by Judy Juanita
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| Dave Chappelle returned for his third stint as host of “Saturday Night Live,” which gave the controversial comedian a starring role in an episode dominated by the midterm elections and the fallout from Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks. —The Washington Post, November 13, 2022 |
you're looking
malcolmish
dave
if only you hadn't walked
from fifty million dollars
empire wouldn't have known
if only you'd been ridiculous
you could be feted
and ignored by all
if malcolm had been mediocre
and not stood up to empire
he would be almost 100 years old
while you buck empire over and over
making your black ass
a target
empire smiles all malcolmish
giving any judas permission to kill
ask malcolm
standing in the audubon ballroom
looking malcolmish
knowing what was coming
from fifty million dollars
empire wouldn't have known
if only you'd been ridiculous
you could be feted
and ignored by all
if malcolm had been mediocre
and not stood up to empire
he would be almost 100 years old
while you buck empire over and over
making your black ass
a target
empire smiles all malcolmish
giving any judas permission to kill
ask malcolm
standing in the audubon ballroom
looking malcolmish
knowing what was coming
Judy Juanita's poetry collection Manhattan my ass, you're in Oakland won the American Book Award 2021 from the Before Columbus Foundation. Winner of the Tartt Fiction Prize at the University of West Alabama [UWA], her short story collection The High Price of Freeways was published by Livingston Press [UWA] in 2022. Her short story, "The Black House," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022, and her poem “Bling” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. Her semi-autobiographical novel Virgin Soul is about a young woman who joins the Black Panther Party in the 60s (Viking, 2013). She appears in Netflix’s Last Chance U: Season 5, Laney College. She teaches writing at University of California, Berkeley.