My work from February 10th!

While reading “I Sing the Body Electric” I couldn’t help but be reminded of the superbowl halftime show from Sunday the 8th. In Bad Bunny’s performance he highlighted elements of Latin American and Caribbean culture that seem personal and universal at the same time. He displayed various types of labor, including more gendered labor like the beauty industry, that everyone watching could relate to. Even those whose family isn’t from Puerto Rico could recognize elements of themself in the performance. Now where does Whitman come in? The body electric celebrates the perfection of the human body indiscriminately and for all of its power and meaning. What really stood out to me while reading was section 3 about the old man full of beauty and vigor. Specifically lines 14 and 15 “They did not love him by allowance, they loved him with/ personal love,” (Whitman “I Sing the Body Electric”). To me, the idea of personal love permeates through not only this poem but all of Whitman’s work. Where I feel it most is in his cataloguing and listing of parts of the body or parts of a community that are both incredibly broad and specific. Lists like section 2 and 9 recognize the individual intimately by representing their role or community. Since the halftime show I have seen countless videos of families from around the world reacting to the inclusion of some part of them in the performance. Bad Bunny’s simple act of listing all of the countries in the Americas as he exited the stadium has the same impact as Whitman’s recognition of the farm worker, the wrestler, the house keeper, or the mother. The inclusive nature of both works represents this idea of not loving by obligation but because of who they are and every perfect piece of them. Bad Bunny doesn’t know everyone from Canada to Chile just as Whitman didn’t know everyone in America, but both artists recognize the individual, lead with universal love. There is also so much to say here about their respective wants and their visions of unity in America but that is for another post.