— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
This hot new Valencia St. stencil of a Native American passing out hot towels reminded me of one of the latest angsty I Live Here:SF pieces:
Land of the Ohlone
Now dolores
Built on blood, bones, and bodies
On the children really native of the land
Parks weigh on top of them
I just can’t understand
Grave sites disrespected
Yuppies hipsters drinking beer above
Hidalgo is representing but they don’t give a fuck
They built on top
But the river still flows
They build non stop
But our spirit still grows
The poem goes on to slam “san francisco european spaniard english foreign immigrants” for their “invasion colonization massacre slavery holocaust of people indigenous” and “zagat rated cuisine” and encourages the modern day oppressors to “pay homage” to “the fallen warriors.” Scores of gringo commenters think he 'nailed it.' Did he?
(link)
Comments (4)
Having internet access and a disdain for proper punctuation doesn’t make a person deep.
His/her parent’s $3 million dollar pad in Marin sits atop a Miwok tribal burial site. Of that, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever.
Thank you for the link and bringing up your question about Jose-Luis’ poem. For the record, he was born and raised in the Mission and now lives in the Excelsior (the last photos in his shoot were taken in his house near Alemany Blvd.) He works directly with kids (mostly young men) trying to get out of gang lifestyle. He introduced me to a few of the young guys while we were out walking.
Whether or not you agree with his poem, I do think he wrote it from the heart.
I’m one of those “gringo commenters” (born and raised in Noe Valley, certainly a gringoland now, although it was not as yuppified long ago as it is now, FWIW) and I do love open debate about poetry/photography and pretty much any kind of art. But it’s kind of, I don’t know, essential to actually view the art first, non?
@Anonymouse: Agreed. But how do you know he has internet access?
@TfAS: “His/her”? Guess you’d have to click through to view the whole poem…
I thought it was a lovely representation of a voice that is often ignored (and that we used to hear a lot more), but, again, you’d have to listen to that to reserve the right to criticize it…