{"id":5027,"date":"2021-08-02T09:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T09:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?p=5027"},"modified":"2022-09-28T11:05:52","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T11:05:52","slug":"an-evening-with-natalie-diaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/an-evening-with-natalie-diaz\/","title":{"rendered":"An Evening with Natalie D\u00edaz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"EN-US\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Natalie D\u00edaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. She is also the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. D\u00edaz is also a well-decorated poet with a Pulitzer Prize for her most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3j4PffS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Postcolonial Love Poem<\/a>, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and the Nimrod\/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry (among many others).<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> Our discussion of &#8220;My Brother at 3 am&#8221; from <\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">When my Brother was an Aztec<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> has centered around form and language, two aspects of poetry which are of particular importance to the poet. We were also lucky enough to have D\u00edaz read her poems &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/56355\/my-brother-at-3-am\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">My Brother at 3 am<\/span><\/a><span lang=\"EN-US\">,&#8221; &#8220;Why I Hate Raisins,&#8221; &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org\/poems\/manhattan-is-a-lenape-word\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Manhattan is a Lenape Word<\/span><\/a><span lang=\"EN-US\">,&#8221; and &#8220;Run and Gun.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5089\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2021\/07\/C6D8A236-4875-4952-92FF-4F2340B632E0.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>D\u00edaz&#8217;s work focuses on the function of identity intersectionality: linguistic intersectionality, identity and identity construction, and the impact of these ideas on the individual. Language preservation is another important part of the poet&#8217;s work. She mentioned that, prior to meeting with us, she had been working on an oral history project, recording Mojave songs. A woman of many languages, D\u00edaz began by greeting us in Spanish, English, and Mojave. Like her poetry, D\u00edaz spoke with a thoughtful and considered exactitude. One phrase repeated during our conversation was her genuine excitement that the questions posed to her provided a &#8220;generous place for me to think.&#8221; While the questions allowed D\u00edaz this intellectual freedom, it also invited the listener to float through the ebb and flow of the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>While we listened to D\u00edaz talk about her work and process, we were also invited to look inward. &#8220;What would happen if every time you typed the word &#8216;I&#8217;, we asked who?&#8221; This statement was one of several rhetorical questions that D\u00edaz invited us to consider during our conversation. The question of who is &#8220;I&#8221; is something that D\u00edaz considers in her writing and personal life. The &#8220;I&#8221; of D\u00edaz is multi-faceted, like all of us. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe, a professor, a queer Latina, an award-winning poet, a former professional basketball player, a farmer, a language learner and educator, a mentee; the list goes on.<\/p>\n<p>We were lucky to meet the poet, she proudly informed us, while she was at home on Mojave land. This set the tone for the intimacy of the conversation, and the feeling that we were sitting with D\u00edaz, thus transcending the video conference. D\u00edaz mentioned that while poetry can sometimes be labeled as stiff, it can be altered and shifted to better fit the needs of the poet. The pantoum form, for example, is defined by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/learn\/glossary-terms\/pantoum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Poetry Foundation<\/a> as &#8220;a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next.&#8221; D\u00edaz finds that instead of feeling stuck, she uses the structure to search for lines of poetry that fit within the parameters. Repeating an intellectual task over and over again to create mental muscle memory may seem like an odd writing practice for a poet, until you remember that D\u00edaz was also a professional basketball player. To paraphrase the poet, both creative outlets require the same drive, focus, and athleticism; the only difference is that one is easier on your knee cartilage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Natalie D\u00edaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. She is also the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/an-evening-with-natalie-diaz\/\" class=\"\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-summer-tales"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An Evening with Natalie D\u00edaz - Books We Read<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/an-evening-with-natalie-diaz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Evening with Natalie D\u00edaz - Books We Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Natalie D\u00edaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. 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