An Interview of A fee O15 Caged =
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Indignation of an Innocent Prisoner Unveiled
Behind the Mask of Shakespeare Play Adaptations
by Leon Benson, 2007
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AN INTERVIEW OF A CAGED ROSE
© LEON BENSON 2007
No parts of this work is to be duplicated without the
written permission of Leon Benson. Enquiries should be
addressed to WORD IMPACT.
Cover Art by—Josiah Jones-Bay #988556
(Contact him at WVCF * PO Box 1111 * Carlisle, IN 47838.)
3%
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement—4
Dedication—4
Forethought—5
Introduction—12
Part 1. The Interview—12
Part 2. Adaptations—16
Othello. Act 5, Scene 2: It ls The Cause—16
Macbeth Act 1, Scene 7: If I’ma Do It—18
Macbeth Act 2, Scene 1: She loves me...She loves me Not—20
Macbeth Act 3, Scene 1: Fear Isn’t Status-Quo—21
Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1: What’s My Prophesy?—23
Macbeth Act 5, Scene 3: Go Out With a Bang Not Like a Lame—
24
Macbeth Act 2, Scene 4: Knockin’ Within—25
Hamlet Act 1, Scene 4: Unfair Customs—28
Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2: A Poem Within A Poem—30
Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1: To Truly Live or To Die—31
Hamlet Act 4, Scene 4: A Good Guy Gone BAD—34
Hamlet: | can murder the world—35
Conclusion—39
Afterthought—41
fi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Salutes to Keith Anderson of WORD IMPACT (magazine) for taking
time out from his hectic schedule to make m iti
y creative writin il-
able to the public. Kudos! gs avail
DEDICATION
To every aspiring artist in the world. No matter what the haters sa
about your works, use your talents to elevate yourself and others =
life. And, then, you will have achieved the immaculate conception all
artists aspire to reach. Use your artistic power wisely, because with
all great power comes a greater responsibility toward pintainity-
Enters Lee Bently 448
a tl (TO anyone tryna Make It): “When you learn to grasp the
things within your reach; eventually you will burn your palms on the
sun while passing it, at the heights of your success.”
Exit Lee Bently 448
fe
FORETHOUGHT
The following is a transcript map of a tape-recorded interview of me
(Leon Benson) on April 24, 2007 while enslaved in the Security
Housing Unit (SHU) of Wabash Valley Correctional Facility
(WVCF) in Carlisle, Indiana. The interview was conducted by Dr.
Lura Bates, a professor and scholar of English Literature at Indiana
State University. This recorded interview was one of a few out of her
ten years of experience teaching Shakespeare to prisoners. What
prompted this interview was the expansion of her “Shakespeare in
SHU” class due to the good praise her program received in 2005
when it first appeared on national T.V. on the MSNBC news channel
program called Lock Down. And | debuted on this television program
reading my original adaptation of Act 3, Scene 3 of the play
Macbeth. And this exact MSNBC news program is still currently
broadcasted on T.V.
The purpose of the recorded
interview with me, was for
Dr. Bates to promote her
class to other prisoners in the
SHU through videos that
appeared on an inter-prison
T.V. channel at WVCF. This
video only showed a picture
of my face while my pre- fe
recorded words spoke about
my experiences studying Shakespeare. Another purpose for the
recorded interview was for me to recite five of my Macbeth play
adaptations, which appeared at the beginning of each of the five acts
of the play within a study handbook. This handbook is entitled
Shakespeare in the SHU: thinking Outside the Box, which was
created by a former SHU prisoner, Larry Newton, and Dr. Bates in
the overall hopes that the recordings, videos, and handbook would
make Shakespeare’s work more appealing to other prisoners to want
to participate in her class.
Ga
There are several reasons why Dr. Bates chose me to do such an
interview: 1) I’d been an active participant in her class since 2004. 2)
I had a bulk of original adaptations from the Shakespeare plays
Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello. 3) | could effectively articulate my
interpretations and psychoanalysis of the plays’ characters. 4) I was
one of the few of her class participants who could oratorically
perform their original adaptations in poetic, dramatic, and
understandable ways. 5) Plus, when I was on that MSNBC Lock
Down program reciting my adaptation in a prison cage, I still
bloomed like a rose. So, when she presented me with this interview
opportunity, I agreed, only on the terms that I would be able to send a
copy of the recording to someone in society. She then presented me
with an outline of the interview on April 20, 2007. I strategically saw
an opportunity to slip my voice through the narrow cracks of prison
into society in a way that would connect to my ongoing freedom
campaign. However, w/ the violence of the Macbeth play adaptations
Dr. Bates chose from my work to present in the handbook and in the
interview, I felt the need to present a realistic reflection of myself the
best I could within three days before that recording. The time I had to
accomplish this made it somewhat difficult.
When it came time to record the interview, I presented Dr. Bates with
an interview outline I composed. She thumbed through my
handwritten pages and was so impressed from my effort alone that
she allowed me to record an introspected interview. Therefore, you
will not hear Dr. Bates’ voice during the recording because I asked
myself the questions posed by her initially. However, she was present
during the entire recording while sitting in a chair just outside of the
cuff-port opening of the cell-booth I was confined in. She acts as a
silent interviewer and audience while my words echo off the desolate
concrete and steel stage I’m speaking from within, sitting on a milk
crate.
Of course, this wasn’t my ideal way to express myself in connection
to my 2007 Run for Freedom Campaign. However, it is evident of the
artistic extension of my exoneration efforts here. I tried to be as pure
as possible with the emotional vibes I capture throughout the
fy
recording that’s directly drawn from my actual pain and indignation
of being wrongly in prison for a murder I did not commit. And these
visceral vibes can most powerfully be felt in my adaptations of
Hamlet play speeches. I made parts of Hamlet’s voice into my own.
More so, any listeners who are familiar with my freedom endeavors
online and not my creative writing exploits of Shakespeare plays may
be stuck with an eerie irony of this recording. This is due to Dr.
Bates’ selection of Shakespeare's most violent play scenes for the
recording I rewrote years before. | commend Dr. Bates’ overall
efforts of providing her class to prisoners because she volunteers her
free time. But, whether she chose these violent scenes for me to say
for a criminology art therapy exhibition or not, it made me feel
uncomfortable because those scenes conflicted with my proclaiming
to be absolutely innocent of murder. I had to chance this tacit guid
pro quo of me saying these violent scenes for her in order for my
more realistic voice to be heard by the right people in society.
Nonetheless, I hope every reader or listener recognizes that ihe
adaptations I present here are all merely artistic expression that’s
geared around the violence within the original Shakespeare play
scenes of Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Therefore, I suggest that
anyone who speculates my character due to the paradox of my
creative writings and my claims of innocence. To look at my creative
work as an example of the truth of my innocence that allows me the
volition of artistic freedom.
However, if the reader or listener is familiar with me personally,
beyond my public campaign efforts, they will understand all the pain,
loss, and tragedy that have afflicted me most of my life before prison
that I can draw from in my creative fiction or non-fiction writings. At
this point of my existence, I’ve come to feel like a modern-day blues
poet because all I know is pain. Sometimes, I feel my ability to
express pain is a curse because it seems my life is collaged in
gloominess. However, it’s well documented throughout history that
pain and indignation caused by poverty, enslavement, imprisonment,
and many other forms of human afflictions and suffering have given
63
There are several reasons why Dr. Bates chose me to do such an
interview: 1) I’d been an active participant in her class since 2004. 2)
I had a bulk of original adaptations from the Shakespeare plays
Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello. 3) 1 could effectively articulate my
interpretations and psychoanalysis of the plays’ characters. 4) I was
one of the few of her class participants who could oratorically
perform their original adaptations in poetic, dramatic, and
understandable ways. 5) Plus, when I was on that MSNBC Lock
Down program reciting my adaptation in a prison cage, I still
bloomed like a rose. So, when she presented me with this interview
opportunity, I agreed, only on the terms that I would be able to send a
copy of the recording to someone in society. She then presented me
with an outline of the interview on April 20, 2007. I strategically saw
an opportunity to slip my voice through the narrow cracks of prison
into society in a way that would connect to my ongoing freedom
campaign. However, w/ the violence of the Macbeth play adaptations
Dr. Bates chose from my work to present in the handbook and in the
interview, I felt the need to present a realistic reflection of myself the
best I could within three days before that recording. The time I had to
accomplish this made it somewhat difficult.
When it came time to record the interview, I presented Dr. Bates with
an interview outline I composed. She thumbed through my
handwritten pages and was so impressed from my effort alone that
she allowed me to record an introspected interview. Therefore, you
will not hear Dr. Bates’ voice during the recording because I asked
myself the questions posed by her initially. However, she was present
during the entire recording while sitting in a chair just outside of the
cuff-port opening of the cell-booth I was confined in. She acts as a
silent interviewer and audience while my words echo off the desolate
concrete and steel stage I’m speaking from within, sitting on a milk
crate.
Of course, this wasn’t my ideal way to express myself in connection
to my 2007 Run for Freedom Campaign. However, it is evident of the
artistic extension of my exoneration efforts here. I tried to be as pure
as possible with the emotional vibes I capture throughout the
it, 3
recording that’s directly drawn from my actual pain and indignation
of being wrongly in prison for a murder I did not commit. And these
visceral vibes can most powerfully be felt in my adaptations of
Hamlet play speeches. I made parts of Hamlet’s voice into my own.
More so, any listeners who are familiar with my freedom endeavors
online and not my creative writing exploits of Shakespeare plays may
be stuck with an eerie irony of this recording. This is due to Dr.
Bates’ selection of Shakespeare's most violent play scenes for the
recording I rewrote years before. I commend Dr. Bates’ overall
efforts of providing her class to prisoners because she volunteers her
free time. But, whether she chose these violent scenes for me to say
for a criminology art therapy exhibition or not, it made me feel
uncomfortable because those scenes conflicted with my proclaiming
to be absolutely innocent of murder. I had to chance this tacit quid
pro quo of me saying these violent scenes for her in order for my
more realistic voice to be heard by the right people in society.
Nonetheless, I hope every reader or listener recognizes that the
adaptations I present here are all merely artistic expression that’s
geared around the violence within the original Shakespeare play
scenes of Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Therefore, I suggest that
anyone who speculates my character due to the paradox of my
creative writings and my claims of innocence. To look at my creative
work as an example of the truth of my innocence that allows me the
volition of artistic freedom.
However, if the reader or listener is familiar with me personally,
beyond my public campaign efforts, they will understand all the pain,
loss, and tragedy that have afflicted me most of my life before prison
that I can draw from in my creative fiction or non-fiction writings. At
this point of my existence, I’ve come to feel like a modern-day blues
poet because all I know is pain. Sometimes, I feel my ability to
express pain is a curse because it seems my life is collaged in
gloominess. However, it’s well documented throughout history that
pain and indignation caused by poverty, enslavement, Imprisonment,
and many other forms of human afflictions and suffering have given
.g°
birth to some of the world’s most creative painters, poets, writers,
singers, dancers, actors, and comedians.
Most artists of any form use their artistic platforms to express the
moral contradictions of society by constructing elaborate mirror-
canvases for society to look at itself through the eyes of others
(particularly the artists). And history also shows us that the artists
who were threatened by death, prison, or social persecution for
expressing social truths in their works became the most artistically
profound and strategic when delivering those truths behind the mask
of their works. Some of these masked messages weren’t discovered
until centuries after the artists’ death—of the Ancient, Dark and
Middle Ages, to the Renaissance and American slave periods.
And, because I am a black American, America’s history of black
slavery is part of my story. Ironically, I’m convinced that, since my
false conviction, I’ve grown to more objectively empathize with the
pain my ancestors endured during slavery. They were denied access
to tools of formal history recording: reading and writing. They were
denied access to their native culture and language because many
Slave masters deemed such to be subversive to their control over
them. In time, the slaves lost the repetition of the codes of a Pan-
African language that all blacks could understand back then. And this
was when black slaves learned to use the English language, the Bible
scriptures, and gospel songs as codes that only they could understand.
The black poets, singers, dancers and comics who were produced
from out of the shackles of slavery (who weren't recorded in written
history per se) became the artistic beacons of survival and direction
givers of freedom to their people. I take pride in my ancestors’ ability
to artistically communicate with each other despite the fact that death
or torture loomed as close as the tips of their broad nostrils if the
slave masters figured out what they were truly expressing. (Because
of their courage, I was born in a freer America.) And because I’m an
artistic poet and writer who is a prisoner (or neo-slave) to the present-
day State, there is no exception to the truths I, too, had to mask
within my adaptations. Naturally, the “neo-slave masters” of this
prison administration wouldn’t have allowed me to openly voice the
A
falsehoods of my conviction or the falsehoods of why I’m held in
SHU. So, while I recorded, I felt the spirit of an old black slave
communicating the pleas of help toward freedom to modern-day
abolitionists, at the expense of the slave masters, by masking -
message behind the slave masters’ own gospel songs they forcibly
assign me to sing for their enjoyment. [ Laughs. |
In actuality, those of you who are of my same righteous a
soul and conscientiousness will be able to pick up = he cues of this
interview within an interview. And maybe then you'll provide me the
keys I need to open the doors of the cage that holds the rose my
humanity in bondage. This brings to mind a remarkable folk tale ~
Idries Shan’s Tales of The Dervishes. In this tale, a caged doar
strategically uses his captor to unconsciously deliver his plea o
freedom to his fellow free birds of the wild:
A merchant kept a bird in a cage. He was going to India, the land
from which the bird came, and asked it whether he could na
anything back for it. The bird asked for its freedom, but was Soe
So, he asked the merchant to visit a jungle in India and announce .
captivity to the free birds who were there. T he merchant did SO, i
no sooner had he spoken when a wild bird, just like his own, fe
senseless out of a tree onto the ground. The merchant thought ote
this must be a relative of his own bird, and felt sad that he shou
have caused this death.
When he got home, the bird asked him whether he had brought good
news from India. “NO,” said the merchant. “I fear that my news is
bad. One of your relatives collapsed and fell dead at my feet when I
mentioned your captivity.
As soon as these words were spoken, the merchant Ky bird eR
and fell to the bottom of the cage. “The news of his kinsman 's _
has killed him too,” thought the merchant. Sorrowfully, he picke _
the bird and put it on the window sill. At once, the bird revived an
flew to a nearby tree.
-10-
“Now you know,” the bird said, “that what you thought was disaster
was in fact good news for me. And how the message, the suggestion
of how to behave in order to free myself, was transmitted to me
through you, my captor.” And he flew away, free at last.
[Laughs.] It goes to show that history is correct about how artfully
strategic any person or thing can be in their endeavor for freedom, let
alone an artist of any form. And this audio recording is me
transmitting a message to you through my captors’ arrogance.
Because I’ve grown to understand the advancement of computer
technology, I came to realize that the average person throughout
societies of the world have the options to read, listen to, or view
digital info of any topic of their interest. And, since the years of my
incarceration, this technology has changed how most people
internalize information. Although, reading will always exist, the
visual and aural ways of consuming information is more prevalent in
today’s world. Therefore, you can understand the importance of
transmitting the vibration of my voice to society in a digitally
accessible way. Because the chances of my written words being read
and internalized are much slimmer than if they can be heard and felt.
It then should go without saying that I had to provide this written
guide of a forethought to be read. Because it has been a dire struggle
for me, and me alone, to pivot the worthiness of my very existence,
without the assistance of those who oppress me today. Therefore, I
had to unveil the means by which I’m willing to go to initiate interest
in my case to society. And it was an act of bravado and bravura to
cross enemy lines to position myself with humanity and the
possibilities of gaining new alliances with a stroke of my pen.
Barbara Mellix said it best, “I come to comprehend more fully the
generative power of language. I discovered...that through writing one
can continually bring new selves into being, each with new
responsibilities and difficulties, but also with new possibilities.
Remarkable power, indeed. I write and continually give birth to
myself.”
One of my classmates from the Shakespeare class in the SHU, a wise
~-}ji-
brotha by the name of Christopher “Naeem” Trotter once said during
a class discussion: “The true tragedy of life is what dies in a man
while he still lives!” And you’ll find from the following that my soul
is far from dead. My unjust circumstance was the tool that destroyed
the souls of other men before me, but I’m bending the same
circumstance into instruments towards personal achievement. As
James Baldwin said, ‘““While the tale of how we suffer, and how we
are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must
be heard. There isn’t any other to tell; it’s the only light we’ve got in
all this darkness...and this tale, according to that face, the body, those
strong hands on those strings, has another aspect in every country,
and a new depth in every generation.” Hopefully, my thoughts here
today will endure as a part of the history of human volition against
difficult circumstances, not merely as the small triumph of x
outwitting my oppressors, but an example of the responsibility we a
must be willing to bear: to truly live and tell.
—Leon Benson
June 10, 2007
(Juneteenth Salutes)
At:
INTRODUCTION
The structure of the following transcript is to bring the listener of the
audio recording the exact clarity of what I said, in case any parts of
the recording were unclear. Also, throughout the transcript you will
find my additional commentary within the bracket marks ([]) as to
bring more understanding of what I was saying, with added informa-
tion that wasn’t expressed in the original recorded interview.
Part 1. The Interview
My name is Leon Benson but you can call me “L.B.”, and I’m 31
years old.
Q) My experiences in the SHU?...Is two-fold. One of extreme pain
at times and other of extreme growth. The pain comes from being in a
one-man cell 23-24 hours per day while watching my life stand still
while the outside world keeps moving and seemingly passing me by.
I’ve come to feel like a lost soul in a world that’s so technologically
advanced that it can read the fine print of a penny laying on the side-
walk from outer space...yet I’m lost to that same world while in the
(SHU).
And then you’re surrounded by other men in their cells who’re nega-
tive toward everything that’s productive. So they wallow in their own
misery, and when they can, they’ll pull you down to their broken
spirits.
And to have your life controlled by someone else [prison guards] at
every turn of the earth, while only allowing you one 20-minute phone
call a week, is suffocating. Sometimes I feel like a tadpole trapped in
the cold tear drop of a dead man’s nightmare.
However, it was at these personal lows that I’ve gained the most
growth. “How?”, you might be thinking. Well...when you experience
a circumstance that you cannot immediately change, you are then
forced to change yourself for the better..at least this was the case for
5%
me. It’s hard because your biggest obstacle is within yourself. The
(SHU) will bring you into an introspected confrontation; either you
can run from yourself or challenge yourself. Plus, how can anyone
outrun themselves? (Are you serious?) so I challenged myself and
grew.
Q) How long have I been here in the SHU?...I’ve been incarcerated
for a total of 8 years and 7 months, 7-1/2 of those years I’ve been of-
ficially in prison at Wabash Valley or what some call “Death val-
ley”...(sighs) put you on your seat belt for this...’ve been in the
(SHU) 5-1/2 of those years. So, I’ve been on the A/S [administration
segregation] unit here a very long time.
Q) A typical day in the SHU?...Starts off w/me awaking at 6 in the
morning and exercising, “when I’m motivated to.” Afterwards I eat
breakfast that’s served through the cell-slot, later I’m handcuffed
taken into a cell-shower to wash up, then I’m escorted back to the cell
where my day officially begins. I watch CNN news and ESPN on
T.V. to stay informed about the world.
If I gotta good book, I read; if I’ve a letter to write, I write; and if I’ve
legal work to do, I get my “Boston legal” on, but in real life. And
when I’m tired of all the above I immerse myself into creative writing
to harness my writing skills but mostly for therapeutic reasons. Basi-
cally I just “do me” and try to be as positive as possible.
Q) My experience with Shakespeare?...Before participating in the
Shakespeare class in the (SHU) ran by Dr. Bates of Indiana State
University in 2004, I had very little knowledge of William Shake-
speare and his work. I always heard about him in small bits on televi-
sion my entire life. But it was when I was nearly admitted in a per-
forming arts school in Michigan called Spects Howard that Shake-
speare was introduced to me as a play writer. However, I wasn’t ex-
posed to none of his work but I sensed his importance to the drama
arts back then.
Q) Why did I take the challenge of Shakespeare in the
mre
SHU?...Well, by 2004 I had discovered that the late hip-hop artist
Tupac Shakur studied Shakespeare plays while at the Baltimore
School of Arts in the 80’s. And Tupac stated in a documentary called
Tupac Resurrected” that Shakespeare helped to enhance his rap
abilities of capturing the emotions of life and life’s moral lessons
from its tragedies.
The most notable influence Shakespeare had on Tupac’s work was
Makaveli The Don Killuminati: The 7th Day T, heory. If you look on
this album cover it says “Exit - 2-Pac, Enter - Makaveli” like a
Shakespeare play. And this only made Shakespeare more interesting
to me and I was really eager to read his work to see what was so spe-
cial about it.
Plus I’m a poet and philosopher in m
y own right, my pseudonym is
Lee Bently 448 (Bently spelled B-e-n-t-l-y). The whole name means:
Avoiding the winds of peril, in the nature of talent and determination,
with divine balance. (That’s a long story in of itself, maybe another
time)...[e.g., Lee: Avoiding the winds of peril. Bently: the Nature of
talent—and determination. 448: divin balance. ]
Anyway, when Dr. Bates came by asking (SHU) prisoners if they
wanted to join her class I seen an opportunity to learn about Shake-
speare and his work in the hopes that I could find some unconven-
tional inspiration to progress my own skills and drama interests. So |
signed up!
Q) My initial reaction to Shakespeare’s work?...Was WOW! The
first play I read was Macbeth and it was hard to understand because
of the old English language (thee, thy, tho, thou) was a bit distracting
to me. But with some effort it became more easily understood. Then I
seen the parallels of his work in the 16th century w/ present society:
human wise! So the jewels started to appear more to me as I read the
passages.
Q) To describe the way I work in the cell?...Isn’t hard, as I said be-
fore Shakespeare plays are all written in old English language set in
~45-
the 16th century so it’s hard to get off into’em. So I have to put in my
ear plugs and turn off the T.V.—basically shut out the world. Then |
can concentrate enough to catch the momentum of his writings—
especially when I’m doing an adaption or rewrite projects—because |
try to fully interpret his writings and parallel them to modern times.
Like instead of a horse I replace it w/ a car, instead of swords | re-
place’em w/ guns, and instead of the (thee, thy, tho, thou) I re-
place’em w/ modern language, mostly from hip-hop culture.
If I don’t shut out everybody and everything, I couldn’t concentrate
enough to read or rewrite his plays. Real talk!
Q) The way the class group works?...Is incredible, the Shakespeare
class held in (RR) or the visitation booths of the SHU, where students
are placed in the booths across from each other w/ the door slots open
to make it easier to communicate w/ each other during class. Dr.
Bates sits in a chair in the middle of the floor [that’s between the
booths] and direct class like rush-hour traffic (and she is pretty good
at it too).
The group allows you to read your adaptations or rewrites of the
plays to other people. The group is open to comment, critique, and
compliment your writings. I think the group dynamic is so important
because w/ out it, there would be no one to share your re-writes and
perspectives of the play you’re working on with. Actually the group
makes Shakespeare interesting to talk about—I mean, I’ve had some
deep debates about Shakespeare’s plays w/ some of the intellectual
giants of Indiana prisons.
And this interaction w/ the group will inspire a lot of brilliant ideas
about life, human nature, and re-writing plots. Indeed, this is where
you'll find the absolute best outta William Shakespeare's work!
Q) My_advice_ to new readers _of Shakespeare within the
SHU?...Is, if you want to discover the universal elements of human
nature, pick up Shakespeare. If you want to find answers in the trage-
dies of bad decision making, pick up Shakespeare. If you want to ad-
-1%
vance your literary and intellectual résumé, pick up Shakespeare. And
of course, the class will improve your communication skills in writ-
ing and talking.
Beyond the above, sincerely participating in the Shakespeare class
will provide a positive outlet from the pain, demoralization, and deso-
lation of the SHU. I guarantee you, if you’re sincere about expanding
your mind by discovering new things, Shakespeare in the (SHU) is a
perfect activity to do. At least sign up to see why so many great
nee admire Shakespeare’s plays. There is something there worth
Ww!
Part 2. Play Adaptations or (Rewrites)
Othello Act 5, Scene 2
Rewrite Reading: “It Is The Cause”
Exit L.B. Enters Othello.
OTHELLO (TO HIMSELF AS HE WALKS TO THE ROOM):
She is the reason, the very reason my soul is flickering like wildfire
flames. I shouldn't have to describe to you, as you're the one that cul-
minates beyond the stars that are beyond my sight and too far from
my ebony hands to touch, so I must aim my thoughts at the moon. In
case I miss I can land at your bronze feet!
Give me the reasons for me not to spill her warm blood or not to
bruise her white skin with the colors of red, black and blue, which
would only symbolize a flag of Amerikkka's racism that divides hu-
manity now? Her smooth skin will melt like vanilla ice cream from
the heat of my indignant touch. ..
But she must die and die by my hands only, so she'll never betray the
heart of any other righteous man after me. God I'm ridding the world
of a she-devil that means the world no good. I'm committing justice,
-£%
not merely a justice for me, but for all righteous men.
Let's turn out the lights of my love for her still. So I can drink her
blood blindly...
Oh, baby, I still love you so much. I know I'll be turning out the light
of your love for me that can never be rekindled by another woman.
When I snap the stem of my rose of admiration, I'll never be able to
revitalize that same bloom in my heart for another woman, either.
Oh, give me one more chance, Lord, give me one more chance? Be-
cause now the tears are raining from my clouded heart; they are the
tears of a lover's regret of ever wanting to hurt the one they love. And
I love Mona deeply. ..
Just me imagining kissing her the last time, pushing my full lips
against hers, and inhaling the wind of her sweet breath will persuade
me to spare her life: I know it!
Exit Othello. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
In this particular adaptation, I chose to place Othello in a
contemporary prison setting. This scene is him rationalizing
w/ God about murdering his wife, Mona, before he meets her
on a prison visit.
Also, I had Teddy Pendergrass’ song “Turn Off the Lights” in
mind when I wrote this adaptation. Because it correlated w/
the original language of the play. Also, I wanted to capture the
irony of the tragedy by highlighting the coldness of Othello’s
thoughts w/ the love he had for his [wife] victim, not knowing
he was a victim of Iago’s envious deceit the whole time.
Wow!
Q) What I like best about the play of Othello?...What was
-18-
most intriguing about this play to me was how Othello was so
blinded by his own jealousy and narcissism, causing envious
Iago to control his mind and emotions whether w/ calculated
flattery or conspiracy theories of an unfaithful lover.
Although Iago’s of the world will undermine your every
move out of spite. It’s up to you to make the right decisions in
your own life to avoid such traps. The key is to recognize that
Iago-types do exist in the world—in most cases, they’re the
reason why most people are in prison. And the best defense
against them is deciding to be real w/ yourself and not letting
emotions cloud your better judgment of the truth, especially if
you’re an lago-type of person. “You really need to get
yourself together because there’s nothing worse than an
envious person!”
Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 7
Rewrite Reading: “If ’ma Do It”
Exit L.B. Enters Macbeth,
MACBETH (to himself):
Es
same bottles that contain our own blood that our enemies will pour to
intoxicate their ambitions: This poetic justice salutes the bad blood
we guzzle only to ferment our own blood in eloquent vintage! ...
Damn, the Dun has placed his trust in me, first as his most realest
souljah and kinfolk, who should oppose my devilish thought. And as
his host in my home, I should slam the doors, close the windows, in
the face of his murderer and not draw my own pistol. The Dun has
reigned over the hoods so humble and treal that the angels, God,
devil and demons will all plead for me to spare his life in the tongues
of every language and slang known to man, like a thousand heroin
addicts pleading for a fix after a dry week; --and pity-and I mean
pity, like a baby in the belly of a dope fiend drowning in the poisons
the mother feeds it daily, only to be born into a world addicted to an
unknown substance, shaking and longing to be nourished by the milk
of death, will bleed from every eye and heart in the city.
But no amount of tears will wash away the ink of the Dun's blood that
will graffiti the walls of my soul forever. And my foot is not heavy
enough on the gas petal in the car of my intents, but it's the nitro but-
ton of my ambition that places me in the passenger seat when I push
ia.
Exit Macbeth. Enters L.B.
If I’ma do it, I’ma do it well. Because ain't no sense of faking at any-
thing.
Only if the murder could also kill the consequences of what this ac-
tion will bring...with his demise, the world will be mine, but my bul-
lets will be-all and end-all I have known from that point on....
At this moment, as I stand here in the shoes of destiny, I will run
down the life I prey upon like a cheetah on an open plain or like the
sharks did the flesh of men after God flooded the earth with his tears.
There was judgment then, and there will be judgment one day here,
because the same bottles of blood that we pour in our cups will be the
My Adaptation
I placed Macbeth in a contemporary setting of an American
underworld in Harlem, New York. Instead of an ambitious
[military] general, I made him an ambitious hit man of a drug
organization. What I found interesting about Macbeth outta all
other Shakespeare’s characters in other plays was the fact that
Macbeth struggled w/ the decision to betray his friend, the
Dun, and he always admitted he was wrong to himself but he
accepted his decision based on ambition. And it’s rare that
you’ll find men who will take responsibility for their wrong
eG) |
moves in life. Macbeth did. He sold his soul to the game.
There are many people in prison who can relate to Macbeth’s
character. Especially ex-drug dealers. But I think very few
could be more scandalous than Macbeth in real life. He was
like Alpo off the Paid In Full movie that was based on a true
story, except Macbeth wouldn’t snitch.
My adaptation shows a man willing to die by the same life he
lives. It’s sad, in the sense that Macbeth’s expectations of
himself are so low, when he could’ve put his energy into do-
ing something humane and productive instead.
The song of poetic-justice finds its way of playing its music at
the guy’s funeral who had the most potential but made the
wrong decisions w/ his potential.
Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 1
Rewrite Reading: “She loves me, She loves me Not”
Exit L.B. Enters Macbeth
Macbeth (to himself): “What is this? Are you the vision I’ve seen in
my thoughts, reflecting the face of death from your chrome skin? (He
Reaches Toward The Vision)...My mind is playing tricks on me, due
to the drama I know I must face tonite...
I see this pistol again, so vivid as a movie scene, like the one against
my waist band now, that I drawn upon the shadows. It is leading me
deeper into darkness, to stumble into bloody puddles that are deeper
than the oceans...I still see it!
And now, on her chrome face and firm backside are splashes of
blood, and her mouth moans with the satisfaction of our secret af-
fair...This can’t be real! It must be the bloody wickedness that I am
about to commit to someone who thinks I’m his friend...This visual
poetry is already writing a part of me dead: the voodoo of those
strange sistas’!
And now I must hold her lips [the pistol] to the music of murder, but
slowly, slowly, like the spider whose web already shakes with its vic-
tim, not to rattle the fly dangled in the web...
(Bell Rings.) I must go, to take destiny’s hand: The bell invites my
trigger finger to coil like a snake. If Duncan only knew that bell is
summoning his soul to the kiss of the longing lips of death.
Exit Macbeth. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
Originally in this scene Macbeth has a vision of the dagger he
was to use to kill his friend and boss, the Dun. But in my ad-
aptation, it’s a pistol. Since Macbeth is a hit man, he has had
an obsession with weapons of death since his youth. And the
same obsession causes him to personify a gun into a woman,
that is seducing him to murder. But in actuality it’s his way of
rationalizing what ambition is compelling him to do because
he knows a part of his integrity will die in the process.
Macbeth: Act 3, Scene 1
Rewrite Reading: “Fear Isn’t Status-Quo”
Exit L.B. Enters Macbeth.
Macbeth (to himself):
To be in this moment is nothing...My fear of Quo’s capabilities runs
deeper than the emotional wounds of a thousand prostitutes. And the
dominant nature of his righteousness makes my fears become the vi-
cious drum sticks to my heart, as this fear, is seen in my now trem-
bling fist: “Quo poses too much of a threat w/ the boundless temper
ares
of his thoughts, his wisdom guides him to be as calm as a statue w/a
blank face—I never could read.”
There is no man or God that I fear more than his existence: “because
under his fist my destiny is rebuked like evicted tenants, the black an-
gel from heaven, or as it was said Osiris was by Seth.”
He wanted to blast the sistas when they first put the name king of
kings, G of G’s, the trillest of trill upon me. And they [the sistas/
voodoo witches] should’ve choked on their own blood speaking to
him prophesizing. And they saluted him, like he was some type of a
father to the blood-line of kings:
“On my dome piece they placed a nameless crown, put a sterile phal-
lus of reign between my fist when it was tightly gripped, by a hand
that points away from my descendants, while writing on the wet side-
walk concrete: “‘No Son of Yours Will Ever Succeed!” If this is true,
have I lost my mind in the cracks of the same now dried cement?
For the love of my own sterile seeds the humble Duncan was mur-
dered by my design; put the bitterness into the veins of my peace,
only for them dead seeds, and my eternal rewards was given to the
common enemy of man, to make the bloodline of Banquo Kings!
“Rather than that, come to me destiny, into the hallows of my bullets
and champion me over all to the utmost!”
Exit Macbeth. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
Macbeth is a pure strategist for power. And whomever gets in
his way, he rationalizes a way to kill them, even his best
friend Ban Quo. Him and Ban Quo started off together on the
mean streets of Harlem. So he knew Ban Quo’s ability to
think was supreme, even to that of his own.
2a.
But Ban Quo would be a victim of Macbeth rise. The power
of greed can never be underestimated. Because it will bit un-
predictably from the shadows.
Macbeth: Act 4, Scene 1
Rewrite Reading: “What’s My Prophesy?”
Exit L.B. Enters Macbeth.
Macbeth: (to the voodoo sistas): I called y’all today, for you to tell
me the rest of the prophesy, however yall come to know it. Answer me
now, I’m Mac-Dondada!:
“Though it is yall, who blow the winds that feed the flames that burn
down churches...though it is yall, that splashes the waves of liquor in
the cups of drunk playas causing them to crash their Broughams into
telephone poles...though it is y'all, who use razor blades to chop up
coca trees, to produce the cocaine that chops down
generations...though it is yall, who drizzle dirt upon the
unbeknowing like a grave they never knew they were living in their
entire lives...though it is y’all, who wear the ruins of crumbled
nations and bones of broken families on your heads like
crowns...though it is y'all, who stole the treasured seeds of nature,
only to replace them with every destruction known to man: y'all are
going to answer every question I ask you today!”
“Gimme my prophesy?”
Exit Macbeth. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
In this scene Macbeth has become desperate because he has
done so much wrong, that he is in fear of being exposed for
overplaying his cards. And you know the saying: “desperate
I
men will do desperate things.” And in this instance Macbeth
is chasing down the witches [the voodoo sistas] and demand-
ing them to give him another good prophesy. The reason the
witches have avoided him is because they don’t wanna tell
him what mis-fortunes lie in his future they see.
What’s funny about this scene to me is that Macbeth is like a
lot of people who call on psychics: They’re all willing to run
with the smallest piece of good fortune, prophesy, or reading
and ignore all the obvious indications of reality. But Macbeth
goes as far to point out the witches ill characters, yet he’s so
desperate he still want a reading from them (Sucka).
Macbeth: Act 5, Scene 3
Re-write Reading: “Go Out With a Bang Not Like a Lame”
Exit L.B. Enter Macbeth.
Macbeth: (to his street souljahs): Go on and walk on your cell
phones, check the newspapers, watch CNN, let the street whisper be-
hind my back—but I don’t wanna hear any more of your reports—
let’em flush down a toilet like do-do!
Until the Detroit Mob is in Harlem I can’t be letting’ yall taint my
trill thoughts w/ yall’s fears. What’s up w/ the baby boy Malcolm?
Wasn't he born from the womb of a woman? I’ve been blessed with
the knowledge of powers that knows the beginning and ending of
every mortal man who said, ‘‘Fear no one Dondada, no man born of
the womb of a woman shall ever be able to hold the iron jist I reign
on my foes with!” [The souljahs looked to be unimpressed.]
“Then ride out, if you're scared, bustas, and be the entourage with
them Detroit fools who'll be caught slippin’ like transmissions, run-
ning up on me!”
“My mind is ruled by only me [like Harlem] and the heart I wear on
28
my sleeve shall never hide nor tremble with fear like a meth head.”
Exit Macbeth. Enters iB.
My Adaptation
Macbeth is feeling the pressure of the “Big Payback” coming
to him for all of his dirty deeds of the past. Like every fool
who chases waterfalls, Macbeth is in over his head and he
knows it. But instead of running from it he will embrace his
death with a fight, to feel as though he’ll die with some honor.
So he is just hyping himself up to lie for eternity in the bed of
thorns, he made for himself. To Macbeth it’s best to go out
with a bang than like a lame.
Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 3
Rewrite Reading: “Knockin’ Within”
Exit L.B. Enters the Porter.
THE PORTER (Hip-Hop song):
Knockin' within, knockin ' within... aaa
It's dark, the flames are burnin' behind calamity's grin.
Knockin' within, knockin' within. ..
Here, demons will poke your soul with a sin-infected syringe!
Knockin' within, knockin' within. .. fx: ;
It's a place where we say we love you, but we ain't your friends:
Knockin' within, knockin' within... .
I’m the keeper of the gates of hell, you a atol come in?
The only thoughts behind my locks, is turnin these keys, sla
Get out my way; it's like the block: in here, we laugh when you bleed.
B'cuz we live by a creed, that's darker than dusk :
Written in the bloods of greed, so, "In God we trust
Found on the paper of power, not in the pages of faith.
pa Se
Things go down like the twin towers behind these shadowy gates!
The deed's God-forsaken, like my girlfriend's name is envy
She smokes more hate than a chimney,
Running over players like a semi, while spittin' more malice than
semi's
From her whispers of greed, got a souljah say'n "gimme":
"All the power of presidents and the cries of the needy
Gimme the mask of deceit, so when I smile you can't see me!"
In here it's colder than winter, all that 's divine outta order
We turn'd Alpo to a sinner when he killed his friend Mitch Porter!
It's the deepest parts of hell, overdoes cuz you won't get no higher
So come behind these gates and get baptized in the fire!
Knockin' within, knockin’ within...
It's dark, the flames are burnin' behind calamity's grin.
Knockin' within, knockin' within. ..
Here, demons will poke your soul with a sin-infected syringe!
Knockin' within, knockin' within...
It 's a place where we say we love you, but we ain't your friends!
Knockin' within, knockin’ within...
I'm the keeper of the gates of hell, you wanna come in?
Knockinnn' withinnn—do you wanna come inn. ..?
“Knockinnn’ withinnn!”’
Exit the Porter. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
In the original scene the doorman to Macbeth’s estate was
talking in riddles of the dishonesty that was happening behind
its doors, as MacDuff knocked on the gate-doors. So I made
the doorman in my scene perform a rap verse as MacDuff
knocked on Macbeth estate gates.
The rap verse is consistent with the original scene but wrote
and performed with the surrealism metaphors of today’s hip-
hop. And the way the doorman [porter] says the rap verse, it is
2s
not to sound serious or totally threatening, although he was
truthfully warning MacDuff that Macbeth’s soul has been
overtaken by greed, and his estate has been the boardroom of
wickedtry and the bloody playground of his power grab. The
irony is MacDuff won’t pay attention to the doorman’s enig-
matic rap song.
Q) What did I like best about the play of Macbeth?...Is,
Shakespeare captures greed in its purest form in Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth. But the questions are whether it was Macbeth acting out of
free will in his ambition, was he the play toy of the witches [voodoo
sistas] prophesy, or of Lady Macbeth’s greed and direction?
And this play is a great analogy of an American capitalistic
economic-system. Because there are so many young men and women
who’re influenced to chase and acquire material possessions to
validate their worth. And often times this influence from mass media
advertisements causes the poor to resort to crime in this rat-race.
Then the system says to them, “You had a choice!” Well, they did
have a choice to make the right decision but that choice was against
all odds of the bombarding influences of society and _ their
environment. But the choice was there, like it was there for Macbeth.
The consequences in the play was Macbeth’s death, the consequences
for most individuals in America today is prison time. Where you can
think about how you were the unconscious play toys of the
capitalistic-witch’s-prophecies of profit who sit in corporate America
laughing at our consumption of fallacies. Don’t be mad, don’t blame
no one else because you had a choice (even if you didn’t know it).
There are many dead Macbeth-types today due to their ambitions of
street fame. And there are many more Macbeth-types in prison with
long sentences, but they are blessed with more choices. Hopefully,
these choices are to re-educate and inform the youth who are a part of
the street life that they have better choices beyond what greedy
influences tell them.
ae
Hamlet Act 1, Scene 4
Rewrite Reading: “Unfair Customs”
Exit L.B. Enters Hamlet.
Hamlet (to Horatio):
My mind and heart know that I wasn’t meant to be rebirthed within
the womb of a concrete beast—because it ’s unnatural and inhumane.
Especially while the customs of the public look upon me with the
locked eyes of ill scrutiny, because the keys of impartial thoughts
have long been forgotten and thrown away. Yet, you hold me prisone?
too, behind your invisible cage of judgments from the east to the west,
and even from nations I’ve never heard of.
I’m labeled the worst of the worst, the embodiment of hypocrisy toa
safe world, and the soul that’s too lost to be found by the lights of an-
gels. My reputation is tainted before you meet me. Therefore, the
goodness, the dignity, the integrity, and inspiration of whatever I do
now, is stripped away; whether it's my growth of character or the
material monuments built from my physical labor.
The chances of particular men like me are but vicious bites of nature,
that grows inside us now like did in our birth. “I am not
guilty!”...although the storms of life blew my leaf upon the oceans of
the guilty and unforgiven. Yet, we re the same because no one had a
choice of who and where they were born in this world; that placed
some of us in predicaments of the misguided deeds of our youth or to
be Black scapegoats of unsolved puzzles although the (peaces) never
fit.
So how can any righteous human being deny our capacity to grow?
When it shines for you like diamonds in the dirt. And it is so prodi-
giously real that ita break down the prison walls of anyone's unjusti-
fied bias, that were built on the foundations of shallow thoughts—
toward men like me (and you, because you're human too) who car-
-29-
ries the heavy cross of a past mistake, imperfect spirit, or false wit-
ness beared upon them. Which all can be seen as the unpredictable
chances of life, or as a blessing in disguise when one turns their
tragedy into a human achievement; and this is where the virtue of
character lies in its purest form.
Therefore, men should be judged on the content of their souls instead
of the clothes of circumstances on their backs. Only then, will the
public opinion of men in prison not be so fixated on their past faults,
or current status...as I will be on the humane growth of that particu-
lar man. Because when one is so eager to harshly criticize others, it
is said they are really trying to cover their own undiscovered scan-
dals...”’Is this the real custom?”
Exit Hamlet. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
In this scene Hamlet was originally answering his friend
Horatio’s question, ““Was it custom for King Claudius to beat
drums and sound trumpets at midnight?” And Hamlet replied
in a sarcastic way due to the contempt he had toward the king
who he suspected of murdering his father to take power. The
sarcastic response revealed Hamlet’s suspicion, because he
exposed how some customs of the king can’t cover up [the
king’s] wrong deeds.
My adaptation switched the custom of a kingdom into the so-
cial customs of today’s society about men in prison in gen-
eral. And the custom of society is to write men in prison off.
When in fact there are a lot of good individuals in prison
who’ ve sincerely grown past their past mistakes.
[Note: Here I tried not to get indignant in my writing, so I did
not express myself fully on the social customs of believing
everyone in prison is guilty of their crimes. And it feels frus-
Te
trating to me to have to wear the clothes of a guilty man when
I’m not guilty (at least for stealing someone’s life)...But ’'m
erroneously judged everyday...this makes me angry as hell
sometimes (most times). ]
Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2
Rewrite Reading: “A Poem Within A Poem”
Exit L.B. Enters Hamlet.
342
I’ve seen the power of poetic satire bring the guilty to the ground like
a hammer, by making them overreact and confess. But false accusers
rarely come clean even when science proves otherwise. Since I was
the man with sincere humility in the beginning, I'll construct my
words with the wrath of a thousand suns thata burn the souls of those
bearers of false witness. I may be cunning due to my understanding
of the power of words. But it’s pissing in the ocean compared to all
the calendars burned away from my life. Each letter of my words is a
thread to my spiritual net, that'll catch the conscience of those who
maliced me outta spite.
Hamlet (to himself):
I’m in here all alone and turning into the very hate that has stabbed
me in the soul from the shadows. “Would I be just as evil or diaboli-
cal to act out my revenge in fictitious lines of poetry, like the way I
play them out in my daydreams everyday? “Would God grant my
words the immortal power to stir the guilt in the hearts of those re-
sponsible for the wounds that surround me now? And to cause their
visions to blur with the tears of confession? ”
“Maybe if I send my passages to someone else to preform on my be-
half they would have the same emotional effects on the guilty, as
me?”—Probably not, because another poet wouldn't have the same
indignation, that burns in my bleeding heart that would squirt the
inks of my blood over the walls of a guilty conscience. But this is
nothing but art, mere words written on paper that can be thrown
away or spoken words that couldn't move a pebble from a sidewalk.
Maybe I’m foolish and desperate to think my poetry can make a dif-
ference. Because sticks and stones can break your bones but words
will never hurt you. (Sighs) But it was, deceitful words that sliced into
my life like razors to sever my freedom. So words can do more than
break your bones, they can kill you. So I pray to heaven for my re-
venge everyday because I’ve been deprived to the apex of humanity
next to death. And I can only unpack the truth of my soul with words
because words are my only weapons.
Exit Hamlet. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
In this scene Hamlet comes up with a genius idea to bring out
the guilty emotions of his mother the queen and his uncle the
king who killed his father—through this play he’s organizing.
This is called “the play within the play” and it’s a critical part
of the play.
In my adaptation I constructed this scene like Hamlet was a
prisoner who was wrongfully placed in prison. And because
of his condition, the only weapon he had was the words of his
poetry. So he comes up with an idea to write a wrathful poetic
satire to possibly bring out [those] responsible for his unjust
situation.
This prisoner Hamlet is in conflict with his humble self and
his justified vengeance.
Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1
Rewrite Reading: “To Truly Live or Die Without Truly Living”
Exit L.B. Enters Hamlet.
Hamlet (to himself):
To truly live or to die without ever truly living?”’, that is the question
I’m asking myself today. “‘Does one gain more dignity of mind to suf-
fer pains to acquire wealth or to oppose a world of unpredictable
pain that will wash upon the shores of their life?”...I can’t call it. But
if one resists all pain, will that cause it all to disappear forever?
To die without truly living is to avoid all of the suffering life so gladly
offers us all. But to die is like to fall asleep under the tree of knowl-
edge and to dream forever; but the dreams we think we're seeing is
really the nightmares. Nightmares, because all the respect and
wealth we gained while living, as long as we did, came from some
form of nefarious means to justify the ends of a better life: “Our lives
and no one else’s!”
But then again, who should wear the weight of guilt on their shoul-
ders? When oppressors may be wrong but they think they're doing it
in self-preservation; the proud man may seem condescending but it
was his pride that helped him to survive; the scorned hearts of lovers
may be unfair but at least they knew love; the criminal justice system
delays justice to the innocent but is busy saving society from [those]
who are guilty most of the time; the insolent government who makes
unjust wars by pursuing democracy in other lands to create peace.
No one can satisfy everyone with their actions. “So why complain or
sweat to impress anyone in life but those who matter, when the life
after death is unknown to us all?” If we’re honorable, is there a
heaven with gold streets? If we’re uncaring, is there a hell with lakes
of fire? Or if we're just imperfect humans, is there just nothingness
after death?” —No man who've rode first class in a coffin in the back
of a hearse has ever come back to describe life after death. And this
has been a puzzle to the thought of men since the beginning of time.
Then why are there so many people so quick to give themselves to
supernatural beliefs they know nothing about?
(He laughs) It’s your conscience that makes a coward outta you most
~34e
of the time. By provoking compassionate thoughts of a common com-
promise between your life obstacles or your mortal enemy. Causing
you to lose the breath of action...suffocating your heart with softness!
There can be nothing soft about me, because I choose to truly live, so
that even if I die my deeds of revenge will be remembered, as sins to
some, or as bravery to others. But at least I know I wouldn’t be for-
gotten, therefore, I'll still be alive in the hearts and minds of men
who walk the earth. And that’s the rewards of truly living for your
freedom!
Exit Hamlet. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
This is the famous “to be or not to be” speech by Hamlet, the
most recognized line outta all Shakespeare’s plays by far.
Originally Hamlet in this scene was playing crazy and talking
abstractly to throw the king and queen off of his trail of know-
ing they killed his father [the former king]. Also Hamlet is
making himself sound like he is in love with Ophelia but
afraid to express it [i.e, like a shy man would approach a
woman he likes. But in hamlet’s case it’s an act].
In my adaptation, I made this scene into a “‘to truly live or die
without truly living” concept; as a Hamlet who is questioning
the quality of his life as he sees himself at a stagnant point in
his life. So he makes his feeling of revenge into a righteous
purpose that will liberate him from meaningless existence.
What’s ironic, we don’t have to wait on revenge to give our
life purpose.
Hamlet Act 4, Scene 4
Rewrite Reading: “A Good Guy Gone Bad”
29%
Exit L.B. Enters Hamlet
It feels like the hands of time are against me at each tic and its tocks
entice my sleeping revenge to awake and bark like vicious pit bulls
from behind the fence of my heart.
“Oh!”, how can anyone call themselves a man if they spend most of
their days eating, sleeping, and defecating their potentials of great-
ness into oblivion?—That ain’t a man, that’s pig wallowing in the
muds of its own misery!
Whomever created us on this earth, gave us the vast potential and
responsibility of purpose. With the ability to see far into the future
and to look into the aftermath of our own swaggers. But he [or she]
didn’t give us the god-like capability to replace our warm flesh
hearts with a heart of cold steel, with a moment’s thought.
Whether or not I’m trapped in the solitary mind of a mad man, within
the obscurity of my soul, whose focused too keenly on the actions I
must take. My thoughts are driven by a tear drop of wisdom and the
rest is an ocean of fear. So I couldn’t begin to tell anyone why I’m
standing here saying, “Something must be done and those who've
violated must pay the price!””...Even though I am justified in saying it,
and doing it.
There are too many examples depicted in the [mural] on the walls—
under the bridge. That inspires my clenched fist to rise. Because it
illustrates an army of “ride or die” souljahs led by a black prince
with the heart of humility but who wears the war face of Shaka.
Whose ambition is puffed with hot air only because he believes what
he is doing is righteous, which enables him to spit fire. While onlook-
ers’ mouths drop in disbelief at the invisible event: of the unpredict-
able steel-winds of dangers, death, or victory as he makes footprints
across the sands of fate.
For any man to sit on the throne of greatness, it will not come with-
out the crown of opposing arguments. Fault will be found in a grain
77.
of sand in the desert, when honor is at stake.
So how do I continue to stand around when my father was murdered
by his brother and my own mother? When the very thought stirs my
blood into tidal waves..? But I feel bogus to know thousands of men
will die in another battle for the illusions of fame. There’s no use to
have humility any more. From this point on, there will only be “blood
in my eyes”’ because nothing else is respected by most men.
Exit Hamlet. Enters L.B.
My Adaptation
Originally Hamlet is caught in a complex conflict in this
scene: 1) He has to lead an army into battle for the first time
and he’s nervous. 2) Then he don’t necessarily agree with
what he is going to war over; i.e.., it is the revenge of a son
whose father was killed by Hamlet’s father?.3) But he feels
indignant about the queen and king who’re walking around as
if they didn’t commit any crimes. So Hamlet has to make a
choice once and for all about embracing revenge with no re-
course.
In my adaptation of this scene it’s placed in a modern [hood]
street context, as I gave Hamlet a street voice while he battles
internal conflicts due to a world that repeatedly gives the mes-
sage that revenge is ok for the right reasons. So revenge didn't
look so bad to Hamlet at this point. But does it make revenge
right?
Hamlet: Inspired Poem/Rap
Rewriting Reading: “I can murder the world”
Exit L.B. Enters Lee Bently 448
L. Bently 448 (to himself):
(x2) I can murder the World; the world; the world...I can murder the
world.
Tecan murder the world; that’s how I’m feeling in the eight by eight,
accelerated fascinations calculated my fate.
I'ma victim of society, driven vindictive,
give me the burnna, I'll do it, for the ones who snitchin’.
Colossal explosions, when immortal soul collide
I see the future of your demise, when I close my eyes,
while in the state of abyss, I don’t see no sun,
if I die, I'll be cloned though the blood of my son,
I hold destiny in my hands, when I’m given it slugs,
premeditatedly when I do it, I'll be wearin’ some gloves.
When I die askin’ life questions please show me some love,
pay homage to my existence when you smoking the herb.
Antagonized by the world-accumulated aggression,
pissin’ blood is a sign of internal infections.
I'ma feed my mind like a slug in chamber, mental ammunition,
to come up with a plan thata be beyond the whole world’s compre-
hension.
I waited patiently in the darkness huggin’ my chrome,
I laid dormant like H.I.V., now LB is full-blown.
“F**k the world, because the world is slowly murderin’ me! ”,
I've been blind my whole life, and I never could see:
Who to trust, is it the dealas or the neighborhood clucks?
Is it George Bush, Bin Laden, or a stray ass mutt?
Is it the priest, or the [guard] waitin’ on me with cuffs?
Was it the judge and the jurors, who gave me this time?’
Falsely convicted, sent to prison for a bogus crime!
So I trust me, and only me, because I know that I’m thorough,
so I woke up in the morning ready to murder the world!
(x1) ... the world, the world, I can murder the world!”
Exit Lee Bently 448. Enters L.B.
-3Ja
Interpretation
There are very few people like Hamlet in the sense that they
have been wronged by someone so badly that they’re
justified in their revenge. And in the rap/poem verse I felt my
justification [due to my false imprisonment] for revenge so
much, that I turned on the world.
Most times, if a person is so bent on revenge, they lash out
on people who done nothing wrong to them. Why? Because
the person who’s consumed with revenge can become selfish
in trying to get even, instead of trying to get ahead in life,
therefore unconsciously they can hold loved ones back too.
A lesson I’ve learned is that if you carry the malice of
revenge in your heart (even if it’s justified) for too long, it
will consume you from within. And often times the best
revenge is success and forgiveness.
(Note: I couldn’t decide which poem/rap song to place in the
interview connecting to Hamlet when I composed the
interview outline. However, I chose this one because of its
shock value. I figure I could get the listeners’ attention by
my visceral poetry. You should’ve seen Dr. Bates facial
expressions when I recited that piece. She was shocked.
Sure, this rap sounded harsh and even ironic to some
degrees. But my situation is much more harsh than my
creative expression of my indignation. And for a moment, I
hope you walked in the shoes of an innocent prisoner, whose
indignation drives him to strive for justice and freedom with
everything in his abilities.
This poem is a satire to stir the guilty hearts of those who’ve
wronged me and others in courtrooms, by systematically
painting false cases of our guilt before eyes of alleged
impartial jurors. Also what makes the rap/poem a satire is
-38-
that no one can murder the world with their thoughts or
should stay mad at the world for all of its injustices that afflict
us (some harsher than others) in a lifetime. It’s ironic that we
humans feel such unrealistic anger at times. Because, 30% of
the time, no one, can predict the misfortunate moments in
their lives. However, we can predict how we respond to those
misfortunes by keeping a righteous prospective of the
opportunity of personal growth from those dire times.
Hell yeah! I am an indignant soul due to my circumstances,
but I’ve grown to respond to it in constructive ways, like
creative writings. And, in doing so, I find more pieces of the
humanity that was stolen from me by the hands of injustice,
giving birth to a better being of myself.]
Q) What did I like best about the Hamlet play?...Is, that everyone
can identify with Hamlet’s circumstance. Because he was wronged
by his own family, the people who he loved and trusted the most.
[Maybe everyone can’t identify with this type of betrayal?] Yet,
Hamlet is a humble person whose back was pressed against the walls
of choices, “do I let the wrongdoers get away with murdering my
father? Or do I take justice and revenge out on them?”
The very concept of revenge is questioned in this Shakespeare play.
And we’re a [American] society that morally makes laws against
revenge, yet we’re the same society that tacitly cheers vengeful
actions on, through military force, entertainment, and relationships.
And Hamlet is in the (same) socio-political dilemma in the 16th
century as you and I are today when it comes to taking revenge in
your own hands.
Prisons are filled with men [and women] who took the law in their
own hands after someone harmed them or their family. And anyone
should protect themselves and their loved ones. But we cannot take
the law in our own hands even if we’re right in doing so.
This is a moral examination not only a play, as it deals with the
universal theme of making the right choices. Unfortunately,
3
sometimes none of the choices is good that we can make in a given
situation and we are forced to choose the lesser of the two evils. The
best choice is to try to avoid falling into such a problematic situation
to begin with.
[Note: I identified with Hamlet more than other characters from
Shakespeare’s plays I’ve read so far. He was a righteous person to
me, just caught in a dilemma because of the position in life he held as
royalty. On the other hand, I’m in a dilemma, too, because of the
position I presently hold as an innocent prisoner. Hamlet was killed
in the end by a cycle of revenge he didn’t know existed in another
person toward him. Although I’m far from being dead, I am looking
into the eyes of the criminal justice system of revenge, where the
State imitates Satan. But my life story has not ended; therefore, I
have the power to stop the cycle of revenge against me and stop the
cycles of revenge from fully blooming in my soul.]
Conclusion
I would like to thank the WVCF staff that made this recording
possible, but especially I must thank my Shakespeare professor Dr.
Lura Bates for giving me the opportunity to talk to you all today and
for satisfying my curiosity of Shakespeare’s work.
Q) Above all...what I truly learned while studying the tragic
characters of Shakespeare’s plays in the SHU?...Was that they all
had bad thinking... Change the way you think, your actions will
change, then your life will change. An [associate prisoner]
philosopher named Dayon Miller said it best:
“A real man is an individual who has formed an equilibrium in
himself and can think for himself. Although he’s ambitious and has
goals, he doesn’t allow them to become the whole significance of his
life, but only the extensions of who he is. And for some reason if he
happens to sustain a letdown, he doesn’t resign to concepts of fate,
but only allows resilience to be his destiny. His critical view of
himself and the world, precludes him from succumbing to defeat;
-40-
therefore, he strives only to succeed!”
Thank you for your time!
Exit. Leon Benson.
| Enters Lee Bently 448]
L. Bently (A Worthy Thought):
Social laws of the world are secretly followed and written
That no one should pick up the rose that is forbidden,
Especially if you consider yourself a person of the norm
And this brought you clashing thoughts, but after the mental storm,
Reaching through the cold bars, the curiosity of your soul
Was felt pulling at the stem of the condemned rose...
And it was not so bad after all, it still spoke of love
With the eloquence of male version of Rita Dove,
When it bloomed it illuminated every spectrum of man
Its fragrance caused anyone in listening distance to dance,
To the melodic rhythms of bongo tear-taps of rain
That at times could wash away all of its pain,
Into purpose and meaning beyond mortal measure
And you were able to find the buried treasure,
Within the taboo encounter of the finger tips of your soul
Clenching the humility of a thorn-afflicted rose,
And the sun of society's rare embrace was So strongly felt
That the world’s many preconceived notions began to melt...
Just think, if you did not have the courage
To have reached out, you never would ’ve known,
That the beauty of humanity could still exist
Within a caged rose!
[Exit Lee Bently 448 |
i,
AFTERTHOUGHT
No matter what, I’ma make my way through all this darkness to find
light. From beneath all of the tears, I will breathe smiles. And from
all the pain, I will know peace. Not the everlasting rest in peace, but
the peace man can know while he still lives. I took back a piece of
that peace here today in my artistic expressions. And I believe arts of
any form are the keys toward unlocking our personal cages to release
the internal roses of our souls. Because by unlocking your inner artist
you will experience a peace you never knew before that moment.
And you’ll realize that you possess a piece of immortality. Because if
all your art is destroyed, or you’re placed in prison, or murdered, the
portraits and poetry you leave upon the internal canvases of the souls
of those you’ve encountered will live on forever. And this thought
alone consistently inspires me as an artist of life, love, war, and free-
dom to leave my graffiti poetry on the walls of his-story: to truly live
and tell my truth. Art is freedom. Art is power. Be free and empow-
ered by your inner artist, no matter your circumstance.
—Leon Benson
June 10, 2007
Share your comments with the author:
Leon Benson #995256
WVCF
PO Box 1111
Carlisle, IN 47838
email: leon dwayne_benson@yahoo.com
To listen to the interview, for info regarding Leon’s false imprison-
ment, and how you can become a supporter in his fight for freedom,
go to:
www.freeleon.com
www.myspace.com/freeleonbenson
43:
Attention all Prisoner-Rights/Prison-Reform
Activists!...
Help CentList.com
develop into a
marketing/
networking giant
that can raise funds
to help innocent and
abused inmates—on a
constant basis!
www.centlist.com
The danger that innocent people will
be executed because of errors in the
criminal justice system is getting
worse. A total of 69 people have
been released from death row since
1973 after evidence of their
innocence emerged. Various falsely
incarcerated persons suffer from
injustices afflicted by bogus
witnesses, unlawful police, court
appointed defense attorneys,
prosecutors and judges! See the
trend by country and other criteria at
www. prisonstudies.org.
CentList.com’s choice to
address this:
CentList Justice Fund
CentList will establish this fund to raise money for new
trials for inmates (especially those on death row) who
proclaim their innocence and who have persuasive
evidence against their convictions. The money will be paid
directly to. their legal representatives and to any other
legitimate entities aiding in their cause. The money will be
split 50-50 between domestic (US) and _ international
inmates.
JUSTICE
Leon Benson, Fighting to
Prove his Innocence!
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About Booklets
The Sports Card booklet is for suppliers interested in purchasing collector’s cards.
FOR CHANGE booklet frames Leon's legal fundraiser.
Caged Rose booklet is for lovers of literary arts.
Blessings In Disguise is for life lessons and self-inspiration.
Also Available:
Black History Writing Paper CD-ROM, 2nd Edition
Print out the unique stationery that lets you write letters to
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On CD: 100 editable historical subjects in *Microsoft
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in Microsoft Word Viewer 2003—FREE Web download.
THE NEXT STEP IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN..
The hybrid merging of capitalism and communism into a more
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Semisocialism, An Alternative Government and Economic System—
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To Purchase (PayPal, checks or money orders accepted):
Contact WORD IMPACT * P.O. Box 4051
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any of the endorsed items. All profits will go toward his legal defense fund. We thank you in advance for
your orders. And remember: Truth never dies; it’s only rediscovered.
The SHU Lace book is an insider’s tour of prolonged solitary confinement and its psychological effects.
Semi-
AN ALTERNATIVE
GOVERNMENT
- QD ECONOMIC
SyYsvam
THE HYBRID MERGING OF CAPITALISM AND
COMMUNISM INTO A MORE BALANCED
STRUCTURAL ORDER FOR MAN
(Morality & Principioe Inckuded)
AEITH B. ANDERSON
