Emile DeWeaver
Emile is a black community organizer, literary writer, and journalist who co-founded prisonrenaissance.org while serving a 67 years to life sentence in prison. He participated in the passage of Senate Bills 260, 261, and Proposition 57. His personal essays have been published in Rumpus and Seventh Wave, and his op-eds have been published in the Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle. His sentence was commuted by Gov. Jerry Brown in December 2017 for his community service, his productivity, and his story of transformation. Emile is currently working full-time as a product specialist for Pilot.com while working part-time as a guest lecturer and freelance writer. Source
Profile
You see me swagger to a stop
at the crosswalk, chin bobbing on
the currents of my playlist, and the Nike
Swoosh on my sleeveless says
I hold my shape after washing.
I look upstreet, presenting you
the question curving along my cheek.
What a nice man you’re thinking,
his Afro is nonthreatening
like a light bulb invented by Thomas Edison.
You’re having ideas, right? Weighing
myths and elongating for answers.
I’m walking your way, broad as day,
and you have to choose. Do
you relax your shoulders and step
into the street or clench your toes
and face your faith in the human
race: all men are created
sequals, every black
man is not a syllable.
Published:
2021
Length:
Regular
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2023
Themes:
Agency
Identity
Racial Injustice
Literary Devices:
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Enjambment
a line break interrupting the middle of a phrase which continues on to the next line
Metaphor
a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic
Rhetorical Question
a question asked for effect, not necessarily to be answered