The Foreman reading and The Last Poets spoken word entitled “Before the White Man Came” deal greatly with how obtaining and claiming space is a source of power. “It can be unifying or differentiating and is structured in and through numerous institutional agendas and public discourse.” Forman wrote. “Before the White Man Came” directly relates to this quotation. Before they came, the land the poets are speaking about was used as a unified place where a village grew strong. This land was theirs, and they did not have to claim it because it always was their land. The song shows the cohesive role of the community and how their culture was thriving when untouched by white man’s hands. When the white man arrived the village did as they always did, they offered them a friendly hand. They did not know that their new guests would soon claim the land to be their own, by doing so claiming the power that was once distributed equally throughout the village community. The village in this song could be seen as a metaphor for larger lands that white men have historically claimed and trifled through for their benefit (whether this means stealing land from Native Americans or stealing human lives to sell from Africa). The poem ends with these last four lines…”So now we are paying for our mistake, with only ourselves to blame, With memories of the good old years, Before the white man came.” These lines show that this space has never been controlled by its original owners since the white man came.  I believe the space the poem is speaking about could also mean black culture, and how white people often take and monetize it.