"Steven Spielberg Met With Puerto Ricans About 'West Side Story' Concerns. At a town hall with University of Puerto Rico students and faculty, the director, flanked by screenwriter Tony Kushner, said his remake of the musical will strive for authenticity. Critics say the problems go deeper than that." —Hollywood Reporter, January 15, 2019
Steven, do not bring it back.
Once was enough. Too much,
in fact. Those melodies
for Natalie and Rita—
their perfect brilliance stuck,
made slurs standard,
made us Aunt Jemima.
Staccato steps
Little-Black-Sambo’d
our dignity and dreams.
Don’t bring it back. Instead,
make new sounds.
Tell new stories.
Let the dancers
razzle dazzle
to a voice
you don’t yet know.
Mariana Mcdonald is a bicultural poet, fiction writer, journalist, and editor. Her poetry has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Lunch Ticket, and Poesía en Vuelo, fiction in So to Speak and Cobalt, creative nonfiction in Longridge Review, and nonfiction in In Motion. She edited the 2017 International Latino Book Award-winning bilingual memoir Cartas a Karina by Oscar López Rivera. She is active in social justice movements and the writing community.