Before I was ever a poet, my father was writing poems about me, so it was a turning of the tables when I became a poet and started answering, speaking back to his poems in ways that I had not before.
Natasha TretheweyRead
My parents had to go to Ohio to get married in 1965 because it was still illegal in Mississippi. My white father and black mother.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the barriers faced by interracial couples due to societal laws and prejudices of the time.
Natasha Trethewey's quote recounts the historical injustice of interracial marriage in the United States, highlighting how her parents had to travel to Ohio to marry in 1965 because Mississippi still had laws prohibiting such unions. This personal narrative underscores the struggles and sacrifices faced by interracial couples, illustrating the broader social and legal challenges that were present during that era.
Themes
InterracialMarriageLoveHistoryPrejudice
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about the history of marriage equality.
More from Natasha Trethewey
All quotes βI've been telling my students, 'Imitate, imitate.' And they say, 'Well, what if I plagiarize, or what if I'm not original? I want to be myself.' And I always tell them, 'Your self will shine through'... If you allow yourself to feel deeply and honestly, what you say won't be like anyone else.
Natasha TretheweyRead
I think that it's hard enough being an adolescent and wanting so much to fit in with your peers, your schoolmates, and to erase any sign of difference, to be part of the group. And being biracial but also being black in a predominately white school marked me as different.
Natasha TretheweyRead
'Memory.' 'Race.' 'Murder.' That's what they say about me. I am an elegiac poet. I have some historical questions, and I'm grappling with ways to make sense of history; why it still haunts us in our most intimate relationships with each other, but also in our political decisions.
Natasha TretheweyRead
For a long time, I've been interested in cultural memory and historical erasure.
Natasha TretheweyRead
Often as a poet I find that I am somewhat outside an experience I want to hold onto, consciously taking mental notes or writing them down in my journal - for fear that I will forget. It's not unlike being on a trip and taking pictures, your face behind a camera the whole time - the entire experience mediated by a lens.
Natasha TretheweyRead
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