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BIG MEDICINE 

written by JEWEL RODGERS

 

A poetic reflection written by Jewel Rodgers

in response to BIG MEDICINE: The York Project, 

written and performed by Hasan Davis. York, an enslaved 

member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was hailed as

"Big Medicine" for his power and presence — an enduring 

story of survival amidst systemic erasure.

 

-----

 

Hasan Davis

Recounts a time

He taught a boy

To know himself, so that

The boy could value others - moments 

After showing us the plentiful ways 

York was stolen out of his own body.

 

I can’t quite put my finger on

The familiarity of it all.

 

As York tells me of the ways he was silenced, I wonder

If mansplaining is a passed-down tradition

Originating from ancestral slave-splaining.

If the soft offense of revisiting an idea is heritage 

Derivative of stealing the voice right out of the body.

 

And I can’t quite put my finger on 

The familiarity of it all, but 

If we just called it labor

Would you remember?

 

Two centuries worth seep from the tongue, pooling reflection 

Of the bear York was prepared to fight with axe in hand 

Of tree trunks made roots of his back ‘cross campsite 

Of how, even as a boy, York is made a Master’s man -

Prepared to give his life in exchange for the one 

Who owns it anyway. And thank God 

For the kind of survival 

That supersedes the body.

 

But if this religion 

Can make a Master (God) of a man

Was it ever a religion at all? And I don’t mean 

We shouldn’t honor this religion; I just mean, 

There are so many bodies. 

 

And I can’t quite put my finger on

The familiarity of it all, but 

If we just called it survival

Would you call this living? 

 

Who would listen to you? 

Who has claimed your voice lately? 

And were you safe enough to take it back? 

What other hands have grown accustomed to this kind of taking? 

And what is this requisite overflow but an inheritance 

Making of a body no well dare run dry?

 

Hasan Davis 

Performs rain dance in our eyes 

And we make a well of whatever we have left to give.

York begins pouring out, wide as the Pacific

Just as Clark pulls his tongue above tide;

York’s voice becomes a crumbling 

At the underbelly of the plentiful.

 

If not those men, who else would be known

As the greatest explorers?

What if they were more like the Indigenous

Familiar with welcoming the spirit home?

Who else would hold all this guilt? 

Can you swallow all this shame?

What becomes of the mother tongue 

If not the culture we fight to keep? 

 

Hasan Davis

Gives voice to an endless man

Who is unadorned for the ways 

It could not have been without him 

Because what else was there to do

But obey in excellence?

To be an endless overflow?

To drown in your own offerings.

 

And isn’t there 

Something eerie about

This kind of abundance?

To be of a well 

That could never 

Stop pouring

Even if it begged.

 

And what is the ache 

In a greedy man’s heart 

But an inheritance? 

 

What else 

Do your 

Ancestors 

Pass down 

But a rage? 

And a longing?

And all this power.

 

York swells his chest 

And sets sail for the last time 

And I can’t stop thinking about you

And all this water.

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