Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former United States Poet Laureate, spent the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 1 with Trinity University in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall reciting her poetry and signing books. Using historical and personal backgrounds, Trethewey highlights racial perspectives in her past and exhibits converging truths.
The event, sponsored by the English department, is a part of the Stieren Arts Enrichment Series. Per yearly tradition, English professors Andrew Porter, Jenny Browne and Kelly Carlisle chose the guest speaker. Porter spoke to the importance of this event, which connects the community at large and grants students the opportunity to interact with a writer of national prominence.
“It is one of the ways we bring people from the San Antonio community onto the Trinity campus and get them to connect with our community here,” Porter said.
As a preface to her poetry, Trethewey touched upon the nature of her birth and how it has shaped the context of her life. Born out of the Jim Crow Era Mississippi to parents in an biracial marriage, the poet discussed her illegal existence in the eyes of the state, as interracial marriage, nor biracial children, were legal until 1967.
“I was actually born on Confederate Memorial Day. I don’t know if you celebrate that here in Texas, but it was April 26, 1966, exactly 100 years to the holiday first being celebrated. When I think about my mother imagining bringing a child into that particular moment, she must have had a lot of hope … That was a really hopeful moment in the country for pushing us closer to realizing our grandest ideals set forth in our founding documents,” Trethewey said.
Trethewey recited 10 pieces of her work spanning topics of history, politics, racial ideology and family narratives. Notably, Trethewey reflected on how she wrote “Incident” during her time as U.S. Poet Laureate as a form of political expression, emphasizing the importance of the right to vote. She concluded with the recitation of “Enlightenment,” layering the story of Thomas Jefferson’s life with the racial context that divides a white man and his Black daughter.
“When I was first appointed Poet Laureate, I had to go to Washington for a little bit of a briefing of the post because my predecessor, the late, great, Phil Levine had gotten in trouble because he was being interviewed by a newspaper and in this interview, he said that Congress was quote ‘a den of vipers.’ Now, the office of the Poet Laureate in the United States is one created by Congress. And so, the people over there at the Library of Congress don’t exactly want the poets to make the folks in Congress mad. But they also know that you can’t tell a poet what to or not to write about, so what they told me was I could say anything I wanted as long as I said it in the context of the poem,” Trethewey said.
Throughout the talk, Trethewey pulled at parallels between her childhood, the Civil Rights Movement and current events. She reflected on how the state of the world contributes to her work.
“I said that the weight of the world is on me, and it is because of this historical moment that we are in. If you think about when I was born in 1966, just after some major advancements in the Civil Rights Movement, it felt like for a long time we were on our way up toward reaching our goals that are articulated in our founding documents,” Trethewey said. “But now, with the rise of vocal virulent and visible forms of hate, it kind of moves my heart.”
During the Q&A session that followed the reading, Azariah Anderson, senior English major, asked how she balances the personal with historic in her work. According to Anderson, Trethewey’s response, where she addressed the natural integration of her story with the story of America, was particularly resonant.
“She is doing active work — archival research — to balance both personal trauma and collective memory. I say all of this to say that my personal trauma as a black man is connected to the overall histories of this country, so the work that I’ve been doing in my life, I can see myself reflected in Natasha, and it gives me so much encouragement and courage to move forward,” Anderson said.
Trethewey left the audience with a confession that for her, poetry is an act of hope. She said she first turned to poetry to cope with personal trauma but later found that poetry could provide healing for national traumas, such as after the 9/11 attacks.
The poet directed the audience toward the present and future, calling attention to the current political scene as an inflection point.
“I think that if people paid more attention to history, they would see the patterns that are emerging and we could do something about it before it is too late for our nation and our democracy,” Trethewey said.
