STATE LINES
In “2pac couplets,” Oakland native Chinaka Hodge pays homage to one of her literary heroes. Tupac Shakur, victim of an unsolved shooting in 1996, was a rapper, singer, actor, poet and activist. Hodge’s elegy to the icon showcases her own immense talents. She first made her name performing live on spoken-word programs such as “Def Poetry Jam.” Even in print, her rhythms are muscular, her language playful. And Hodge is also up to the difficult task of tracking Shakur’s full biography — his youth, fame and tragic death — in just 25 lines. “2pac couplets” is a pulsing poem hammered into hip-hop couplets, memorializing Shakur in a style he would have recognized. 2pac couplets one line for each year he lived ninety six minutes after tyson wins and you’re gone las vegas quickly strips you of your last song every black man in nevada pilgrims to trudge you walk last rites, as only god can judge you nomad, you baltimore, you new york, you l.a. captured only by wind, a consummate stray west coast makes you ours. claims you loudest you gave game for free, we recoup it proudest don’t want no producers dancing in our videos named our first borns after brenda’s embryo your dear mama, eschews her crackfiend fame afeni becomes household, recognized name the people used to clown when you came around with the underground mimic and savior your sound mark your ink, the lives of thugs on their stomachs their bottoms, their rolling twenties, their hunneds your words so sacrament so memorized so litmus test and testament so wretched so generous never knew malcolm as machiavellian text, hence you vexed and cursing: our black and shining prince our sweetest thing, our prism and its light lynched by bullet, won’t survive the knight now your blood spills and the people crowd around just one question:
ru still down?
Chinaka Hodge is a poet, educator, playwright and screenwriter. Her latest book of poems is “Dated Emcees,” from City Lights Publishers. David Roderick is the co-founder of Left Margin LIT: A Home for the Literary Arts, in Berkeley. He is author of “Blue Colonial” and “The Americans.”