It was incredibly shocking to read all the pieces about NYC and the negative, dark, and depressing views the authors had toward it. NYC has always been to me, the city of glory, fame, and fortune. It was hard to read the authors Amiri Baraka, Barbara Guest, and Ted Berrigan, as far as my knowledge is concerned the 80’s was a time of prosper where the economy started to boom again. How could it be that NYC, the greatest city in the world was viewed as such a negative thing to people. That is when my perspective opened up; the city, in all of its glory has the greatest appeal to my eyes, but, there is the second side, or the side we don’t like to hear, the negative. Barbara Guest says,
“I am having a drink, someone
with dark hair balances a carton on his shoulders
and a painter enters the bar. It reminds me
of pictures in restaurants, the exchange of hunger
for thirst, art for decoration and in a hospital
love for pain suffered beside the glistening rhododendron
underthe crucifix…”
It is incredible to see how things can have two meanings, when people think of hospitals they can either think of the good that they are doing or the death, and deceased. There are always two sides to every story and similar to what Amiri Bakara says, we always try and believe that things are in the best possible way, but for Amiri Bakara, all he wanted was to have the blacks voices heard, to be given the fighting chance to thrive and survive in a primarily white supreme time. The struggle that people are facing is often not seen by the rest of the world because of the distance between them. For example, the genocide in Ghana, or HIV in Africa, or the Holocaust in Europe. People tend to shut their worlds out and not have to deal with issues at hand, and that is why these pieces are so powerful. Each author compelled me to learn and relate and to connect with them even though I don’t share the same feelings of darkness and loneliness. The ability to persuade your reader is something that is incredibly important, and all the authors have me sold on what they are selling.
