American Hero By Essex Hemphill
Essex Hemphil Essex was a prolific writer and his work can be seen in "In the Life," "Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time," as well as "Life Sentences:Writers,Artists, and AIDS." (LGBTHistory) Essex was also an editor of "Brother to Brother: New Writings of Gay Black Men." Essex would later go on to win the Lambda Literary Award as well as several other awards until his death due to complications with AIDS in 1995(LGBTHistory) Born April 16th, 1957 (LGBTHistory) Born into poverty Essex stated that he used poetry to escape his reality of life as a young black man in the nations capital (LGBTHistory) After a brief time at the University of Maryland he began to emerge in the art scene as a spoken word poet and cofounded the Nethula Journal of Contemporary Literature in 1979. (LGBTHistory)
American Hero by Essex Hemphill I have nothing to lose tonight. All my men surround me, panting, as I spin the ball above our heads on my middle finger It’s a shimmering club light and I’m dancing, slick in my sweat. Squinting, I aim at the hole fifty feet away. I let the tension go. Shoot for the net. Choke it. I never hear the ball slap the backboard. I slam it through the net. The crowd goes wild for our win. I scored thirty-two points this game and they love me for it. Everyone hollering is a friend tonight. But there are towns, certain neighborhoods where I’d be hard pressed to hear them cheer if I move on the block.
Summery of Poem In the poem the speaker who is a star basketball player speaks to the audience of their victory on the court and how the crowed loves them, but due to the way that they are they believe that they would be "hard- pressed" to see them move on to their block. The poem speaks of passive bigotry in the sense that the crowd will love the speaker as somebody that helps them succeed but when it comes to knowing them personally they have no love in their hearts. The poem is a confessional + free verse poem. It is confessional because it says "I" and is a narrative, it’s also free verse because it doesn’t rhyme at all.
"All my men surround me" Connotation In the poem "American Hero" Hemphill uses his poem to pack power into his short poem. For example in the poem it states "My men" which gives the deeper meaning as far as that the speaker is a well respected leader on his team. The majority of the poem discusses the speakers accomplishments of the game but its not towards the end that you truly understand the point of poem. "All my men surround me"
Literary Devices Essex uses metaphors, imagery, personification, as well as onomatopoeia, alliteration, and assonance. "It’s a Shimmering Club Light" "Hear the ball slap the backboard" "Everyone hollering is a friend tonight"
Attitude/Tone Hemphill's attitude in the poem starts out prideful. He talks about being an "American Hero" because he makes the most shots and gets the most points in every basketball game that he plays in. He seems delighted to hear everyone cheering him on. The tone the author uses in the poem also changes. He uses intense vocabulary such as "panting" or the phrase "I have nothing to lose". When you get to the last few lines of the poem, though, he begins to use more painful words such as "hard pressed". Towards the end of the poem, the attitude changes from proud and intense to upset and hurt. The poem begins to talk about no matter how good the speaker is at basketball, certain people would not want him to move on their block or live near them.
Theme The Theme of "American Hero" is that even though you are respected due to your hard work and determination that because of the characteristics that make you impacts your life either in a positive or negative way. "But there are towns, certain neighborhoods where I’d be hard pressed to hear them cheer if I move on the block."
Citation LGBT History Month, editor. “Essex Hemphil .” LGBT History Month, Equal Forum , 2016, www.lgbthistorymonth.com/essex- hemphill?tab=biography. Accessed 27 Feb. 2017. Poetry Fondation, editor. “Essex Hemphill.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and- poets/poets/detail/essex-hemphill.