#louisa bertman

[bestandco]

Reclaiming Stonewall. The Nation. July 15/22, 2019. Illustration by Louisa Bertman.

[poem-today]

A poem by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Elegy Ending With a Cell Door Closing

    — for Rojai Fentress

& the Judge told him to count The trees in the parking lot Where there were only cars: Zero The same number of stars You could see on a night in the city. & the Judge told him the parking lot will Be crowded with trees, oaks & spruces & pines & willows & grass & maybe Horses before he smells the city On a Sunday afternoon; & another Word for this story is azalea, the purple Bouquet his mother might have buried Her face against, had she known for this Judge sentencing Fats was a Funeral — A mourning, another purplish bruise; Fats Pled not guilty, which is to say, he has never Murdered a man, & in the courtroom, he Washed his hands against the air, as if To say fuck everything; imagine, no hair Troubled his face that afternoon & He'd never held a razor, except Inside his mouth, the best weapon a man Could hope for, unless you were The cat I saw tussle, for a second, With a Louisville slugger, turning The razor under that man’s tongue Into a kind of prayer, his hands leaping To his face & blood appearing as if Always there, & the man’s hands Fumbling against the air, as if ablution Could be found drenched in blood, & remembering reminds me that Fat’s Washing was a kind of holy, a plea, A reaching, for trees, for wild horses, For all the violence he’s known, to make Of him free, when innocence failed.

Reginald Dwayne Betts

Hear Reginald Dwayne Betts read “Elegy Ending with a Cell Door Closing” (illustrated by Louisa Bertman)

Reginald Dwayne Betts writes about the background to the poem and the wider legal ramifications of juvenile crime and sentencing in an essay in the Yale Law Journal.

Image: Louisa Bertman

[giiffii]

[newmanology]

“I create narratives that bring awareness to social justice.” My interview with illustrator/artist/animator Louisa Bertman, via the American Illustration Profiles series.