Ellison's *Deep Second* as assemblage?

So here's a thought experiment: What if Ralph Ellison's poem Deep Second were an assemblage?

More specifically, what if I were to attempt to transform that poem into an assemblage that met the criteria for our "Mapping [Sub]Cultures" course's mixed media project?

I'm pondering this question here, rather than on the course blog, because part of me thinks this would be a wonderful approach for one of my student teams to consider--I'm not sure it's the path I should take myself, even though I plan to compose a piece along with my students.

It seems to me that one approach would be to conceptualize the poem itself as a map, one that reflects the boundaries given in Ellison's letter to Albert Murray ("three blocks on East Second Street") as well as his childhood memories of that place, while perhaps transposing that imagery was some of the contextual forces that, for example, made the place a segregated enclave.

In terms of "mapping" this place-memory of Ellison's I could also see a student overlaying Ellison's narrative with an excerpt from The Kite Runner. A vivid image in Ellison's poem regards blue kites dipping and sailing overhead. He was likely about the same age as the Afghani protagonist, so there might be an interesting opportunity for cultural commentary, one that would flex the boundaries of the "map" in intriguing ways.

Another possibility would be to do something with the cartography of jazz culture in Deep Deuce, drawing upon Ellison's reference to the YWCA building (formerly a hospital) "and young girls laugh and glide within the room wherein my father died" as well as his later commentaries on the startling presence of white women in the Deep Deuce music venues where Louis Armstrong and others performed.

Image source: Rob Wallace