Where I'm From

Where I’m From

Marion Ohio, Where I'm From

Marion Ohio Train Station

            Where I’m From by Felicia Madlock is a beautifully written poem walking the reader through history starting with slavery. She exaplains American history through certain events and certain people from history. For instance in the line

“I am from Malcom X memories and Martin Luther King’s Dream”

Pulling in historical refernce like Martin Luther King gives the reader a since of connection with the poem. She explains how children used to act and what they used to do in school

“I am from Double Dutch days When Mary Mack was dressed in Black”

She goes on to show how the way kids are treated in school has changed from the whipping when corporal punishment was not a bad thing. She moves into more modern time describing

Marion Ohio Court House

“Micheal Jackson mania Prince’s Purple Passion”

Connecting with hip hop music, the blue’s, Marvin Gaye. She continues through the poem showing all that the African-American culture is and ever will be. She shows all of these historical moments so the reader and the people reading are able to get a strong connection with her and the peom. Her repition of the words I am from helps people to think deeper. By using I am from people are better able to think of where they are from and the changes they have gone through in life, seeing culture changes, music changes, life changes. By doing this she is able to get people to connect on a deeper level.

Harding Memorial in Marion Ohio

“I am from…”

By ending the poem with this line she let’s the reader explore themselves and where they are from. The poem is not written really as a one person view of the world but as a view from many eys over many years. Showing changes, showing the true beauty of life itself in a way. Although she writes about historical events she is trying to express life is more than just that. She is trying to get across life is more than just what happened yesterday, today, and tomorrow but more about what people can do with their lives and how they too can change the world.