Remixing Amiri Baraka's RhythmBlues

Last week while working with high school students from East St. Louis, Cahokia, and Madison, Illinois, we took some time to work on remixes of poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, and Adrian Matejka. At this point, I shouldn't be surprised that the students were really fascinated by the closing of Baraka's poem "RhythmBlues":

Slaveboy, leroy, from Newark Hill
If capitalism dont kill me, racism will.

Over the years, high school students have been intrigued when I explain that Baraka was once named Leroy and then LeRoi. They are also curious about how capitalism can kill someone.

I presented the students with lines from Baraka's poem and added blanks in places. So I re-presented those above lines as:

____________, ______________ from ________________ Hill.
If __________________ dont kill me, ___________________ will.

And from there, I invited students to create their own ending.

One student wrote:

Funny girl, Tay, from Cahokia Hill.
If food dont kill me, starving will.  

Another wrote:

Otaku, KeKe, from Arkansas Hill.
If living dont kill me, boredom will.  

And another wrote:

Sleepy girl, D. R, from Centreville
If nuisance dont kill me, over-activity will.  

Related:
• Language arts activities with high school students
• Black poetry, high school students, and audio recordings