physically and psychologically abusive marriage,
commits adultery and gives birth to Peppy, a love
child. Afraid her husband, Walter, will discover her
infidelity, Gwennie eventually leaves Peppy, who
favors Gwennie’s lover, Luther, with her aunt and
relocates to Connecticut to achieve independence.
A Small Gathering of Bones, Powell’s second novel,
is a bold discussion, through her main characters,
Dale, Ian, and Nevin, of two unspeakable and
unspoken subjects in Jamaica’s patriarchal and
homophobic society: homosexual love and the
HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In The Pagoda, protagonist Mr. Lowe, a Chi-
nese shopkeeper, lives in an arranged marriage
with Miss Sylvie, a biracial woman who gave up
her dark-skinned children for adoption. They
never fully consummate their marriage, however,
although they engage in passionate foreplay and
fantasy. Mr. Lowe, it is revealed, is a woman who
has cross-dressed to pass as a man for more than
30 years because it was illegal for Chinese women
to emigrate. Lowe’s complex past involves his hor-
rific journey from China to Jamaica, an unwanted
pregnancy and the destruction of his business. The
novel is about more than cross-dressing, lesbian-
ism, 19th-century colonialism in Jamaica, sexism,
or racism. The central metaphor of the novel,
found in its title, The Pagoda, represents the per-
sonal healing and wholeness each character, par-
ticularly Lowe, seeks.
Powell was a finalist for the Granta/Best of
Young American Novelists Award (1993) and,
since 1997, has been the Briggs-Copeland Fellow
in Fiction at Harvard. She is the recipient of the
Lila-Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award.
Wilfred D. SamuelsPublic Enemy
A well-known, influential rap group that had its
beginnings at Adelphi University in Long Island
in the early 1980s, Public Enemy’s members in-
cluded Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and
DJ Terminator X. With producers Hank Shocklee
and the legendary Bomb Squad, Public Enemy
revolutionized rap music, helping define hip-hop
culture while garnering a place as a major social
and political voice. Before 2000 Public Enemy,
which was under contract with Russell Simmons’s
Def Jam records since 1987, had released eight
records known for strong political messages. The
first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, contained the
important tracks “Rightstarter (Message to a Black
Man)” and “My Uzi Weighs a Ton.” Both tracks ex-
emplified an early version of Chuck D’s sociopolit-
ical style of rap, which would make him famous.
Although 1987 was certainly a monumental
year for the group, 1988 was the year Public Enemy
ensured a place for itself in hip-hop history by re-
leasing two radical singles that have become hip-
hop classics as well as antiestablishment themes.
“Bring the Noise” paid homage to Lewis Farra-
khan, whom they called a prophet, while assailing
black radio stations that refused to play the group’s
records. According to Bakari Kitwana, “The Nation
of Islam... [was] largely responsible for politiciz-
ing many hip-hop generationers in some shape,
form or fashion,” including Public Enemy (167).
The now-classic “Don’t Believe the Hype,” which
Alan Light called “PE’s manifesto of skepticism,”
followed “Bring the Noise.” With Flav and the
scratching of Terminator on the hooks, Chuck D
responded to criticism directed at the group and
himself, declaring: “Suckers, liars, give me a shovel
/ Some writers I know are damn devils.” Chuck D
used the lyrics of both songs to promote his em-
phatic message that the system must be changed
and that hip-hop was the means to produce such
change. Chuck’s message was so impactful that by
the end of the year, the heavyweight champion
of the world, Mike Tyson, had a leather jacket
custom-made with the words “Don’t Believe the
Hype” stitched into the back.
Later that year, Public Enemy released the clas-
sic album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us
Back, which, despite the on-stage anti-Semitic
and homophobic ravings of Professor Griff, made
politically conscious rap acceptable. By tackling
such issues as drugs, black-on-black crime, BLACK
NATIONALISM, and poverty, Chuck D contributed
greatly to building a critical consciousness among
a generation. In doing so, he seems to support
those critics who argue that “the Hip Hop Nation
is the true voice of the black lumpenproletariat
whose descriptions of street life are the real thing”Public Enemy 419