Coded Language

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A long piece of scrolled white paper containing a handwritten copy of Saul Williams' poem "Coded Language." The top half of the poem is written in both black and brown ink; the lower half just uses black ink. The handwriting is in all capital letters and features a distinctive 'E' made with just three parallel horizontal lines and no vertical line joining them. The poem begins, [Whereas, breakbeats have been the missing link connecting the diasporic / Community to its drum woven past / Whereas the quantized drum has allowed teh whirling musicians to / Calculate the ever changing distance between rock and stardom / Whereas the velocity of the spinning vinyl, cross-faded, spun back-wards, and / Re-released at the same given moment of recorded history, yet at a / Different moment in time's continuum has allowed history to catch up with / The present].

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