I learned of this thanks to a
tweet of Teju Cole.
As you no doubt know, the great jazz pianist Vijay Iyer
just received a prestigious MacArthur Award.
You will find him even more deserving when you learn, as I just have, of his recent release, with Mike Ladd, of
Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project. I've only listened to a few tracks (it came out on September 24) but what I've heard is great. The publicity from Pi Recordings describes the album as follows: "a thought-provoking, sometimes frightening, and ultimately exhilarating
combination of music, poetry and song, created from the actual dreams
of young veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars." And check out the vid below that introduces the project.
But because I sometimes blog here (not very profoundly) about drones, I was particularly interested in the track "Capacity" (which you can listen to
here), featuring the poetry and recollections of Lynn Hill, who worked as a drone operator, firing missiles remotely into Iraq from her base in Las Vegas. "Soft kill," she calls it. It's very powerful stuff.
Here's a section of her poem:
I have a capacity for war. I have a capacity for hate. I have a capacity for insanity. For anger. For lies. 525,600 minutes times 2, before I break into an explosion of thoughts, of insurgents and soft kills, and career moves. Capacity for destruction. Capacity for loss. Capacity for death, violence, nothingness. 24 months of pain and disgust. Actions of my hands accuse me. Guilty, charge. Unclear clear details and shaky intell, but still I pull the trigger. There’s a limit to madness. Gague clocks out at two years, but they serve up poison like entrees at Blueberry Hill. Crazy with a side of numb. It took 63,720,000 seconds to go from me to somebody else.
And check out the NEA
interview with Lynn Hill, where she reflects more on her poetry and her work as a Predator Drone operator.
I
have a capacity for war. I have a capacity for hate. I have a capacity
for insanity. For anger. For lies. 525,600 minutes times 2, before I
break into an explosion of thoughts, of insurgents and soft kills, and
career moves. Capacity for destruction. Capacity for loss. Capacity for
death, violence, nothingness. 24 months of pain and disgust. Actions of
my hands accuse me. Guilty, charge. Unclear clear details and shaky
intell, but still I pull the trigger. There’s a limit to madness. Gague
clocks out at two years, but they serve up poison like entrees at
Blueberry Hill. Crazy with a side of numb. It took 63,720,000 seconds to
go from me to somebody else. To change. - See more at:
http://arts.gov/audio/lynn-hill#file_audio_default_group_audio_transcript
I
have a capacity for war. I have a capacity for hate. I have a capacity
for insanity. For anger. For lies. 525,600 minutes times 2, before I
break into an explosion of thoughts, of insurgents and soft kills, and
career moves. Capacity for destruction. Capacity for loss. Capacity for
death, violence, nothingness. 24 months of pain and disgust. Actions of
my hands accuse me. Guilty, charge. Unclear clear details and shaky
intell, but still I pull the trigger. There’s a limit to madness. Gague
clocks out at two years, but they serve up poison like entrees at
Blueberry Hill. Crazy with a side of numb. It took 63,720,000 seconds to
go from me to somebody else. To change. - See more at:
http://arts.gov/audio/lynn-hill#file_audio_default_group_audio_transcript
I
have a capacity for war. I have a capacity for hate. I have a capacity
for insanity. For anger. For lies. 525,600 minutes times 2, before I
break into an explosion of thoughts, of insurgents and soft kills, and
career moves. Capacity for destruction. Capacity for loss. Capacity for
death, violence, nothingness. 24 months of pain and disgust. Actions of
my hands accuse me. Guilty, charge. Unclear clear details and shaky
intell, but still I pull the trigger. There’s a limit to madness. Gague
clocks out at two years, but they serve up poison like entrees at
Blueberry Hill. Crazy with a side of numb. It took 63,720,000 seconds to
go from me to somebody else. To change. - See more at:
http://arts.gov/audio/lynn-hill#file_audio_default_group_audio_transcript
PS: Vijay Iyer's 2003 collaboration with Mike Ladd,
In What Language?, is also terrific.
