Hollywood Africans 1983
- Hollywood Africans*1983
Basquiat paints
the town. PAW. BWANA. SEVEN stars. Night
life—star-struck Basquiat’s arrived, brought Toxic
& Rammellzee along for the ride. Our trio stomping new
ground—shaky, kept. Hills,that is—black
gold, Texas tea— out west Basquiat burns
his canvas ochre, this trinity thin as their ties. Hip
hop hippity hop— Sunset Blvd Walk of the Stars,
streets stretched like limos. B at last in the black,
dines out at Mr. Chow’s. IDI AMIN. 200 YEN. Put it on his tab— [End Page 288]
trading meals for canvases free loaded with msgs,
HERO-ISM. TOBACCO in purple, palimpsest. Toxic
& RMLZ cool, eyes shaded by goggles, hats with Zs. Snores
ville. GANGSTERISM. SELF-PORTRAIT as a heel #3. Hail,
hail, the gang’s all heels—no winners or winters, just
wanderlust amongst Oscars® & MOVIE STAR
FOOTPRINTS like an astronaut’s. Rock rock planet rock
don’t stop—POP CORN—SUGAR CANE. Academy
Mammy Award & another for Butler, Rhett—To the moon
Jemima—PAW— basquiat rockets NEW!—hands pressed
fresh into pavement, permanent as a rap sheet, booked.
Kevin Young, who was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, is author of Most Way Home, a volume of poems. He teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Georgia, Athens. A graduate of Harvard, he recently received the MFA degree at Brown University.
Footnotes
* © 1997 by Kevin Young.
