Bronx Masquerade

“We spent a month reading poetry from the Harlem Renaissance in our English class. Then Mr. Ward—that’s our teacher—asked us to write an essay about it. Make sense to you? Me neither. I mean what’s the point of studying poetry and then writing essays?”

Wesley questions Mr. Ward’s essay assignment because he doesn’t understand why they would respond to poetry with essays. This sets the stage for the book’s questions about educational norms and practices—the students’ poems end up being an effective educational tool. Hypothetical questions are used in rhetoric to emphasize a point or encourage a reader to think about the topic; here, they reinforce the importance of challenging these norms.

“You dipped into

the muddy waters

of the Harlem River

and shouted ‘taste and see’

that we Black folk be good

at fanning hope

and stoking fires

of dreams deferred.”

This is an excerpt from Wesley’s poem, an ode to Langston Hughes that highlights the way the Harlem Renaissance made the world see the value in Black art. The line “dreams deferred” is a quote from Hughes’s famous poem “Harlem,” which is about the desire for racial equality and the nurturing of hope through oppression. By evoking Hughes in the book’s opening poem, Grimes asserts that these children are working the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance and fighting for many of the same goals.

“Anyway, it’s them white folk that get me with this future mess. Like Steve, all hopped up about working on Broadway and telling me I should think about getting with it too. Asked me if I ever thought about writing plays.”

Tyrone shares his frustration with society telling him that he must plan for a future when his situation is precarious. Steve, his white classmate, embodies this disconnect by advising Tyrone to pursue a career he’s not interested in. This demonstrates the complicated nature of how Tyrone thinks about his future at the beginning of the book. While Tyrone rejects this vision, he does want to become a rapper, showing that alternate paths and different dreams need to be nurtured.

“I used to pose for

close-ups, knew how to dutifully disappear

when the script said:

‘Fade to black.’”

This excerpt is from Raul’s poem, “Zorro.” He uses Zorro and acting as a metaphor for living out the “role” designed for him as a Puerto Rican youth. He describes negative stereotypes, like “el bandito” [a mishearing of the Spanish word bandido], a stock outlaw character in Westerns, and emphasizes that he is neither the stereotypical hero nor villain. The language around “dutifully disappearing” emphasizes the way anti-Latinx bias flattens Latinx identities into simple archetypes. This is reinforced by Raul, a Puerto Rican character, focusing on Mexican characters/archetypes in this poem, like Zorro and el bandido, in contrast to his reference to the Nuyorican Poets Café in his prose chapter.

“I’ve got good height and good hands, and that’s a fact. But what about the rest of me?”

Devon grapples with how his athleticism is valued when there’s more to him than “good height and good hands.” His language here divides himself into parts, symbolizing his sense of disconnection from this identity. He later shares his love for reading, and his character arc centers on embracing his true passions.

“But if I had a real baby, she would love me like that. The way Gloria’s baby loves her. The way Rosa loves Christina.”

Lupe struggles with her loneliness and wants a child of her own, someone who will show her unconditional love. She uses evidence from her friend and sister’s children to support her idea, though the novel makes it clear that Lupe is only seeing part of the story. Gloria’s chapter immediately follows this one and illuminates how difficult it is to be a single mother.

“Once he switches it on, it’s like you become somebody else, and you can say anything as long as it’s in a poem. Then, when you’re finished, you just disappear into the dark and sit down, and you’re back to being your own self.”

Janelle shares how she feels when she goes up to recite a poem. The video camera is used to mark a moment of physical transformation, creating a space of total creative freedom. The lights in the room are turned off and the students stand in a spotlight, creating the image of a world where the only thing that exists is the reader and their poem. That moment of liberation through art is juxtaposed with the aftermath of “disappear[ing] into the dark.”

“The scariest thing I can think of now is being all alone in the world.”

Leslie recounts the story of losing her mother in her chapter. This is the last line of her prose section, and it contrasts youth and innocence with the stark reality of death—Leslie notes that she associated fear with “silly” things like ghosts before her mom died, and now she fears being alone. This connects to the theme of Self-Discovery and Community Building as Leslie truly begins to grow once she befriends Porscha, who has endured a similar loss.

“‘Leave the girl alone,’ said Porscha. ‘If she wants to change her name, I’m sure she has a reason. People always have reasons for what they do, even if we don’t know what they are.’”

Porscha says this after Sheila declares she’s changed her name to Natalia, a more “Africana” name. Porscha’s understanding of Sheila’s desire to rename herself underscores the idea of masking and unmasking. It underscores how little people can know about each other unless there is a point of connection and clear communication.

“Listen: you’ve got to

root it out

laugh last, push past,

pursue. Be you—

whoever that is—

dream intact.

And don’t look back.”

Steve‘s poem, “Doubtless,” underscores the importance of holding onto one’s dreams and being one’s self, no matter what. He uses several poetic techniques in this poem: enjambment, the splitting phrases between lines; internal rhyme (“laugh last, push past”); and alliteration (“push past / “pursue”). These create a sense of forward momentum and rhythm, mimicking drive and ambition.

“Be just my luck, I get in the paper for something good and they misspell my name.”

Tyrone is excited that someone from the newspaper will visit their open mic. He shares this to underscore the pervasiveness of negativity surrounding young people, even when they are doing something good. Still, he maintains his mistrust of authority and media here, assuming he’ll encounter a microaggression like misspelling his name.

“Even I used to think I was an idiot. Of course, now I know better. So does my English teacher.”

Raynard shares this to contrast his past and present understandings of his dyslexia. After his diagnosis and honest communication with Mr. Ward, they both have a better understanding of Raynard’s capabilities and needs. This reinforces the book’s message about not judging others because it’s impossible to know their circumstances.

“Black or white, screen time is strictly for the teenage crook.

Hear them tell it, drugs and violence is our only song.

For myself, I think it’s time that we prove them wrong.”

These lines come from the collective poem Tyrone, Steve, and Wesley share. They address the media’s role in promoting negative stereotypes of teens. In these lines, Steve proclaims that it is up to teens to define themselves. Unity is a dominant theme in this poem, represented both in language, like Steve’s reference to “Black or white,” and the structure as a shared poem between three people, two Black and one white.

“I don’t know where it came from, but somewhere inside myself, I found a smile.”

Sheila feels alienated from her classmates because she is white, and most of the school is not. Throughout the book, she rejects her whiteness, in part because her family is racist and she is not. However, her actions dip into cultural appropriation; in this case, she is imitating Porscha’s walk. Wesley tells her to be herself but ends with a joke about her not pulling off Porscha’s walk. Though Sheila has expressed insecurity until this point, the focus on authenticity in Open Mike Fridays allows her to understand Wesley’s advice as sincere, causing her to smile.

“Everybody really listened to what I had to say, even the guys […] they all stared at me like I was someone special. And nobody cared about the size of my body. Not even me.”

Janelle describes her classmates’ reaction to her latest poem. Rather than focusing on her size, they listen to her words, closing their eyes or nodding along. This moment is her anagnorisis or epiphany: She realizes that her size does not define her, crystallizing her character growth over the course of the text.

“Love is not me being

who you want.

Your definition is a whirlpool

trying to suck me in

and I’m drowning.”

Diondra uses metaphor in her poem to her father. She compares her relationship with him to drowning, with the whirlpool representing his unrealistic expectations for her. A parent’s power seems unstoppable, like the force created by a whirlpool, but Diondra manages to “pull [herself] free” at the end of the poem (136), signifying her strength and desire to control her life.

“You chose your canvas.

Let me choose mine.”

In the same poem, addressed to her father, Diondra declares her freedom through another metaphor. She uses the canvas to represent different life paths. A canvas is a blank slate, signifying infinite possibilities for creation. This is an apt metaphor for Diondra to use since she wants to become a visual artist; in this way, she uses the tools of her craft to self-define in her poetry.

“The thing is, the same kind of ugly anger lives in me. I couldn’t really see that until Charmayne brought it out. I have to make sure that monster never shows her face again, no matter what.”

In her prose section, Porscha shares her story and reveals that the rumors that have appeared about her throughout the book are only part of the story. Her mother was violent with her, and Porscha has inherited that anger. However, she is ashamed of beating up Charmayne and is determined to take a different path than her mother.

“It was a poem about what’s going on in the world, and about trying to make sense of it. It was a poem by somebody who really thinks about things, and that somebody turned out to be Tyrone.”

Porscha’s perspective changed as she listened to Tyrone share a poem. She realizes that she misunderstood him and that he was more than the image she’d formed of him in her head. These moments in the text demonstrate what honest and open communication can achieve and inspire Porscha’s own participation in Open Mike Fridays.

“I slipped into a seat in the front row just as the principal called everybody to attention. Sitting up front ain’t my thing, but this assembly was different.”

Tyrone shares his experience at the all-school assembly and encapsulates his character growth in a single statement. He has changed from someone who would not sit up front to an active participant who speaks for the class.

“Okay. I just wanted to say I’m really glad I got to do this poetry thing because I feel like, even though people in our class are all different […] I feel like we connected. I feel like I know you now […] I feel like we’re not as different as I thought.”

Tyrone speaks from the heart at the all-school assembly before he and his classmates share their poetry. His statement summarizes the impact of Open Mike Fridays and the power of poetry to bring people together, no matter their differences. In short, Tyrone’s speech punctuates the book’s themes: The Power of Art, Embracing Racial and Cultural Identities, and Self-Discovery and Community Building.

“Nobody said it, but it was like I had spoken for all of us […] And that don’t happen every day.”

Tyrone appreciates his classmates’ responses to his impromptu speech about the impact of Mr. Ward’s class. Onstage, he implicitly understood that he had their support, and he did something he never would have imagined himself doing. Throughout the book, characters comment on Tyrone’s less-responsible qualities, and their appreciation for his speech shows how they’ve grown to understand him as well.

“Never mind that we’re all people of color, that most of us live in single-parent homes, that we catch the same amount of grief from the white world. It’s ridiculous.”

Mai Tren shares her experience of the all-school assembly as an outsider in the Epilogue. She is frustrated by being othered, even though she is a person of color like most of her classmates. She doesn’t fit in because of her Black and Vietnamese heritage. This provides another perspective of racial tensions at the school and the impact of seeing Mr. Ward’s class come together for the all-school assembly. A single poetry class won’t fix systemic issues, and Grimes highlights that art is powerful but not a silver bullet for fixing discrimination and bias.