I've posted a long time ago of
David Lamotte reciting his original poem based on real life events. He has embarked on a journey to give this poem new life in the form of a children's book, illustrated by Jenn Hales. Please enjoy this video and visit the
site.
An excerpt from the site...
A book for youth (and post-youth!) by David LaMotte, Illustrations by Jenn Hales
White Flour tells the true story of a whimsical and effective response by counter-protesters to a group of white supremacists who came to Knoxville, Tennessee for a march in 2007. The Coup Clutz Clowns, a group of local anti-racism activists, used humor and non-violence to reveal the silliness of the marchers' actions, defusing their hatred with laughter.
The clown demonstrators slightly altered the supremacists' chants to make them a bit... better. As the hooded marchers shouted "white power!" the clowns joined right in, shouting "white flour!" and pulling out bags of the stuff they had brought from home for a flour fight. They walked a bit farther and decided they had heard wrong, and that the klansmen must be shouting "white flowers!" so they shouted that, and passed flowers out to the crowd ...and it gets better from there! The point is that rather than shouting down the shouters, meeting rage with rage, they simply refused to take such foolishness seriously. Humor, it turns out, beats hatred. At least it did on that day.
