Saul Williams
Photo by TK
Politics Get Personal: Saul Williams
Issue #24
The multitalented artist and activist talks about Beat poetry, finding yourself, and what he would do if he ran the country
By Tara Lombardo
Published: June 1st, 2005 | 12:46pm
Saul Williams is a master of words in all their manifestations. As a poet, musician, actor, and activist, Williams capitalizes on satisfying your ear while stimulating your mind. Saul’s heavily political poem, said the shotgun to the head, and 2004 self-titled album are destined to get you writing letters to Washington, naming him as honorary representative of your government as well as your heart.
The politics surrounding the November 2004 election created a national divide on many levels. What are your thoughts about the outcome?
The last election was very grounding for me in that it helps to realize that as much as transition is going on — and I do believe it is going on in the conscious and subconscious minds of young America — we still have to answer to our parents and the whims and desires of our grandparents.
The fact is that my mom is 63 years old and was literally sprayed by fire hoses, yet still remains the open, beautiful, loving person that she has always been. And if that’s the case, the people who sprayed her with fire hoses are probably still alive, too, and they may remain the close-minded people that they were during the Civil Rights era.
I know it’s hard for us as a generation to feel our connection to the real history of this nation, but the history of this nation is so short lived. I remember just yesterday looking at this article on Johnny Cochran and it said that his great-grandfather was a slave. That’s not that long ago. It was a wakeup call to realize that we have this vision of this new world that’s possible and the youth will embody that, no problem, but we’re gonna have to take the life-support systems away from our grandparents. We also have to do that within ourselves because a lot of us pride ourselves on carrying on the traditions, aka mental bearings, of our parents and grandparents.
We believe that we are born into Republican or Democratic households, and the truth is well beyond Democratic or Republican. We have to find the courage and the imagination to create something that speaks to us. We have to be unafraid to shift and shape this fucking society to meet our needs as the new Americans that we are.
I found this passage in , said the shotgun to the head to be particularly powerful: “What is the cost of freedom? / And how is it paid? / To be free / Of the rigmarole / Of age old traditions / Based on submission and fear / One must pay with the courage / To stand alone.” Can you talk a little more about the political significance of this passage?
It’s quite simply that this country has not done a great job at greeting individuals. A well-founded community is composed of individuals — people with different mentalities, different ways of thinking, all communing on the same plane.
I feel like American society has aimed more so to create a soldier out of its citizenry — this thing that follows orders, whether those orders be: “Forward march” or “Obey your thirst.” The propagation machines and the media have done such a good job at figuring out how to manipulate the public into doing what it wants, that we really turn out these machines that consume. The process of discovering yourself and finding yourself is becoming rare and rarer, which is why the resurgence of poetry and the spoken-word movement, as relates to the Black Arts movement and the Beat poetry movement, is so important for this time.
When we have an On The Road written from our generation, that’s the sort of thing that we need to inspire us to be ourselves. You can’t really expect to find some sort of communal confirmation as you grow into yourself. Somehow you are going to have to have the type of security that allows you to grow despite the fact that things around you may not be set up for you to grow, especially if you’re questioning authority. Eventually you’re going to find a community that embraces you and realize how large that community is. You have to realize that in many of those cases, the world is standing right there with you.
You interviewed poet Amiri Baraka in October 2004 for Fader magazine. My introduction to Baraka was through his post-September 11 poem, “Somebody Blew Up America.” Was there anything you learned politically from that interview?
I believe that Amiri Baraka is our greatest living American poet. He’s been extremely prolific: an amazing playwright and essayist, a non-conformist of a thinker, and a brilliant, beautiful poet. He has been a part of quite a few renaissances in this nation and his voice has maintained its tradition of being original and extremely insightful.
As far as him being silenced, that’s like looking at the election that’s once again realizing that there are still people in positions of power that abuse that power in the name of maintaining a sense of normalcy, which is actually below the standard of common humanity.
On the track “Act III Scene II” of your new album, you say, “You’re the one they’re asking to carry a gun / Warfare ain’t humanitarian / You’re scaring me son / Why not feed the homeless. Jobless. Fight inflation?! / Why not fight for our own healthcare and our education?” As a country, do you feel like we have our priorities mixed up?
I feel that the number-one priority of America should be education. To be the richest nation of the world, it’s really a shame that we do not experience the best educational systems in the world. I don’t believe that the No Child Left Behind Act has fruitfully looked out for the poorest of American citizens. America can afford to put all of its citizens through college.
We need to be focusing on that, and from there we need to be focusing on healthcare and seeing that American citizens also receive free healthcare, at least up until a certain age. I feel that our country is not looking out for our best interest with the amount of money that it spends on supposedly securing and protecting us. We’re being fed chemicals and being taught bullshit … but we’re protected. I just don’t think that’s enough.
If you could create a new law, what would it be?
It would be that every American citizen is guaranteed free education. If every American citizen could get the education through college, wow, that would be awesome! Basically, I think it would encourage people to dream a bit more freely.
If you were running for President, who would you pick as your running mate?
Julia Butterfly Hill. She’s an activist — the girl who sat in that redwood tree. She has figured out a number of ways in which people can be mindful of their impact as far as what we consume affects the ecological state of the planet. With her help, we could do stuff like have a nation that’s a bit more dependent on hemp than oil. I think we could do a lot more to be consuming a lot less of the world’s natural resources in this country.
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