"A material collapse that is construction": History and CounterMemory in Gwendolyn Brooks's In the Mecca.

by John Lowney From the Chicago Loop, where sunlight off the lakefront strikes the shining towers, State Street runs straight south, wide, busy with streetcars and heavy trucks. Quickly the buildings get shabby little stores selling auto parts, a !unkyard crammed with rusting wreckage. "he city is harsh# concrete streets, brick building walls, black steel viaducts. $eyond %%nd Street the faces of the people are black. "his is the South Side &egro section. 'ere the street is (uieter, the sun is ha)y and dirty and pale ... John $artlow *artin, +"he Strangest ,lace in Chicago+ So begins a -./0 !ourney in 'arper1s maga)ine to +one of the most remarkable &egro slum e2hibits in the world+ 3456, the *ecca $uilding on Chicago1s South Side. "his !ourney from shining towers to shabby tenements, where even the sun is dirty, follows what was becoming a familiar rhetorical path for describing deteriorating urban neighborhoods, the raciali)ed discourse of urban decline. ,erhaps no other building symboli)ed post 7orld 7ar 88 urban decline more starkly than the *ecca $uilding. $uilt by the 9.'. $urnham Company in -4.-, the *ecca was at first celebrated as a boldly innovative architectural prototype for lu2ury apartment living. 7ith its atrium courtyards, its skylights and ornamental iron grillwork, its elaborate fountains and flower gardens, the *ecca was a ma!or tourist attraction during the Columbian :2position. $eginning with the movement of Chicago1s wealthy to the &orth Side at the turn of the century, however, and culminating with the economic devastation wrought by the ;reat 9epression, the *ecca gradually became an overcrowded tenement. $y -./0, the *ecca $uilding had become notorious not because of its architectural magnificence, but because of the poverty of its remaining inhabitants.3-6 8t was demolished in -./% so that its final owner, the 8llinois 8nstitute of "echnology 38.8.".6, could e2pand its new campus, designed by the renowned *odernist architect Ludwig *ies van der <ohe. $efore the *ecca $uilding was obliterated, it had become the sub!ect of national media attention as a monumental e2ample of urban decline, an e2ample depicted in raciali)ed rhetoric that foreshadows the discourse of urban decline in the -.=0s. 8t also became the sub!ect of an important collection of poems that begins with an epigraph from *artin1s +"he Strangest ,lace in Chicago,+ but contests the dominant discourse of urban decline, ;wendolyn $rooks1s 8n the *ecca. "he title poem of this collection reconstructs the vanished city of the *ecca in a dialogical narrative of counter memory that (uestions official historical accounts of the building. <ather than presenting a presumably disinterested +statistical report+ on urban poverty, $rooks was interested in writing about the *ecca with +a certain detachment, but only as a means of reaching substance with some incisiveness.+ She aimed in her long poem to +present a large variety of personalities against a mosaic of daily affairs, recogni)ing that even the grimmest of these is likely to have a streak or two streaks of sun.+3%6 $rooks1s representation of the *ecca resembles neither the utopian space its designers had envisioned nor the dystopian place its commemorators disparaged. 8nstead, +8n the *ecca+ interrogates the dystopian discourse of urban decline so often invoked to characteri)e postwar >frican >merican life? as such, it is an +incisive+ intervention into the construction of >frican >merican historical memory. <obert $eauregard documents in @oices of 9ecline# "he ,ostwar Fate of AS Cities how the -./0s discourse of urban decline was becoming more raciali)ed. "he postwar years saw an increased migration of rural blacks to northern cities. Chicago continued to be a +mecca+ for Southern blacks, but, as in other urban centers, the lack of housing and !obs for unskilled workers resulted in greater crowding in inner city neighborhoods.3B6 "he demolition of deteriorating buildings and neighborhoods for redevelopment pro!ects did not result in ade(uate new housing for the urban

poor? slums instead grew larger and more concentrated with the absorption of people displaced by demolition, while dehumani)ing large public housing pro!ects themselves became slums. 7ith the movement of white families to the suburbs, and with the decrease in the flow of immigrants to cities, urban poverty was increasingly seen as a +&egro+ problem# the slum problem had become a ghetto problem. $y the -.=0s, $eauregard writes, the discourse of urban decline was defined by ... a single theme that unified its various fragments and turned urban decline into a society-wide problem. The theme was race, the problem was the concentration, misery, and rebellion of Negroes in central cities, and the reaction was one of fear and eventually panic. Commentators could no longer avoid racial prejudice and institutional discrimination. (1 !" 8t is this apocalyptic mood of social crisis through which $rooks depicts the *ecca. 8n the *ecca consists of two sections# the long narrative title poem, which was planned and drafted in the -./0s but not completed until -.=4? and a second section of more topical poems written in the later -.=0s entitled +>fter *ecca.+ 9edicated to +the memory of Langston 'ughes? and to James $aldwin, >miri $araka, and *ike >le2androff, educators e2traordinaire,+ this volume is e2tremely important in $rooks1s development as a writer, as it registers her growing commitment to a more politically engaged, cultural nationalist position in the Chicago black community.3C6 "his stance is most evident in +>fter *ecca,+ which includes such uncompromising poems on >frican >merican urban life as +$oy $reaking ;lass,+ who +has not Congress, lobster, love, luau, D the <egency <oom, the Statue of Liberty+ 3CB.6, and +"he $lackstone <angers,+ whose +country is a &ation on no map+ 3CC56. +>fter *ecca+ also includes poems celebrating >frican >merican cultural heroism as +*edgar :vers,+ +*alcolm E,+ and +"he 7all,+ written for and read at the dedication of the 7all of <espect, a mural commemorating >frican >merican history painted on a South Side slum building. +8n the *ecca+ likewise appeals to the mood of urban crisis e2perienced most acutely by inner city $lacks in the late -.=0s, but evoked also by critics of modernist urban planning.3/6 $rooks1s empathetic participantDobserver1s narrative stance in representing the *ecca world contrasts sharply with the more detached mass media representations that had commemorated the building1s decline before it was ra)ed. 'er poem is a narrative of counter memory that employs the formal and rhetorical strategies that ;eorge Lipsit) cogently defines in +'istory, *yth, and Counter *emory# &arrative and 9esire in ,opular &ovels.+ >ccording to Lipsit), ... counter-memory forces revision of e#isting histories by supplying new perspectives about the past.... Counter-memory focuses on locali$ed e#periences with oppression, using them to reframe and refocus dominant narratives purporting to represent universal e#perience. (%1&" 7ith its emphasis on the local, the immediate, and the personal, with the multiple discordant stories that redefine the collective memory of the *ecca, $rooks foregrounds orally transmitted forms of remembering that are often erased from dominant historical narratives. *ore specifically, her polyvocal reconstruction of the *ecca counters reductively racist sociological narratives of urban decline. "he raciali)ation of the discourse of urban decline can be seen as early as -./0 in national mass media representations of the *ecca. > Life maga)ine photographic essay on the building1s last days e2emplifies how such discourse is not only raciali)ed, but often more blatantly racist in its representations of urban black life. "he initial photo, which $rooks submitted to her publisher as the !acket cover for her book 3but was denied permission to use by Life6, depicts a solitary child dwarfed by the immensity of the building1s courtyard, empty e2cept for refuse littering the floor. "he e2planatory paragraph below all but attributes the decline of the building to the arrival of black tenants# 't was a mecca for Chicago(s rising rich until the )outh )ide became less stylish. *y 1!1% the first Negro tenants had moved in. The building(s noisy ja$$ activities gave a name to the +ecca ,lat *lues and the apartment

steadily trumpeted its way downhill. '.'.T. bought it in 1!-1 but could not wrec. it until the /00 occupants could find homes in Chicago(s crowded Negro area. )ince )eptember '.'.T. has collected no rent from the 11 remaining tenants and hopes to have them all moved out by year(s end. (1&&" "his brief historical narrative of the *ecca1s transformation from +Chicago1s showiest apartment+ to its +most celebrated slum building+ suggests an almost inevitable decline that follows the +first &egro tenants.+ "he one sentence e2planation of the years between -.-% and -.C- implies a causal relationship between black noise +the building1s noisy !a)) activities+ and urban decline. 7ith the arrival of black tenants, the +apartment+ becomes a synechdoche for its +noisy+ inhabitants, as it +trumpeted its way downhill.+ <ather than a response to urban poverty, the blues are instrumentally related to a +steady+ process of decline, a stubbornly slow process, however, that stands in the way of progress. "he subse(uent photographs in the article include several portraits of elderly residents, who themselves stand in the way of 8.8.".1s plans for urban renewal 3or urban removal, from their perspective6. $ut most of the photographs concentrate on the building itself, highlighting the contrast of faded elegance and current chaos, which is most evident in the second image of the article, a gracefully arched entrance above the sign, +"his $uilding to be @acated and 7recked.+ 8n the subse(uent images the human presence of the building1s tenants can be seen only through the signs of its disrepair# an interior of an apartment with a bullet damaged window, the result of +a random shot fired by hoodlums+ 3-B=6? or a stairway with decorative railings and paintless, graffiti covered walls, the +handiwork of swarms of children who have overrun *ecca in recent years+ 3-BC6. Such dehumani)ing language to characteri)e the children of the *ecca is even more evident in the 'arper1s article by John $artlow *artin, +"he Strangest ,lace in Chicago.+ Futside the building, *artin writes in his initial description, +>n old man pulls a handcart filled with !unk across an empty lot. From a deep hole tunneled under the sidewalk emerges the head of a little &egro boy, playing. "he sidewalk is cracked and broken+ 3456. "he inside of the building is e(ually decrepit, and its inhabitants are likewise conveyed in degrading terms, whether they be children or adults. "he visitor is assaulted by a +powerful odor ... a smell compounded of urine and stale cooking and of age+ 3456. :ven the atrium skylights are obscured by dirt and darkness# they let in only +the kind of unreal light found underseas+ 3456. "he only recogni)able human activity inside this gloomy, musty setting is a !anitor patching broken tile. Ftherwise, all that can be heard are# ... the sound of distant human voices--women tal.ing, a baby s2ualling, children screaming, men muttering, no words distinguishable. )pittle splats flatly on the tile floor, falling from a great height, spat by a man or a woman standing on an upper balcony. 3ll day long people stand at the balconies ... ga$ing out at other people facing them across the well in silence, ga$ing down at the floor far below, spitting, small human figures in a vast place.... (4/" 7hereas the Life article foregrounds the contrast of solitary *ecca residents with their s(ualid surroundings, in +"he Strangest ,lace in Chicago+ any human presence is at first subsumed within the building1s overall atmosphere of decay. From the impressionistic literary !ournalist1s perspective, the spectacular s(ualor of the *ecca speaks only through the signs of its physical degradation. "he initial voices of its residents are presented as indecipherable utterances whose significance can be gauged only in relation to the +vast+ emptiness of the *ecca. 7ith +no words distinguishable,+ these voices are a muted version of Life1s +noisy !a)).+ 7hen the residents1 voices are eventually distinguished from each other in +the Strangest ,lace in Chicago,+ they are done so in terms that accentuate their degradation# a child crying +*ummy, *ummy+? the +high mad cackling laughter of an old man+? a woman yelling at a child who is urinating from a third floor balcony 344 4.6. "he article goes on to profile individual *ecca residents in more depth, and their stories variously follow a common plot of hopeful migration to Chicago from the South,

disappointment over limited employment and housing opportunities, and despair during the 9epression, which left them stranded in a building scheduled for demolition since its purchase by 8.8.". in -.C-. *artin situates the *ecca residents within a historical narrative of considerable sociological detail, but their individual stories of hardship are muted by the alarming din with which he frames the story. Fn the one hand there are undisciplined children, shouting, crying, running madly, armed with improvised weapons, throwing garbage at each other? on the other hand there are elderly people, trapped, resigned, silent, or unintelligible. "he story concludes with an especially pathetic e2ample of unintelligibility# an old woman in a rocking chair, muttering loudly, but her +words are not intelligible, it is !ust a human voice, muttering, and it is impossible to tell whether in anger or in !oy, it is only sound+ 3.56. $rooks1s poetic representation of the *ecca reads as if she is responding directly to *artin1s conclusion, +it is !ust a human voice ... it is only sound.+ 'er poem suggests that such unintelligibility is a failure of the listener rather than the speaker. $rooks had gained firsthand knowledge of life in the *ecca as a young woman in the -.B0s while working there for four months as a sales assistant to a spiritual adviser, who, she e2plains, had a fantastic practice5 lucrative. 6e had us bottling medicine as well as answering letters. Not real medicine, but love charms and stuff li.e that he called it, and delivered it through the building5 that was my introduction to the +ecca building. ('nterview 1 %"( " $rooks1s recollections of this e2perience haunted her for years# +8n the *ecca+ was first drafted as a novel and was subse(uently redrafted many times before it was published in its current form.356 "he result of this delayed completion and publication was a retrospective poem of greater political resonance. Like *artin1s story, +8n the *ecca+ shows how a utopian architectural space has become a dystopian site? however, $rooks1s poem foregrounds how even the most idealistic plans of modernist urban design cannot be dissociated from the contradictions inherent in a racist society. 7hile the digressive, discordant narrative form of +8n the *ecca+ ironically contrasts with the building1s monumental design, $rooks is ultimately less concerned with the architectural history of the *ecca than with the stories of those who live there. Anlike the *ecca residents of *artin1s story, $rooks1s characters are sharply individuated and connected with each other. +8n the *ecca+ revolves around the story of a domestic worker1s (uest for her lost 3and, as we ultimately find out, abducted and murdered6 child, but through this story the poem portrays the everyday struggles of *ecca inhabitants in an array of voices and styles. "hese voices mi2 collo(uial urban diction with more formal >frican >merican traditions of oratory, sermon, and proverb. $rooks1s poem is, parado2ically, both elevated and intimate in its locali)ed mode of address. "he narrator1s stance combines the synoptic, lofty vision of the epic poet with the more provisional, vernacular voice of the oral storyteller. "his narrative stance corresponds with the dialogic interplay of speech acts that convey the social comple2ity of the *ecca world. *oreover, there is no linguistic hierarchy of speech acts that organi)es the narrative? as ;ayl Jones writes# +8n $rooks1s poetry there is no such hierarchy because any kind of language may occupy any space? indeed, different languages may almost occupy the same space+ 3-./6. Anlike the !ournalistic representations of the *ecca, $rooks does not sharply differentiate the +distinguishable+ utterance from the +indistinguishable,+ whether from positions of moral or scientific 3sociological6 authority. She instead foregrounds how each character as well as the narrator is constructed by conflicting discourses. "he opening page of +8n the *ecca,+ a single sentence situated apart from the rest of the narrative, demonstrates how $rooks1s mi2ed mode of address is parado2ically inviting and disorienting at the same time# +&ow the way of the *ecca was on this wise+ 3C0=6. "his sentence sounds authoritative, even prophetic, with the allusive resonance of the holy place of 8slam underscoring the narrator1s ironic stance toward the Chicago *ecca. "he location and temporality of the narrator are unspecified, however, while this speech act points to a specific site with its indeterminate deictic indicators. +&ow+ could refer to the narrator1s present, thus suggesting a retrospective assessment of the *ecca1s past, or it could refer to the time indicated by the past tense verb form, +was.+ +&ow+ could also serve the narrative purpose of drawing attention to the importance of the story that follows, whether it be a command, re(uest, or warning addressed directly to the audience or a term suggesting a transition in an ongoing narrative. "he initial effect is one of (uestioning temporality, the +now+ of the present and the +now+ of the remembered past, but also of (uestioning how narratives represent the past. +&ow+ draws attention to the urgency of

the moment, yet suggests a continuity between the narrated past and the narrator1s present. "he rest of the first sentence likewise raises unsettling (uestions about the locality of the opening statement, especially about the narrator1s position in relation to the social world she is representing. "he +way of the *ecca+ could imply purpose, direction, a course of action, or it could imply more mundanely, more naturalistically, the condition, and physical locale, of the *ecca as it was. "he temporality of the statement is foregrounded through the (uestion of its locality? to write of a world that no longer physically e2ists, but a world whose memory is contested, is to raise the (uestion of whom one is writing for. "he narrator is positioned neither certainly inside nor outside the *ecca? the audience1s position, and the speech act itself, are likewise unsettled by the (uestion of what defines insider knowledge. 7hat is eventually +wise+ about +the way of the *ecca+ is the narrator1s empathetic understanding and !udgment, but the limitations of such outsider +wisdom+ are also evident. 8f the narrator of +8n the *ecca+ is distanced from insider wisdom about the social world she recollects, distanced even by the +wise+ tone by which an insider1s account may be conveyed, her retrospective representation of the *ecca positions readers similarly. <e!ecting the condescendingly moralistic or impressionistically spectacular visions of mass media representations of urban decline, $rooks instead makes her readers aware of their complicity in constructing a narrative that can contain the heterogeneous voices of the *ecca. Like the initial sentence of the poem, which is both authoritative in its tone and disorienting in its ambiguity, the subse(uent introductory passages evoke linguistic tensions that e2ist throughout the poem. "he poem proceeds with a statement directly addressed to the reader, establishing a more e2plicit conte2t for the subse(uent narrative of counter memory# )it where the light corrupts your face. +ies 7an der 8ohe retires from grace. 3nd the fair fables fall. (-0/" +"ruth is the significance of fact,+ wrote *ies van der <ohe 3(td. in 'arvey B-6, but the language of $rooks1s opening e2plodes the rationalist foundations of such a modernist urban vision. "echnological efficiency does not in itself produce improved social conditions, nor can +truth+ be ascertained apart from the power relations in which it is embedded, especially when the +truth+ in (uestion e2ists only in contested memory, memory of a community displaced by a pro!ect designed by *ies van der <ohe himself. "his parado2ical opening introduces a narrative that continually challenges readers1 e2pectations with its dense wordplay. 8f the corrupt light evokes the contrast of hope and despair in prior representations of the *ecca, $rooks1s post modernist fables refuse to rest with simple oppositions of corrupt and fair. "he poem accentuates, and denaturali)es, the racial associations of metaphors of light and darkness introduced in this opening. "he +light+ which +corrupts your face+ draws attention to the lightness or darkness of +your face.+ >nd the +fall+ of +the fair fables+ raises the (uestion of how narratives representing such dystopian worlds as the *ecca are +fair,+ suggesting that fairness is a matter of hegemony rather than of truth or accuracy. $rooks1s characters live in a world of economic restriction, but their narratives represent an unpredictable array of responses, personal and political, to this world that defy totali)ing +fables.+ "he introduction to the narrative1s protagonist demonstrates the blend of demorali)ing poverty and idiosyncratic vision that characteri)es the residents of $rooks1s *ecca# ). )mith is +rs. )allie. +rs. )allie hies home to +ecca, hies to marvelous rest5 ascends the sic. and influential stair. The eye unrinsed, the mouth absurd with the last sourings of the master(s ,east. )he plans to set severity apart, to unclench the heavy folly of the fist. (-0/" "he story of *rs. Sallie, who is first designated by the more public, official name one might see on her mailbo2 3+S. Smith+6, is immediately situated in the conte2t of racial and class ine(uality. 8n contrast to the humiliation of her !ob as a domestic worker, of preparing +the master1s Feast,+ *rs. Sallie1s *ecca apartment is a +marvelous+ refuge. $ut this refuge is also defined by the +sick and influential stair+ she must climb, with +influential+ suggesting how the physiological and psychological effects of poverty are interwoven. "he densely charged language that follows in the description of *rs. Sallie likewise blends the physiological with the psychological, but not to suggest that she is absolutely determined by the limitations of her social class and impoverished surroundings. *rs. Sallie1s response to her social position, and to the racism that defines this position, is deliberate# she +plans D to set severity apart, D to unclench the heavy folly of the fist+

3emphasis added6. >s empathetic as the narrator1s understanding of *rs. Sallie1s mode of coping with her world is, the description of her that follows does not +set severity apart+ in indicating the psychological cost of her resignation# 'nfirm booms and suns that have not spo.en die behind this low-brown butterball. 9ur prudent partridge. 3 fragmentary attar and armed coma. 3 fugitive attar and a district hymn. (-0/" "he !arringly disconnected images suggest a character who is herself +fragmentary+ tormented by +fugitive+ repressed emotions. "he dissociated sensual imagery is interspersed with language referring to those moral codes that define her mode of perseverance. *rs. Sallie1s +prudence,+ here mocked in the narrator1s playfully familiar description of +our prudent partridge,+ is revealed more fully when she is inside her apartment# Now +rs. )allie confers her bird-hat to her .itchen table, and sees her .itchen. 't is bad, is bad, her eyes say ... 6er denunciation slaps savagely not only this sic. .itchen but her :ord(s annulment of the main event. ;' want to decorate<; *ut what is that= 3 pomade atop a sewage. 3n offense. ,irst comes correctness, then embellishment< 3nd music, mode, and mi#ed philosophy may follow fitly on propriety to tame the whis.ey of our discontent< (-10" "he simple description of her kitchen as +bad+ sparks a chain of associations that reveal *rs. Sallie1s +prudence+ as part of a moral code that is based in Christian faith, but which is more properly defined by class and gender codes of +propriety.+ "his emphasis on propriety, on +correctness+ first, and +then embellishment,+ defines *rs. Sallie1s strength as a frugal mother who makes the most of her limited means, but it also unveils the limitations of a moral code based on the bourgeois appearance of goodness rather than on actual social and economic !ustice. 8t suggests, that is, how social codes of +propriety+ relate to the possession 3or lack6 of property. "he first section of the poem, which traces *rs. Sallie1s ascent to her fourth floor flat, concentrates on the dreams of the neighbors she passes, even if these dreams are as modest, as transitory, as contingent as her initial desire for a moment of rest. &either the characters that *rs. Sallie encounters on her way home nor her nine children can be understood in stereotypical terms? they are conveyed with psychological comple2ity, often parado2ically. "heir public personae are belied by the often contradictory motivations that underlie their self presentation. "he description of 'yena, a +striking debutante,+ most blatantly reveals a contrast between public appearance and private motivation# +a fancier of firsts. D Fne of the first, and to the tune of hate, D in all the *ecca to paint her hair sun gold+ 3C046. 'er self fashioning as a +striking debutante+ with +sun gold+ hair concisely accentuates how racism structures codes of feminine beauty, yet her +tune of hate+ suggests her complicity with the mode by which she distinguishes herself from other black women. &ot all of the characters who appear in the beginning of the poem are so obviously self centered as 'yena is. 'owever, those who seek to authori)e their identities in narratives of transcendence, whether religious or secular, are also ironically undermined. ,rophet 7illiams, for e2ample, +rich with $ible ... reeks D with lust for his disciple,+ and even more strikingly, is responsible for his wife1s violent death, a responsibility that the narrator e2tends to her +kinswomen+# 'da died in self-defense. (>inswomen< >inswomen<" 'da died alone. (-04" Finally, the young poet >lfred, a school teacher who believes in the religion of art, who +reads Shakespeare in the evenings or reads Joyce,+ later ... goes to bed with Telly *ell in &0!, or with that golden girl, or thin.s, or drin.s until the ?verything is vaguely a part of 9ne thing and the 9ne thing

delightfully anonymous and undiscoverable. (-0!" 8mmediately following such metaphysical speculations, such (uestions as +what was their one $eliefG D what was their !oining thingG+ 3C0.6, is an arrestingly different sound# +> boy breaks glass and *rs. Sallie D rises to the final and fourth floor+ 3C-06. "his break between the poet1s meditations and Sallie1s preparation of her family1s dinner ham hocks, greens, yams, and cornbread sets the tone for the (uest that sustains the rest of the narrative. Counting her children at dinner, she notices her daughter1s absence and asks, +7':<: ,:,8"> $:G+ 3C-/6. "he child1s disappearance changes the poem1s mood from tentative calm to impending violence. "he narrative proceeds more rapidly, more unpredictably, from dialogue to monologue, from spoken monologue to interior monologue. "he characters respond to the news of the child1s disappearance with separately internali)ed visions of violence, but their narratives are linked by their shared emphasis on racial oppression. "he transformation of *rs. Sallie1s other children is, not surprisingly, most striking. "heir characters are idiosyncratically differentiated at first. For e2ample, there is Hvonne, who dreams of love, and whose defiant reason for chewing 9oublemint gum parodies her mother1s code of propriety# 't is very bad, but in its badness it is nearly grand, and is a crown that tops bald innocence and gentle fright. (-11" "hen there is *elodie *ary, who +likes roaches, D and pities the gray rat+ 3C-%6, whose sympathy for such unacknowledged everyday victims identifies her vision (uite closely with the narrator1s. 8n contrast, her brother $riggs, +adult as a stone D 3who if he cries cries alone6+ 3C-%6, is consumed by anger. For him, 'mmunity is forfeit, love is luggage, hope is heresy. @ang is health and mange. (-1&" >s distinct as each of their characters are, *rs. Sallie1s children are united in their hatred of what their poverty denies them# AtheyB hate sewn suburbs5 hate everything combed and strong5 hate people who have balls, dolls, mittens and dimity froc.s and trains and bo#ing gloves, picture boo.s, bonnets for ?aster. :ace hand.erchief owners are enemies of )mith.ind. (-1%" 7hen they are summoned to look for their sister, the children likewise react to her disappearance with visions distinctive to their characters, but they share a sense of deprivation, of feeling ... constrained. 3ll are constrained. 3nd there is no thin.ing of grapes or gold or of any wic.ed sweetness and they ride upon fright and remorse and their stomachs are rags or grit. (-1 " "he neighbors that *rs. Sallie and her children ask for help likewise are instantly transformed by the news of the child1s disappearance. "heir descriptions of ,epita, their speculations of what happened, and their evasions of (uestions tell us more about their characteristic modes of dealing with fear than they tell us about the lost child. >s ;ayl Jones states, the (uestion +17here is ,epitaG1 often becomes 17here am 81G+ 3%006. "he first tale significantly is a great great grandmother1s recollection of slavery, while the second is a religious man1s meditation on the &a)i death camps, linking the loss of the black child with +all old unkindnesses and harms+ 3C-56 in a parody of the "wenty third ,salm. :ach subse(uent tale whether of incidental violence, sensational crime, religious passion, isolation, retribution, or drunken delusion evokes the fears, desires, and dreams of its teller. >nd each stands out in sharp relief from the more abstract, unresponsive +Law,+ which arrives, but +does not (uickly go D to fetch a Female of the &egro <ace,+ and instead asks +a lariat of (uestions+ 3C%0 %-6. *ost notably contrasted with the Law are the young poets whose angry voices resonate among the more disparate, more desperate outbursts of their older neighbors. "here is, again, the introspective >lfred, ... (who might have been an architect" AwhoB can spea. of +eccaC firm arms surround disorders, bruising ruses and small hells, small semiheavensC hug barbarous rhetoric

built of bu$$, coma and petite pell-mells. (-%%" "he initial portrait of the +untalented+ artist of +decent enough no goodness+ 3C0.6 is modified considerably by the more detailed presentation of his later vision as the resident poet of the *ecca. >lfred not only intimately knows the architecture, history, and everyday social life of the *ecca, he also understands the need for a vision that can integrate this local knowledge with a broader understanding of the >frican diaspora. 'is admiration for Leopold Senghor is conveyed in a meditative vision that is romantic, at times escapist, but nonetheless resonant in its affirmation of negritude# *elieves in beauty *ut believes that blac.ness is among the fit filters. 9ld cobra coughs and curdles in his lungs, spits spite, spits e#2uisite spite, and cries, ;'gnoble<; )enghor sighs and, ;negritude; needing, spea.s for others, for brothers. (-%%" >lfred1s affirmation of +negritude+ does not match the revolutionary directness of the poet 9on Lee 3who is now 'aki *adhubuti6, however, whose uncompromising black nationalist stance is introduced immediately after# Don :ee wants not a various 3merica. Don :ee wants a new nation under nothing5 wants new art and anthem5 will want a new music screaming in the sun. (-%&-%-" "he introduction of the known black nationalist poet to the mi2 of fictional characters, especially following the intrusion of the Law, reminds readers that $rooks1s reconstruction of the fallen *ecca is no poetic e2ercise in nostalgia. "here are a number of characters in the *ecca who call for retributive violence, but the inclusion of Lee1s black nationalist stance among the apocalyptic calls for bloody upheaval situates the conflicts of +8n the *ecca+ within the racial politics of the -.=0s, as $rooks connects the remembered past to the more defiant present. >s <. $a2ter *iller writes, +the Lee in the poem lives at the midpoint between mimesis and reality+ 3-=C6, but he occupies a space in the poem that differs from the other *ecca tenants. 'is apocalyptic, but utopian vision reaffirms how the struggles defining $rooks1s characters are confined neither temporally nor spatially to their lives in the *ecca. "he incipient violence that constantly threatens their e2istence is likewise not confined to the urban slum? it is instead endemic to a nation structured by racial oppression. "he apocalyptic vision of +8n the *ecca+ is ultimately tempered with the innocent voice of the murdered child ,epita, who is finally discovered beneath a cot +in dust with roaches+ 3CBB6, the victim of hateful, purposeless violence. 'er murderer is a man who too +looks at the Law unlovably,+ but whose hatred is murderous and suicidal. >s in +$oy $reaking ;lass,+ in which the child1s +broken window is a cry of art+ 3CB46, or even +"he $lackstone <angers,+ the notorious South Side gang members who +e2ulting, monstrous hand on monstrous hand, D construct, strangely, a monstrous pearl or grace+ 3CC46, the conclusion of +8n the *ecca+ looks to an unlikely source of poetic e2pression, the poignant voice of the murdered child, to convey the urgent need to listen closely to the dispossessed. 7hile sounding the alarm for action, $rooks ultimately speaks for the voiceless, the child who ... never went to .indergarten. )he never learned that blac. is not beloved. Eas royalty when poised, sly, at the 3 and F(s fly-open door. Eill be royalty no more. ;' touch;--she said once--;petals of a rose. 3 sil.y feeling through me goes<; 6er mother will try for roses. (-&&" "he conclusion of +8n the *ecca+ subtly affirms the need for active transformation, both of self and society, even if it seems too late, even if it is provoked by tragic loss. *rs. Sallie may not be able to save her daughter1s life, but her +try for roses+ is an act that validates her own life as it

commemorates her daughter1s 3Jones %0B6. $rooks writes in <eport from ,art Fne how the e2perience of celebrating black self determination in the late -.=0s changed her understanding of poetry1s social role# +y aim, in my ne#t future, is to write poems that will somehow successfully ;call; (see 'mamu *ara.a(s ;)9);" all blac. peopleC blac. people in taverns, blac. people in alleys, blac. people in gutters, schools, offices, factories, prisons, the consulate5 ' wish to reach blac. people in pulpits, blac. people in mines, on farms, on thrones, not always to ;teach;--' shall wish often to entertain, to illumine. +y newish voice will not be an imitation of the contemporary young blac. voice, which ' so admire, but an adaptation of today(s @.*. voice. (14&" 8f the linguistic and rhetorical comple2ity of +8n the *ecca+ is often imposing, the poem nonetheless registers $rooks1s transformed social vision for poetry, a vision that celebrates those performative acts that meet the urgent needs of the historical moment, that are necessarily destructive as they are creative. +8n the *ecca+ accentuates the fragmentary, ephemeral aspects of *ecca life, stressing the sense of disconnection which parado2ically links its characters disconnection from place, from community, and from the past. Such local, specific e2periences that are nonetheless linked by shared patterns of oppression and failed hopes also evince the bitter ironies of rational urban planning, from $urnham to van der <ohe. $y foregrounding the narratives of those displaced by +urban renewal,+ $rooks underscores the need for not only reconstructing urban communities, but also the collective memory of these communities. <ather than the authoritatively detached rendering of the *ecca as +one of the most remarkable &egro slum e2hibits in the world,+ $rooks dialogically represents this world in the imagined voices of the *ecca residents. "he comple2ity of this vision is nowhere more evident than in the characteri)ation of the *ecca1s resident poet, >lfred. 'is transformation from the sensualist we first encounter on +the sick and influential stair+ is ultimately as instructive as it is entertaining and illuminating. Like $rooks1s poetic 3re6vision of the *ecca, his concluding vision synthesi)es a local knowledge of his community, in all of its dystopian despair, with a more comprehensive understanding of the historical need for the poet1s utopian social role# ' hate it. Get, murmurs 3lfred-who is lean at the balcony, leaning-something, something in +ecca continues to call< ... an essential sanity, blac. and electric, builds to a reportage and redemption. 3 hot estrangement. 3 material collapse that is Construction. (-&&" &otes 3-.6 See Ienny J. 7illiams, +"he 7orld of Satin Legs, *rs. Sallie, and the $lackstone <angers# "he <estricted 7orld of ;wendolyn $rooks,+ for a concise e2planation of the now obscure history of the *ecca $uilding, which is omitted even from official documents such as the ma!or biographies of 9.'. $urnham. 3%.6 $rooks, +7ork ,roposed for J8n the *ecca,1+ <eport from ,art Fne -4.. >ll citations from <eport from ,art Fne will hereafter be cited parenthetically as <eport. 3B.6 "he black population of Chicago grew e2traordinarily rapidly between the -.-0s and -.=0s. >s an early migrant from *ississippi e2plained, wherever +one stopped on the way ... the mecca was Chicago+ 3(td. in James <. ;rossman, Land of 'ope# Chicago, $lack Southerners, and the ;reat *igration C6. >ccording to &icholas Lemann, +9uring the -.C0s, the black population of Chicago increased by 55 per cent, from %54,000 to C.%,000. 8n the -./0s, it grew by another =/ per cent, to 4-B,000? at one point %,%00 black people were moving to Chicago every week+ 3(td. in Charles Scruggs, Sweet 'ome# 8nvisible Cities in the >fro >merican &ovel -C6. See Scruggs -B B5 on the

significance of urban migration for >frican >merican literature. 3C.6 $rooks1s readers have generally followed her account of her turn toward black cultural nationalism. She cites the -.=5 Fisk Aniversity 7riters Conference as the event that drew her toward the $lack >rts *ovement. "he division of $rooks1s career into an early period of poetry characteri)ed by styli)ed formalism and a later period of poetry informed by her commitment to black nationalism tends to underestimate the political import of her pre -.=5 writings. $rooks1s dedication to black self determination is more e2plicit after -.=4, however, as she, for e2ample, committed herself to black owned publishing pro!ects. Fn the impact of the Fisk Conference on $rooks1s political consciousness, see <eport from ,art Fne 4C 4= and ;eorge :. Ient, > Life of ;wendolyn $rooks -./ %0%. For a cogent essay that typifies critical accounts of $rooks1s +conversion+ to the $lack >rts *ovement, see >ddison ;ayle, Jr., +;wendolyn $rooks# ,oet of the 7hirlwind.+ 3/6 "he best known e2ample of such criticism would be Jane Jacobs1s "he 9eath and Life of ;reat >merican Cities. See 9avid 'arvey, "he Condition of ,ostmodernity == .4 for an incisive overview of postmodernist criti(ues of +the modernist idea that planning and development should focus on large scale, metropolitan wide, technologically rational and efficient urban plans, backed by absolutely no frills architecture ...+ 3==6. $eauregard surveys the role that racial politics increasingly played in the post 7orld 7ar 88 discourse of urban decline. See especially -=0 %-=. 3=6 See also Ient, > Life of ;wendolyn $rooks C% on $rooks1s e2perience of working in the *ecca. 356 Fn the various drafts of +8n the *ecca,+ see Ient, > Life of ;wendolyn $rooks -B0 B-, %-- %%. 7orks Cited $eauregard, <obert >. @oices of 9ecline# "he ,ostwar Fate of AS Cities. Cambridge# $lackwell, -..B. $rooks, ;wendolyn. 8n the *ecca. -.=4. $lacks. Chicago# "hird 7orld, -.45. C0- /=. . 8nterview by ;eorge Stavros. -% 37inter -.506# - %0. <pt. $rooks, <eport, -C5 ==. . <eport from ,art Fne. 9etroit# $roadside, -.5%. ;ayle, >ddison, Jr. +;wendolyn $rooks# ,oet of the 7hirlwind.+ $lack 7omen 7riters 3-./0 -.406# > Critical :valuation. :d. *ari :vans. ;arden City, &H# >nchor 9oubleday, -.4C. 5. 45. ;rossman, James <. Land of 'ope# Chicago, $lack Southerners, and the ;reat *igration. Chicago# A of Chicago ,, -.4.. 'arvey, 9avid. "he Condition of ,ostmodernity. Cambridge, *># $lackwell, -.4.. Jacobs, Jane. "he 9eath and Life of ;reat >merican Cities. &ew Hork# <andom 'ouse, -.=-. Jones, ;ayl. +Community and @oice# ;wendolyn $rooks1s 18n the *ecca.1+ *ootry and Smith -.B %0C. Ient, ;eorge :. > Life of ;wendolyn $rooks. Le2ington# A, of Ientucky, -..0. Lipsit), ;eorge. +'istory, *yth, and Counter *emory# &arrative and 9esire in ,opular &ovels.+ "ime ,assages# Collective *emory and >merican ,opular Culture. *inneapolis# A of *innesota ,, -..0. %-- B-. *artin, John $artlow. +"he Strangest ,lace in Chicago.+ 'arper1s 39ecember -./06# 4= .5. +"he *ecca# Chicago1s showiest apartment has given up all but the ghost.+ Life B-.%- 3-. &ov -./-6# -BB B.. *iller, <. $a2ter. +J9efine ... the 7hirlwind1# ;wendolyn $rooks1 :pic Sign for a ;eneration.+ $lack >merican ,oets $etween 7orlds, -.C0 -.=0. :d. <. $a2ter *iller. Ino2ville# A of "ennessee ,, -.4=. -=0 5B. *ootry, *aria I. and ;ary Smith, eds. > Life 9istilled# ;wendolyn $rooks, 'er ,oetry and Fiction. Arbana# A of 8llinois ,, -.45. Scruggs, Charles. Sweet 'ome# 8nvisible Cities in the >fro >merican &ovel. $altimore# Johns 'opkins A,, -..B. 7illiams, Ienny J. +"he 7orld of Satin Legs, *rs. Sallie, and the $lackstone <angers# "he <estricted Chicago of ;wendolyn $rooks.+ *ootry and Smith C5 50. John Lowney is >ssistant ,rofessor of :nglish at St. John1s Aniversity, &ew Hork. 'e is the author of "he >merican >vant ;arde "radition# 7illiam Carlos 7illiams, ,ostmodern ,oetry, and the ,olitics of Cultural *emory. 'e is currently writing a book on the relation of ,opular Front cultural politics to postmodern &orth >merican poetry.B u!lication In"ormation: >rticle "itle# +> *aterial Collapse "hat 8s Construction+# 'istory and Counter *emory in ;wendolyn $rooks1s in the *ecca. Contributors# John Lowney author. Journal "itle# *:LAS. @olume# %B. 8ssue# B.

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,ublication Hear# -..4. ,age &umber# B. CF,H<8;'" -..4 "he Society for the Study of the *ulti :thnics Literature of the Anited States? CF,H<8;'" %00% ;ale ;roup

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