Cultural Front: The Big Smoke & the Anisfield-Wolf Award

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke & the Anisfield-Wolf Award: [ The Big Smoke reading group ]    Earlier in the year, Adrian Matejka's The Big Smoke was honored as an Anisfield-Wolf Award recipie... The wordplay that is being used in the poems from beginning to end is very notable because Matejka wrote the poems in the language of Jack Johnson's time. Matejka mentions the inequality, discrimination, racism, and "naming or typing of Jack Johnson", which makes this book stand out and intriguing.

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Equality"

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Equality": [ The Big Smoke reading group ]  “Equality” is the first poem that we cover in this third section of poems, “Knee on the Canvas”, in The ... What stood out to me in the poem was the very last stanza, where Matejka says "The police officers loitering near their bicycles in front of the bakery didn't even bother trying to catch us." This stood out because usually when the law is being broken, the authority figure that is around questions the individual(s). In this case there are two men speeding in nice luxurious cars one as is African American and the other is Polish. However, the policemen are also breaking the law and probably are on "break",  while the two men of different races speed by with out the policemen going after them.

Cultural Front: Reflections on the second section of The Big Smoke...

Cultural Front: Reflections on the second section of The Big Smoke...:  [ The Big Smoke reading group ]  The second section of The Big Smoke gave us even more to consider. So we're curious what you though...I found myself focusing on the idea of who was Jack Johnson; other than hearing short stories from my mentors. Adrian Matejka does an excellent job with word in his poems to give the reader a gist or hint of who Jack Johnson was. Along with inequality and racism; Johnson continued to progress and be the "Man" but we all knew who the real man truly was.

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: “Mouth Fighting”

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: “Mouth Fighting”: [ The Big Smoke reading group ] Like many of the poems in Adrian Matejka's The Big Smoke , Jack Johnson delivers a personal descript...I noticed Jack Johnson's statement as trash talking being "civilized"
with rules, which is ironic especially as he says, "That's why the mouth
is the most devastating weapon and mine shines to high heaven every
time it takes a swing." That last line is stands out because as a
civilized individual there should be a need to use "devastating weapons"
or trash talking, but in the sports ambiance, "mouth fighting" or trash
talk plays a key role to break down your opponent.



-Javier

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Sporting Life"

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Sporting Life": [ The Big Smoke reading group ] Adrian Matejka opens the second section of The Big Smoke with the poem “Sporting Life.” This poem is the...From reading this poem, I paid attention to the third and fourth stanzas of the poem which summarizes the poem by saying that life is life. For an example, I grew up having very little and had to work for everything that I own.I have friends who grew up with a lot and it makes me wonder what if I was like them, or I suppose I had money to begin with. However, my life wasn't meant to be starting off "sporting" or "ballin", I have to work and earn that pleasure.

Cultural Front: Reflections on the first section of The Big Smoke

Cultural Front: Reflections on the first section of The Big Smoke:  [ The Big Smoke reading group ]  The first section of The Big Smoke gives us some sense of Jack Johnson, this intelligent, eloquent, and...The poem "Alias" really intrigued me because it exemplifies the sociological term of naming or the name game. I find it humorous how we play the name game with celebrities, other peoples as well as ourselves. A good few examples are "King James", the nickname of Lebron, as well as the common nick names such as lil man, pookie, biggie, champ, princess, and baby girl. Although, these names aren't offensive as the names given to Jack Johnson, but they still give meaning to who we are as people or who we would like to be.

-J.Demetrius

Cultural Front: Reflections on the first section of The Big Smoke

The poem "Alias" really intrigued me because it exemplifies the sociological term of naming or the name game. I find it humorous how we play the name game with celebrities, other peoples as well as ourselves. A good few examples are "King James", the nickname of Lebron, as well as the common nick names such as lil man, pookie, biggie, champ, princess, and baby girl. Although, these names aren't offensive as the names given to Jack Johnson, but they still give meaning to who we are as people or who we would like to be.



-J. Demetrius