What I Will Tell My Jewish Kids and Other Poems on Palestine

by Kevin Coval

when i saw
an old woman
on all fours
in the ruins
of her home
looking under
floor tiles
for medicine
i did think
what would i say
if it were my grandmother

So begins What I Will Tell My Jewish Kids, a collection of poems on Palestine from Kevin Coval, four-time HBO Def Poet and ALA "Book-of-the-Year" finalist.

What I Will Tell My Jewish Kids is about the Jewish community, conflicts within it, and family reflections; it's about speaking truth to power, at the dinner table and in the world at large; it's about the undeniable power of history and facts, the inspiration of resistance, and the promise of justice and reconciliation. Most of all, What I Will Tell My Jewish Kids is a dissident artistic vision, a lovesong to both all of those who are Jewish, who refuse to equate Judaism and Zionism, who believe their people "have a long story. more than what is seen now"; and to those who resist against all odds, apartheid walls, checkpoints, and borders, their oppression in Palestine.

Genres: Poetry

330 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Kevin Coval is an award-winning poet & author of Everything Must Go: The Life & Death of an American Neighborhood, A People's History of Chicago & over ten other full-length collections, anthologies & chapbooks. He is the founding editor of The BreakBeat Poets series on Haymarket Books, & Artistic Director of the MacArthur Award-winning cultural organization, Young Chicago Authors, & founder of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, the world's largest youth poetry festival, now in more than 19 cities across North America. He's shared the stage with The Migos & Nelson Mandela, has published in Poetry Magazine, The Chicago Tribune & CNN.com & co-hosts the podcast, The Cornerstore, on WGN Radio.

Reviews

[Andrew Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sort of stumbled into Coval through Haymarket Books. Having lived through my roaring 20’s in Chicago I still have an affinity for writers and writing that comes out of there. In Coval’s work I found a very pleasing mix of politics, terse lines, and an optimal balance of modernity alongside age old ideas and texts.
The ability to mix Biblical, Talmudic, and Qur’anic text with issues embedded within modern warfare and technology related to the modern Palestinian Israeli conflict was remarkable. In one example he moves from the “birthright” movement – “10days. spring break. indoctrinate …” - to an epigraph from Malachi 4:5 about the prophet Elijah, and how there is a connection between Elijah, David, Moses and Aaron and his aunt, “[we] fled quiet like Bubbe Pearl did poland …”
Through all of his reflection he accepts his spirituality as nothing remarkable and his heritage as an equal to any other person’s heritage, as opposed to being elevated or chosen as in the piece “why i stopped going to shul” where he disavows a rabbi who, “counts jewish bodies, only our bodies count.”
Speaking truth to power has cost Coval relationships. To this he is self-aware that he has accomplished what he set out to do – to grapple with questions considered heretical. In the documentary I am Not Your Negro, a major question often posed by James Baldwin remains core to the film, and I think in a way Coval is asking a similar question. For Baldwin, he believed it wasn’t for him to ask why he was treated as a “nigger”, but for white society to ask why they need someone to play the role of nigger for them. Coval strikes a similar cord, seemingly asking why Jewish people need their nationalism.
Then again, maybe I've misread the whole thing. Regardless, I thought it was brilliant.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "portrait of a slumlord" and "why i stopped going to shul". But I really wasn't wowed by the rest.