{"id":36215,"date":"2014-04-06T17:10:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T17:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=36215"},"modified":"2014-04-06T17:10:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T17:10:12","slug":"natasha-trethewey-links-history-to-poetry-at-convocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=36215","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Trethewey Links History to Poetry at Convocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natasha Trethewey Links History to Poetry at Convocation<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Fearless and Loathing: Oberlin’s Independent Student Website<\/a>
\n2014-04-19<\/p>\n

Zoey Memmert-Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

Natasha Trethewey<\/a>, the 19th<\/sup> Poet Laureate of the United States<\/a> spoke in Finney Chapel for the third convocation of the spring semester. She read poetry from throughout her career and spoke on the ways she understands history through the lens of her intimate, personal relationships.<\/p>\n

In his introductory speech President Marvin Krislov<\/a> cited this understanding, noting the presence in her poems of \u201cpersonal and social histories intertwined.\u201d This was particularly pertinent given the date of her visit: March 4. This year marked the first anniversary of the day that classes were suspended following the vandalism and hate crimes on campus.<\/p>\n

Before ceding the stage to Trethewey, Krislov acknowledged the student activists who have been working to change campus discourse, as well as Sarah Cheshire \u201814, Lillian White \u201816 and Cuyler Otsuka \u201814, the organizers of the \u201cOberlin History Lessons Project<\/a>\u201d which was displayed in the lobby of Finney Chapel and based around one of Trethewey\u2019s poems. <\/b><\/p>\n

The connection between Trethewey\u2019s poetry and Oberlin\u2019s remembrance of these events was clear. \u201cI believe history is ongoing,\u201d Trethewey said, before quoting Faulkner<\/a>: \u201cthe past isn\u2019t dead, it isn\u2019t even past.\u201d Poetry, she emphasized, is a way to connect people, a way to affect the heart and the intellect.<\/p>\n

A Southerner and the daughter of a white father and a black mother, Trethewey\u2019s work focuses on the history of race in American society and history, some poems more obliquely than others. She began the evening with \u201cMiscegenation<\/a>\u201d, a poem about her parents\u2019 illegal marriage in Ohio<\/a>. The poem introduced Trethewey\u2019s style\u2014lovely language and loaded statements fitted into the confines of strict form. She then recounted when the KKK<\/a> burned a cross on the lawn of her childhood home, after her grandmother allowed the parking lot to be used for voter registration, and followed this with a pantoum<\/a>, which further recalled the incident…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natasha Trethewey Links History to Poetry at Convocation Fearless and Loathing: Oberlin’s Independent Student Website 2014-04-19 Zoey Memmert-Miller Natasha Trethewey, the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States spoke in Finney Chapel for the third convocation of the spring semester. She read poetry from throughout her career and spoke on the ways she understands history […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2895,20],"tags":[17198,17197,1133,17199],"class_list":["post-36215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-campus-life","category-usa","tag-fearless-and-loathing","tag-fearless-and-loathing-oberlins-independent-student-website","tag-natasha-trethewey","tag-zoey-memmert-miller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}