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
I'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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the value of imitation in learning and reassures that authenticity will emerge naturally.
Natasha Trethewey encourages her students to embrace imitation as a foundational step in their creative processes, reassuring them that through genuine expression and deep feeling, their individuality will naturally manifest. This highlights the importance of learning from others while also allowing oneself to be authentic and unique.
Themes
ImitationAuthenticitySelf-ExpressionCreativityLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom setting while discussing the creative process.
More from Natasha Trethewey
All quotes βI 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
People always want to be on the right side of history; it is a lot easier to say, 'What an atrocity that was' then it is to say, 'What an atrocity this is.'
Natasha TretheweyRead
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