Riverside Church

Publication Instance Details #923

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	Yes	No	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War Racism/anti-Semitism/Sectarianism Assassination Poverty/Deprivation/Lack of Sustenance
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Vietnam War
Languages	Irish
Genre	Long (narrative) Poem
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of the poem describes Riverside Church, located in Manhattan, New York City. This church has a long history of social activism and agitation, which is reflected in this poem. Martin Luther King's visit to the church is described, in which he criticized the Vietnam War, as is Mandela's visit in the 1990s. There are wider descriptions of black lives in America and statements of how the racial differences in the country have shaped their experiences - for example, the caring for white children, working in bars, cleaning homes, and so forth. The end of the poem appears to contain a reference to the assassination of Martin Luther King, in which his blood is described as still flowing on the streets.