Focus

BUST DOWN THE DOORS! Is probably one of my favorite and easiest to understand of Young-Hae Chang’s and Marc Vogue’s pieces. The poem tells the story of midnight raid. The narrator is striped from his or her home in undergarments and taken into the street. All the neighbors are watching as his execution begins. The invaders are never named and the word “traitor” is used. My mind immediately began to race. What is happening here? Who is this person? Who are these invaders? The music set to the words aids in picking up the tempo and emphasizes the drama. The big, bold letters make the whole scene in my head a little harsher and more terrifying. I just watched a movie on the holocaust, and of course, my mind swiftly took me back to those images. I began to imagine being our narrator. What if someone invaded your home, and without a second thought, they killed in cold blood in the street? After I watched the clip a few times, I began to understand the effectiveness of the type of media. Throughout this semester, we have read several poems and pieces of literature that I could not understand or was just disinterested in. I can envision Young-Hae Chang and Marc Vogue brainstorming, thinking of ways to make their art matter and be relevant. We live in a day and age where things are fast-paced. This is news one day, and the next, it is forgotten. Chang and Vogue, as we said in class, created something that makes you focus. It takes you to that internal theater and lights it on fire.