As you can see, I've made several changes to the original contents. Specifically, my content is drawn from the poems of Gwendolyn Brooks. If I remember correctly, a lot of it comes from the poem "In the Mecca" (but some does not, like "days of rage", a reference to The Weathermen). I have a literary and cultural interest in her work because of how important she is not just as an American poet, but as a Black woman poet, the first to win the Pulitzer Prize (1949) for her collection Annie Allen. She specifically chose to write about and elevate the people she knew, the Black people of the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago who were oppressed and discriminated against in all facets of their lives--down to where they were allowed to live. There were, and still are, many systemic "algorithms of oppression" in the lives of Black people. I choose Brooks to 'transport' her fight to today's algorithms that reframe and perpetuate these oppressions. For more information on this topic, see Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble.
(In this version of the code, the "outcome" has a few options. In another, there is only one outcome. My code is missing the attributions that are in Nick's code, and that's my neglicence. Always cite and attribute where you can!)
from random import choice
import time
materials = [
'roots', 'rose petals',
'broken glass', 'days of rage',
'salt', 'holes', 'revenge', 'grief', 'planks',
'sloppy amalgamations', 'antique light',
'regulated fray', 'mothballs', 'old gusts',
'Medger Evers', 'arthurts', 'flowercloth',
'flowerswirl', 'bonecult', 'furnaceblack',
'old dispossessions', 'old decapitations',
'parolees', 'cimarrons', 'sores unhealed',
'nationless maps', 'projections', 'specific chains',
'tulmults', 'no nations','decolonized nations','decolonization',
'warning sirens','the lynched','the targeted', 'the nationless',
'borderlands', 'border-burners'
]
locations = [
'in front of a window about to be broken',
'in the ship hold', 'on ships', 'on ships in an ocean',
'in a boiler', 'in translation', 'in a pearl', 'in a jar',
'in the passionate noon', 'in a bewitching night',
'in a ring', 'in a hurry', 'in a string-drawn bag',
'in the warpland', 'in the noise of the whirlwind',
'in the cut', 'in the spin', 'in the fight',
'in furious flowering', 'in the rough season',
'in the drought', 'in the whirl', 'in the world',
'between Scylla and Charybdis'
]
means = [' any means necessary']
verb = [ 'conjuring','digging up', 'unshelving',
'hollering down', 'unearthing', 'divining',
'reading the signs of','breaking out by', 'doubling down on',
'striking matches against', 'beating the drum against','summoning',
'lying at the door of','composing'
]
outcome = ['to survive', 'to thrive', 'to refuse erasure',
'to refuse death', 'to dream', 'to ripen', 'to reach', 'to widen',
'to be loved', 'to love',
'to refuse erasure by algorithms']
#means2 = []
#def stanza():
#for x in range(0,x):
x = 0
while True:
#print x
x += 1
print 'A nation of ' + choice(materials)
print ' ' + choice(locations)
print ' '+ choice(verb) + choice(means)
print " "*4 + choice(outcome)
time.sleep(3)