“Your Story Matters”: Rita Dove's Inside Scoop
By Lucy Roller, HRI David F. Prindable Intern
When she became Poet Laureate of the United States, Rita Dove discovered how many people were afraid of poetry. She’s been working ever since to change that.
On April 15 I had the honor of attending HRI’s Inside Scoop event hosted with Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center—a lunch and discussion with Rita Dove, 7th Poet Laureate of the United States.
As BNAACC provided a free and delicious meal for all attendees during the discussion, Dove read a poem featuring food and community— “Family Reunion,” based on her own memories of family gatherings growing up. Hearing Dove’s work in her own voice was a powerful experience. Her emotion, emphasis, and breath, strengthened the impact of an already incredible poem.
Dove spoke about the reunions that inspired the poem, sharing how her family “gathered around food and the joy of being together.” She emphasized the importance of storytelling in these events, describing her aunts' incredible narrative skills and the music of their tone of voice. In her own reading when she was younger, Dove sought to find something that captured that tone, that music, but she wouldn’t be able to for years. As a young Black girl growing up in the Midwest, Dove did not find representation of people like her on the pages of the countless books she read. She started writing her own science fiction stories focused on little Black girls, an experience she described as “filling a void I felt.”
Dove encouraged students not to think that her path to success was always clear and simple, but reaffirmed that it was rife with its own twists and turns. She shared how she was completely surprised when her poetry collection Thomas and Beulah won the Pulitzer Prize. What delighted her the most about the win was that it was a collection about “ordinary folk”—her grandparents. She was able to take a personal story and make it resonate with people around the world.
After sharing an overview of her life and career and the lessons she’s learned, Dove answered questions from the many undergraduate students who came to the discussion. Her passion for teaching was evident in how she spoke, truly wanting the best for each and every student and advising them the best that she could.
When asked if there were any themes she found herself consistently returning to in her work, she spoke about “the underside of history,” telling the stories of people who might otherwise be forgotten. She shared the story of George Bridgetower, a Black violinist who played with Beethoven. Bridgetower was the subject of one of her later poetry collections, Sonata Mulattica. Music is another major motif throughout Dove’s work. As she said at the lunch, “I can’t imagine life without music. I can’t imagine language without music.”
Her biggest piece of advice for the young writers and poets in the room? Take notice. Pay attention to the world around you, the lived experience you have that won’t be recorded in the pages of history. She urged students to continually hone their skills, in writing or “whatever is your bliss,” calling it the most powerful weapon one can have in this world.
Overall, this Inside Scoop event was a wonderful educational experience. Dove’s expertise in and passion for poetry was evident, and it was an honor to learn from such a master of the English language. Her final piece of advice for young writers was this: “Your story matters. There is no story that does not matter. Your task is to make it matter for everyone else. Keep writing. Even if it currently feels like junk, keep writing.”
If you missed Dove's poetry reading in April, the recording is now available on Media Space and ready to watch!