Politics, process & performance: Amiri Baraka's "It's Nation Time"

   ... heart of universes to be
   future of the world
   the black man is the future of the world
   be come
   rise up
   future of the black genius spirit reality
   move
   from crushed roach back
   from dead snake head
   from wig funeral in slowmotion
   from dancing teeth and coward tip
   from jibberjabber patme boss patme
   smmich (240)

One could argue that, textually, the poem's verbal content does not merit deciphering, since it is fairly transparent up until the lines" surrealist imagery in "crushed roach back," "dead snake head," and "wig funeral in slowmotion." On the page, the poem may not seem so visually compelling, but Baraka's reiteration of bald pronouncements develop the poem orally and aurally. His structurally varied repetition in phrases such as "Time to get, Time to be one, Time to get up, Time to be come" and "future of the world," "the black man is the future of the world" moves the poem along rhythmically and musically in the performance. Baraka's characteristic phrasal repetition, Nathaniel Mackey claims, "gives the sense of wrestling with definition, a sense of anxiety regarding the possibility of arriving at a stable sense of what these phrases mean" (44). Thus, Baraka's reiteration of the lines "black energy space," "black genius rise in spirit muscle, and "the black man is the future.., of the black genius spirit reality" potentially destabilize more than codify a fixed notion of "blackness," even as these same phrases, regrettably, limit the conceptual notion of racial authenticity in masculinist terms.

(Jazz) Performance

Baraka's use of anaphora and repetition--his "changing same"--also indicates that a jazz aesthetic structurally influences the poem's form. Repetition and riffs are crucial within jazz improvisation. As the ethnomusicologist Ingrid Monson attests, in jazz performance, "frequently an exchange will begin with the repetition of a particular musical passage or a response with a complimentary musical interjection." Jazz musicians' bring repetition into play in performance to help to create "a participatory musical framework against which highly idiosyncratic and innovative improvisation can take place" (Monson 89). Likewise, Baraka's reiteration enables the percussionist that accompanies him to punctuate and puncture his reading rhythm. Baraka's reading style concurrently encourages and mimics musical interaction. For instance, he recites the following lines in a swift and percussive manner:

   It's nation time

   Boom
   Booom
   BOOOM

   Dadadadadadadadadadad
   Boom
   Boom
   Boom
   Boom
   Dadadadad adadadad (240)