Oh! Kennedy Kennedy - A Lyrical Diatribe in the Tradition of Poetic Jurisprudence (Scholarly Edition)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In Oh! Kennedy Kennedy, American juris-artist Nachaiya Kama transforms President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 Amherst College address into a living dialogue between art and law. Drawing from Kennedy’s plea for artists to keep power honest and imagination free, Kama embodies the very faith he expressed that when power corrupts, poetry cleanses. Her poem functions as a lyrical diatribe in the tradition of Poetic Jurisprudence, where rhythm and reason operate as twin instruments of civic truth. Through her philosophy of Visual Constitutionalism™, she renders the Constitution as image and conscience, turning the vernacular refrain “The Constitution is OG” into a constitutional psalm. The work reimagines Kennedy’s moral legacy for the twenty-first century, where portraiture, poetry, and advocacy converge to legislate empathy. Standing at the intersection of art and jurisprudence, Kama proves that the nation’s highest amendments are not fixed in parchment but renewed in perception. Oh! Kennedy Kennedy becomes both artwork and argument, a republic of vision where beauty performs the labor of justice and the artist becomes the law’s most enduring witness.
Author: Kama, Nachaiya
Language: English
Topic: Law in Society and Culture
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7095038553
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: