Editor's Introduction: Multi-Ethnic Poetry, Song, and Music

Abstract

I write this introduction in the midst of protests around the United States against the deaths of African American men and boys at the hands of police officers, including a large demonstration in Washington, DC, on 13 December 2014. The protests have generated slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe,” the latter referring to the death of Eric Garner when a police officer restrained him with a chokehold. US Representative John Lewis, commenting on these recent protests and their historical precedents, observes that during periods such as the Civil Rights Movement, when the United States “could have been torn from its very foundation,” the nation was able to move forward because of “a creative response to . . . turmoil.” Nonviolent protest, according to Lewis, is “designed to wake up a sleeping nation, to educate and sensitize those who become awakened, and to ignite a sense of righteous indignation in people of goodwill to press for transformation.” Noting the “growing discontent” in the United States, Lewis expresses concern for the country’s future “if the fires of frustration and discontent continue to grow without redress” (“Michael”). Lewis’s fear is similar to that expressed by Martha J. Cutter who, reflecting on the Trayvon Martin case, notes her “fear for the future we all must live in, as well as the present we all must try to endure—together” (“White”). Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis insists that “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” “There will not be peace in America” (“Michael”), Lewis warns, without this justice. Lewis’s article invokes previous responses to racial injustice. When introducing King’s remarks on the relationship between peace and justice, Lewis emphasizes that he does not condone rioting or violence, yet this juxtaposition of peace and justice reminds us of protestors’ chants of “No justice, no peace” during the violent aftermath following the acquittal of four LA police officers charged with the beating of Rodney King. This refrain is powerfully represented in Anna Deavere Smith’s portrayal of Paul Parker, chairperson of the Free the LA Four Plus Defense Committee, in her documentary theater work, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, first performed in 1993 and in which Smith portrays the perspectives of a wide variety of characters on the LA verdicts. In Smith’s play, Parker