Don Share: This is The Poetry Magazine Podcast for the week of April 9th, 2018. 7 reminds us that the answers to all questions are in our DNA. Lindsay Garbutt: And I’m Lindsay Garbutt, associate editor for the magazine. And although I am a poet, I am not the bullet; I am not the coroner who will graze her hand, over naked knees. Having been able to turn a love for poetry into a full-fledged career, Elizabeth Acevedo shares how she overcame her fears and bulldozed through any barriers presented to her, sharing that her skin color, gender, and Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Christina Pugh: I’m Christina Pugh, consulting editor for the magazine. In The Poetry Magazine Podcast, we listen to a poem or two in the current issue. Her first novel The Poet X has just been published. I’m Don Share, editor of Poetry Magazine. Best Poem Of Elizabeth Acevedo After He's Decided to Leave When the bottle of hot sauce shattered in the kitchen he stood in the doorframe, shook his head at the mess. They didn’t have language. I grew up not knowing what to call myself, it took a long time to figure out what was the name I could use when asking myself that question. Don Share: Elizabeth Acevedo is a national slam champion. The Poet X is a New York Times Bestseller , [2] National Book Award Winner , [3] and Carnegie Medal winner. Elizabeth Acevedo’s life path number is 7 Life Path Number 7 represent 'The Intuitive'. Elizabeth Acevedo is an Afro-Dominican performer and author of THE POET X Momma that tells me to fix my hair, and so many words remain unspoken. Beltway Poetry Quarterly is an award-winning online literary journal and resource bank that showcases the literary community in Washington, DC and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic region. It’s a way of branding, it’s a way of carrying things within our own blood. But then when the “I” is taken out of it, we’re told the sidewalk is unsurprised. Those who walk a Life Path with Number 7 have the admirable ability of seeing the infinite possibilities in every person and situation. Who will swish her fingers, in the mouth. That collective grief has been internalized so much by the speaker that that moment of liking life is the moment of the poem. listening to him die thousands of little deaths. What is a good metaphor for a woman who loves in a time like this? This poem also makes me think about how … not to be too self help about it, but when you’re going through grief there’s this moment in which you find yourself enjoying something. Elizabeth Acevedo is an Afro-Dominican performer and author of THE POET X about books poetics news events faq contact She is a National Poetry Slam Champion. Elizabeth Acevedo is the daughter of Dominican immigrants. SlamFindTV (bit.ly/SlamFindTV) is a platform for spoken word poetry media to watch local, regional, and national poetry events on demand. Thanks for listening. “Will ― Elizabeth Acevedo… of a nightclub. She wondered whether or not to consider herself a black woman. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. One of Elizabeth Acevedo’s poems, titled “Spear,” was performed at NPS in 2014. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. enjoy when he rests on my body with a hard breath; this man inside me and released him again and again. Christina Pugh: I like the interesting way some of these negations are done as you were saying Lindsay as well. Her debut novel, The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), won the National Book Award. "Lean into fear. Don Share: The poet is explaining in her introduction that things like love and joke and wine and playing and hanging out are still allowed even in an atmosphere internalized of fear and love and grief. Elizabeth Acevedo: I am not the coroner who will graze her hand. -- Elizabeth Acevedo Elizabeth Acevedo--writer, performer, educator, and this year's host for the Poetry Out Loud National Finals--is a National Slam Champion, holds an MFA in creative writing, and has a new book, Blessed Fuit and Other Origin Myths, due out in the fall. Don Share: And I’m Don Share. Not even for other people, just to know who am I from. Elizabeth Acevedo is a National Poetry Slam champion and her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry, Puerto Del Sol, Callaloo, The Notre Dame Review and others. I think it really shows how fully these losses have been experienced. It seems like there’s a complex letting be of a certain kind of figurative language or poetic language at the same time that is being confused. ELIABETH ACEVEDO: This poem that I read for you all was my thinking through, what does it mean to be someone who maybe didn't grow up with … HuffPost is part of Verizon Media. Elizabeth Acevedo is author of Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths (YesYes Books, 2016) as well as the novels Clap When You Land (Quill Tree Books, 2020), With the Fire on High (Quill Tree Books, 2019), and THE POET X (HarperTeen, 2018), which won the 2018 National Book Award in Young People's Literature. Elizabeth Acevedo is a Dominican-American poet and author. Also that she talked about not knowing how to answer questions about who she is, she finds a means to answer in the poem by saying “I’m not”. I am neither           nor romanced by the streetlamp nor candlelight; my hands are not an iron, but look, they’re hot, look, how I place them           in love           on his skin. All these images are tied together from the very beginning of the poem with it’s title. Elizabeth Acevedo is the author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Her first novel The Poet X has just been published. Our bodies curve into one another like an echo, and I let my curtain of curls blanket us from the world, how our children will be beautiful. I’ve never quite experienced a poem that draws all those things so elegantly together, and yet at the same time doesn’t foresake what we know to be the reality outside the room where there might be moments of intimacy. Hair, a reclamation. This poem is about Acevedo bringing and raising a daughter in this world where she may be tossed aside or treated lesser than human. She’s delivered several Ted Talks and she’s the author of the chapbook Beast Girl and Other Origin Myths. Elizabeth Acevedo: We can still fall in love and joke and drink wine and play spades and hang out, those things are still allowed even if we’re also carrying fear and grief. This is where the poems are,” I say, thumping a fist against my chest. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. I let him turn & spin my name bella negra. Lindsay Garbutt: These are all very intimate and loving gestures, and by saying she’s not doing this and yet still describing what this action is, there’s a really. That no metaphor really suffices, so she has to keep saying what she’s not, yet she dwells for quite a while on these images of what she’s not. 1 Es la autora de la novela juvenil, The Poet X, que es un best-seller del New York Times. Elizabeth Acevedo is author of Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths (YesYes Books, 2016) as well as the novels Clap When You Land (Quill Tree Books, 2020), With the … Those are the opening lines to award-winning slam champion Elizabeth Acevedo's spoken word poem, “Afro-Latina.” She speaks them with pride pouring from her lips as she recounts how she went how from rejecting her Joshua Bennett and Justin Rovillos Monson in Conversation, Cathy Park Hong and Lynn Xu on the Poetry of Choi Seungja, Jackson Holbert and John Darnielle in Conversation, Tongo Eisen-Martin and Sonia Sanchez in Conversation, Leila Chatti and Sharon Olds in Conversation, Alison C. Rollins and Latria Graham in Conversation, avery r. young in conversation with LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Ed Roberson and Lyn Hejinian in Conversation, A Conversation with Oli Rodriguez and Xandria Phillips, A Conversation with Kit Fan and Alice Oswald, A Conversation with Justice Leah Ward Sears on Margaret Walker’s “For My People”, Karen An-hwei Lee reads “On June Blossoming in June”, Bradley Trumpfheller reads “Speculative Realism”, A Conversation with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Vahni Capildeo, Tishani Doshi reads “They Killed Cows. She said she wrote it in response to the videos and pictures of black people dying violently in the US. This poem is a lovely love poem in a time of violence and fear and love and grief. The “I” is also sadly unsurprised. National Poetry Slam Champion Elizabeth Acevedo received the 2018 National Book Award for her New York Times best selling novel, The Poet X. ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is a New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land. In The Poetry Magazine Podcast, we listen to a poem or two in the current issue. Yet the final, gentle moment, set inside a nail salon, is one of reaching out, and having someone reach back. She’s delivered several Ted Talks and she’s the author of the chapbook Beast Girl and Other Origin Myths. as another cheek scrapes harsh against it. Last year Elizabeth Acevedo’s spoken word piece, Hair, went viral.In it the Dominican poet artfully breaks down the oppressiveness of a beauty standard that prizes fair skin and straight hair. I am no scalpel or high thread count sheet. In a recent interview with Latina magazine, Acevedo expounded on … … Our bodies curve into one another like an echo, and I let my curtain of curls blanket us from the world, how our children will be beautiful. Elizabeth Acevedo is the author of With The Fire on High (HarperCollins, 2019), The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), and a chapbook, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (Yes Yes Books, 2016). She was struggling with what it means to live in fear and yet to love at the same time. I Killed Them.”. Christina Pugh: It seems to me by saying I am not the sidewalk, it’s like saying I am not going to make the sidewalk a metaphor, or I’m not going to personify the sidewalk. Elizabeth Acevedo: I think I was trying to figure out where I fit. That process began at a young age, growing up in a Dominican family of oral storytellers, she said. I think that’s moving, and I think it’s also a really interesting moment to inhabit. Burn it. [4] Today's poem is by Elizabeth Acevedo For the Poet Who Told Me Rats Aren't Noble Enough Creatures for a Poem Because you are not the admired nightingale. Even after discovering her love of performing poetry, her work remains rooted in hip-hop. She is also the winner of the Boston-Globe Hornbook Award Prize for Best Children’s Fiction and the author of Clap When You Land , With the Fire On High, and the chapbook Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths. when I 1, 2, 3 5, 6, 7 in front of my mirror. Poet Elizabeth Acevedo is writing to understand. Christina Pugh: Let us know what you thought about this program. Lindsay Garbutt: The theme music for this poem comes from the Claudia Quintet. I think this happens with the title of the poem too, because she ends with saying my hands are not an iron, but the title of the poem is “Iron”. The editors discuss Elizabeth Acevedo’s poem “Iron” from the April 2018 issue of Poetry. Not only is it something that removes wrinkles from clothing, or in this example she’s able to unwrinkled a person’s spine, but an iron is also a weapon. “We are the sons and daughters, el destino de mi … In this case, it’s a kind of collective grief that’s happening. 2 When I’d ask my parents what we were, they’d say we’re brown, or we’re Dominican. So for example, the coroner —. interesting tension and connection that’s drawn together there. Lindsay Garbutt: I think it’s so interesting that this poem is about trying to answer the central question what is a good metaphor for a woman who loves in a time like this? Write the hard poem." on what used to be New York Ave in what used to be Chocolate City. And now, throughout the year’s pain and distress caused by the pandemic, people have been finding Acevedo’s poem, connecting with its core theme of loneliness, she said. This paper provides a thematic, narratological and stylistic analysis Elizabeth Acevedo’s slam poems “Hair”, “Afro-Latina”, “Spear” and “Unforgettable”, in which Acevedo raises awareness about (identity) struggles present within two Elizabeth Acevedo, an award-winning and best-selling poet and author, dreamed of becoming a rapper. his hands were less tender but still I let them roam. ― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X tags: author, dark, freedom, light, poetry, words, writing 143 likes Like “Burn it! Elizabeth Acevedo, Author of Clap When You Land, Is the YA Author I Needed as Teen But now as an adult, I can't get enough of the Dominican American author's lyrical novels. Don Share: She is a poet and she is a lover. Not a gavel, or hand-painted teacup. Don Share: The Poetry Magazine Podcast is recorded by Ed Herman and produced by Curtis Fox and Catherine Fenelosa. Lindsay Garbutt: We’ll have another episode for you next week, or you can get all four April episodes all at once on the full length episode on Soundcloud. negra so I spun my heart landing on the rum-covered linoleum. and am still able to unwrinkle his spine. She told us that while she grew up in a house that celebrated Dominican culture, she had a hard time feeling at home in the color of her skin. Of dust skin, and diamond eyes. I like the notion that there’s a kind of personified entity in the world even as it’s being refused. The Poetry Magazine Podcast features poets and artists in their natural form—reading poems and speaking freely. So the sidewalk is reacting as an entity the way perhaps the “I” would. Don Share: Elizabeth Acevedo is a national slam champion. Don Share: Her poem in the April issue is called “Iron”. Email us at [email protected], and please link to the podcast on social media. To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. She is the author of The Poet X , With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land . It flourished with her high school poetry … You start thinking about all these things an iron suggests. I’m Lindsay Garbutt. Who will flip the body over, her eye a hook, I am not the sidewalk, which is unsurprised. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Elizabeth Acevedo es una escritora y poeta estadounidense de padres dominicanos. “Our bodies have been bridges,” proclaimed the Dominican-American poet Elizabeth Acevedo. Elizabeth Acevedo is the author of The Poet X--which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award--as well as With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land. Don Share: You can read “Iron” by Elizabeth Acevedo in the April 2018 issue of Poetry Magazine, or online at poetrymagazine.org. Lindsay Garbutt: Acevedo is the daughter of Dominican immigrants. The first thing you might feel is guilt and horror that you’re enjoying something in life. Born and raised in New York City’s