As told to Koo Hwangbo
Arlington County’s first-ever poet laureate on the social and political power of poetry, her inspirations and what she’s reading now:
How has poetry affected your life?
Poetry is a public action and a way to make a difference in a broader sphere that allows me to articulate things in a way I hope is accessible to other people and is not a lecture but simply a way of engaging our broader social issues though the arts and through feeling and creativity.
What inspires your poetry?
It could be anything. I grew up in a de facto segregated South; I write about that. My dad was a journalist and covered the sit-ins in Greensboro in the 1960s, so I’m interested in articulating that experience of being at the intersections of change not only in this country but also in the Soviet Union and Russia. I am interested in people, in change, in politics, in social movements and how poetry gives you a way to speak about these things.
What about Arlington County is special to you?
I grew up in south-central Virginia in Prince Edward County, and from that vantage point Arlington was kind of the foreign land, the shining city on the hill—a very different universe from where I come from. I am interested in the cultural diversity, the linguistic diversity, the culinary diversity and the chance to be part of a community that is really a melting pot.
QUICK HITS
Neighborhood: Arlington
Favorite poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Anna Akhmatova, Inna Kabysh
Favorite line of a poem: “The iris, crisp and shivering” from Elizabeth Bishop’s “Poem”
Currently reading: Circe Maia, Patricia Smith, Joseph Fasano, Jericho Brown, Jack Gilbert, Svetlana Alexievich
