Interview with Natasha Trethewey
Jake Adam York, University of Colorado, Denver
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Overview:
In these excerpts from an interview conducted in Atlanta, Georgia on
22 February, 2008,
Jake York talks with Natasha Trethewey
about a variety of issues related to his poetry and its ties to his childhood home of Gadsden in northeast Alabama. Among other topics, York discusses the genesis of the poem "Walt Whitman in Alabama," the ways in which racial violence and white supremacy have been inscribed onto the local landscape, his interest in the history of industry and manufacturing in the region, the influence of his upbringing and family life, and his relationship to the idea of the "southern writer." |
Presentation Sections:
Interview with Natasha Trethewey:
Topics:
• How York came to write "Walt Whitman in Alabama" (0:00 — 1:34) • Documents and sources (1:35 — 4:26) • Family storytelling and Gadsden's history in his poems (4:27 — 7:22) • Civil War as "Lost Cause" in the Gadsden landscape (7:22 — 9:05) • Blacks' struggles against white supremacy in Gadsden (9:10 — 11:34) • The Coosa River and Gadsden's "psychic geography" (11:35 — 14:16) |
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Topics:
• York's relationship to "the southern writer" (0:00 — 4:58) • Effects of being labeled a "southern writer" (4:59 — 6:43) • New perspectives on racial geography and history (6:44 — 10:15) • Industry and manufacturing in northeast Alabama (10:16 — 15:40) |
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Topics:
• Family history and local reception of York's poetry (0:00 — 6:50) • Are his poems political? (6:51 — 10:28) |
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Topics:
• Ethics and the practice of writing; residue of violence (0:00 — 10:29) |
"A Field Guide to Northern Alabama" is part of Poets in Place, an ongoing series of original videos featuring poets reading and discussing their poems in locations they write about.
Presentation Sections:
