The Welcome Table
first thing to meet the eye and
greet the guests of the garden.
Set to say ‘Welcome,’
and as if to say,
‘This first we MUST agree upon:
to sit, to share, to talk.
For to not agree
would turn this
table over
becomes a shield
the table turned
against:
hatred,
intolerance,
waste, and greed.
The Welcome Table
a place of gathering of all people
to share food, poetry, music,
laughter, ideas, lessons
a place apart and in connection to what goes on inside our
school
to remind us of what we learn
outside of the classroom
a sanctuary here on the campus of our busy public high
school
a safe place for difference and
sameness
The garden will remind us of the earth outside and in us –
The Welcome Table
James Baldwin’s story, for one, could be told here
since he went here- amidst the throng - across
the lengths of these halls, the same stairs, and library –
Jimmy must have been in Mr. Meeropol’s
class
at least heard Abel banging on a
piano
somewhere hammering away at librettos
or the crystal moment that bore Strange
Fruit
on some piano in the building somewhere
like summertime –
From the depths of Harlem he rode a breadth of New York City,
to the Castle on the Parkway, Norwood of the Bronx
And The Welcome Table, open and large, was in his life, was
his life,
his last play, last easing of tension into brotherhood and
love.
This poem has been
generating over the last few weeks, but its history in me runs much deeper. One of the highlights of my over twenty years
of teaching English at DeWitt Clinton High School was having the opportunity to
teach a James Baldwin elective for several semesters from 2002 to 2004. The experience culminated in my class discussingThe Fire Next Time while being filmed and subsequently televised onC-SPAN. I was also able to attend the 80 year celebration of Baldwin’s birth in
conjunction with the publication of Sol’s Stein’s Native Sons: A Friendship That Created One of the Greatest Works
of the Twentieth Century, an event
held at the DeWitt Clinton High School library with esteemed guests including
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sol Stein and biographer David Leeming (who happened to
be my college professor at UCONN). The
reference to songwriter and lyricist Abel Meeropol, who wrote the song “Strange
Fruit” that Billie Holiday made famous, stems from years of teaching the song
in my Advanced Literary Criticism course at Clinton. Three of these class sessions were featured
in Joel Katz’ 2004 film, Strange Fruit.
I have long been captivated by the likelihood that James Baldwin and
Abel Meeropol were acquainted at least to the extent that Abel Meeropol taught English
at Clinton during the years that James Baldwin attended. I like to think of myself as a collector of
such convergences.
I’m advocating The Welcome
Table as a key design feature of the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor LearningCenter, a site that I propose being constructed in proximity to The Clinton
Garden and that will serve as a multi-purpose community/school gathering space
dedicated to Baldwin’s memory and the idea that learning, especially about the
environment, sustainability, gardening and food, needs to also take place
outside of the classroom. For more
information, or to donate, please visit our IOBY page.
