In his 13th poetry collection, Frank X Walker explores the lives of Black Families in Kentucky, before, during, and after the Civil War.
A note that this story includes a reference to violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.
It’s a rainy Tuesday evening at the Boyle County Public Library in Danville. Well-known poet and activist Frank X Walker wears a cap and black-rimmed glasses. The Danville native has the full attention of his audience in the historic Reading Room at the library as he passes around examples of artifacts he used in the research for his latest collection of poetry called Load in Nine Times.
“It’s historical poetry and the focus about this book Load in Nine Times, it centers the Black family in Kentucky before, during, and after the Civil War,” explained Walker.
The former Kentucky Poet Laureate said that while poems in the first section of this book reflect stories before the war, the second section is dominated by the voices of soldiers during the war. Then he said the third section happens during Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction.
“And, I want to make sure that the pre-war section really paid tribute to these under-told conversations about enslavement even in Kentucky. These are real people. These are real people’s lives that I’m reading about and from and representing. If you’re a Kentuckian or even a relocated Kentuckian, it’s part of our history," said Walker.
Before every poem Walker reads, he shares the history behind the poem. He begins with the unimaginable story of Margaret Garner, an African-American woman in pre-Civil War America. Walker tells about Garner escaping enslavement in Northern Kentucky, making it to Ohio but getting captured. Walker said before Garner was captured, she cut her two-year-old daughter’s throat. Garner took this drastic action to prevent the child from returning to slavery.
“After she slit her daughter’s throat she was put on trial and they spent three weeks in Cincinnati in the courtroom trying to figure out if she committed murder or if she just destroyed property. So, the national debate was on whether or not we were people or property. Once they figured that out, then they could figure out how to sentence her. Turned out we were just property. And so, she was sent back to her master in Northern Kentucky at the end of the trial," Walker explained.
The audience gasps at the story and awaits the poem. Walker explains that Garner’s back story is complex as it speaks to an element of enslavement that people rarely talk about. He said most historical accounts in textbooks center enslavement around physical brutality and how hard the work was. He said the sexual violence perpetrated on women is rarely talked about. But Walker said it was Garner’s back story.
“The fact that she’s a product of miscegenation. That she’s been the victim of sexual violence over and over and over again and that her own father and uncle are part of that victimization,” explained Walker.
“So, anyway you hear her story in here. It’s called Testify and I wrote this poem because she was not allowed to testify. It was illegal for African American people to testify in trials period in the United States,” said Walker.
“Testify, Margaret Garner, Maplewood Plantation.
Look at me and my swollen belly.
Look at my pale, pale, skin.
Look at the scar cross my face.
Don’t call me Murderer.
My slave name is Next.
Look at my children.
You think they look like Master Gaines too?
Step back from all this.
Stop eyeballing me
And the sharp, sharp blade
Take a closer look…” read Walker.
On this night the artist soon segues into the second section of the book and the Civil War. He tells how Camp Nelson in Central Kentucky was the largest Civil War-Era camp and the center of recruitment and training for African American Troops called US Colored Troops. He recalls how in the summer of 1864 over 14 thousand men made their way there to be part of the training. One of the first pictures he passed to the audience earlier this evening was of soldiers at the camp.
“You can imagine all these men, some of them formerly enslaved, not all of them. Some of them already free. But all agreeing to fight for the freedom of this country and people of color, maybe a month ago were enslaved and being beaten and harassed. And then today in uniform and being trained to be soldiers and they owned a gun. And they’ve been trained to defend. And now they’re standing at attention. Imagine how that may have felt. So, this is an example of the second section of the book and it’s based on that particular photo I passed around. This is a poem called Grove. And the epigraph says photo of troops standing at attention outside the Colored Soldiers’ barracks. Camp Nelson, Kentucky," explained Walker.
"This is in the voice of one of the soldiers," explained Walker.
Grove
This was the first time
we really look at each other
and not be able to tell
whose master the cruelest
who sorrow the deepest
who ground been the hardest to hoe.
We was lined up like oaks in the yard
Standing with chins up
chests out, shoulders back.
And already nervous stomachs in.
We was a grove wanting to be a forest,
Ready to see what kind of wood we made from.
The only thing taller or straighter
Than us be the boards
Holding up the barracks at our backs…” read Walker.
Walker goes on to read nine more poems and concludes with the title poem Walker:
“Load…I wonder…Handle cartridge.. "read Walker.
After the reading, audience members are eager to chat with the poet. Wanda Lay and her sister Wilma Lay Linton said they were moved by this poetry collection.
“All this background that he’s telling us about is just amazing it’s been out there all this time and I didn’t know it,” said Wanda.
“It was enlightening and agonizing. There were some things that I didn’t know so it was enlightening. But there’s the continued saga of racism is the agony. But it needs to be told. The truth needs to be told and I’m glad he told it,” said Wilma.
Danville resident Kevin Maples tells why he felt gutted by some of what he heard tonight.
“His ability to give voice to people that most of us would read right past cause they were a line in a historic document is needed and powerful and a gift most of us do not have,” said Maples.
Lawson asked Walker what he’d like readers to take away from this collection of poetry.
“I want people to be moved in some way, to be reminded of their own humanity. I hope people will reassess what they think about Kentucky and Kentucky’s role during the Civil War and Kentucky’s role as regards enslavement and our recent history. It’s only been 160 years,” said Walker.
Several of the poems from Load in Nine Times and the research documents are on display in a permanent exhibit at the Frazier Kentucky Museum of History in Louisville.
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