex Theater for Colored people." Leland, Mississippi, in the Delta area: photo by Dorothea Lange, June 1937.

Rex Theatre for colored people. Leland, Mississippi Delta

"Rex Theater for Colored people." Leland, Mississippi, in the Delta area: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, November 1939

Tourist cabins for Negroes. Highway sign. South Carolina

Highway sign advertising tourist cabins for Negroes, South Carolina
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, June 1939

Lunchroom near Belle Glade, Florida

Lunch room, Belle Glade (vicinity), Florida
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, January 1939

Cafe in warehouse district during tobacco auction season. Durham, North Carolina

Cafe in the warehouse district during tobacco auction season, Durham, North Carolina
: photo by Marion Post Wolcott, November 1939

A cafe near the tobacco market, Durham, North Carolina

Cafe near the tobacco market, Durham, North Carolina
: photo by Jack Delano, May 1940

Street scene near bus station in Durham, North Carolina

Street near the bus station, Durham, North Carolina
: photo by Jack Delano, May 1940

At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina

At the bus station, Durham, North Carolina
: photo by Jack Delano, May 1940

A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the terminals. Waiting for the bus at the Memphis terminal

People waiting for a bus at the Greyhound bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee
: photo by Esther Bubley, September 1943

A rest stop for Greyhound bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, with separate accommodations for colored passengers
 

Rest stop for Greyhound bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, with separate accommodations for colored passengers: photo by Esther Bubley, September 1943

 A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the terminals. Sign at bus station. Rome, Georgia 
  
Sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia: photo by Esther Bubley, September 1943

Fish restaurant for colored in the quarter cotton hoers are recruited. Memphis, Tennessee

Fish restaurant for Negroes in the section of the city where cotton hoers are recruited, Memphis, Tennessee
: photo by Dorothea Lange, June 1937

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8a26000/8a26700/8a26761v.jpg

Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
: photo by Russell Lee, July 1939

Photos beneath the poem from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress

Thursday 28 June 2012

William Carlos Williams: Sketch for a Portrait of Henry Ford


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Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana (detail): photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)





A tin bucket
full of small used parts
nuts and short bolts
slowly draining onto
the dented bottom --
forming a heavy sludge
of oil -- depositing
in its turn steel grit

Hangs on an arm
that whirls it at increasing

velocity around
a central pivot --
suddenly the handle gives
way and the bucket
is propelled through
space  . . . . .





William Carlos Williams: Sketch for a Portrait of Henry Ford, 1939, from Matrix (November-December 1940), in Poems 1939-1944




Image, Source: b&w film copy neg. of print

 Automobile parts at junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Nuts and bolts, junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Workman at an automobile graveyard on Ridge Avenue, Manayunk, Pennsylvania: photo by Paul Vanderbilt, Spring 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

 Image, Source: digital file from original neg.

Auto dump near Easton, Pennsylvania: photo by Walker Evans, November 1935 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film
  
Auto junkyard along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, Hereford (vicinity), Texas: photo by Jack Delano, March 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Auto junkyard in Salisbury, Maryland: photo by Jack Delano, March 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Junkyard near Sulphur Springs, Maryland, along U.S. Highway No. 1: photo by Jack Delano, June 1940 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Junkyard near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Junkyard owner near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Farmer watching junkyard owner examining condition of spark coils in model-T Ford, Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Wheels, tires and general junk at junkyard near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Automobile parts in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Flywheels and speedometer cables in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Group of automobile crankshafts in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938  (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Display of headlights in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Discarded automobile motors in junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

 Tire rims at junkyard, near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Group of automobile springs, junkyard near Abbeville, Louisiana: photo by Russell Lee, November 1938 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Junkyard, Duluth, Minnesota: photo by Russell Lee, May 1937  (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: original print

Men sitting on parts of truck in junkyard, South Side of Chicago, Illinois: photo by Russell Lee, April 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Men sitting on parts of truck in junkyard, South Side of Chicago, Illinois: photo by Russell Lee, April 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Image, Source: digital file from original neg.

Junkyard, Washington, D.C.: photo by John Vachon, August 1938



Automobiles parked on a rainy night on 52nd Street, New York City: photo by William P. Gottlieb, c. July 1948 (William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress)


Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana: photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/a/accident/ca/02.jpg

Image from Fiction Illustrated, c. 1953 (via fulltable)


Scrap and salvage depot, Butte, Montana (detail): photo by Russell Lee, October 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)