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

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Hurt Business"

Cultural Front: The Big Smoke: "Hurt Business":  [ The Big Smoke reading group ] "Hurt Business", also the title of this first section of poems in the volume, features Adrian ...Reading this poem reminded me of bullies from childhood. I knew I wasn't the biggest or strongest but I knew that I had to protect myself and put up a fight just as Johnson did. And another thing that I would take fro this poem is to never let others get the best of you even if you have to hit below the belt in order to survive this fight we call life.

Reading this poem reminded me of bullies from childhood. I knew I wasn't the biggest or strongest but I knew that I had to protect myself and put up a fight just as Johnson did. And another thing that I would take fro this poem is to never let others get the best of you even if you have to hit below the belt in order to survive this fight we call life.