“I thought, my path is calling me, and I couldn’t refuse it,” mused Tiana Clark, on her realization that she was meant to be a poet while she worked at the Schomburg Center for Black Culture, en route to being a historian.
Tiana Clark, a poet and professor, visited a section of the Smith class Methods of Literary Study for a Q&A with students.
Her thoughts on her writing process were insightful. She shared, “Sometimes I’m just trying to be obedient to [my] obsessions and write through them… I try to get the pressure off me to fill in a certain identity in my poems.”
She said that her poetry is just for her; it serves as an outlet and a way to process trauma and her other experiences. Clark’s academic experiences helped her understand the purpose of her writing, especially in regards to her more provocative works.
When her graduate school professors read the poem she wrote “BBHMM,” which explores Rihanna’s music video “Bitch Better Have My Money” it revealed layers of trauma around being a Black woman, which made the professors feel uncomfortable and threatened. After initial frustration with this feedback, Clark realized she was happy with that.
“I don’t write to comfort people,” she affirmed, “I love Black culture and that’s what I want to write about.” She said she lives as she writes: constantly breaking the structures and exploring history to analyze her present.
On her perception of poetry she said, “You speak for the gaps of history… and use figurative language to speak for these untold stories… that haven’t been told before.”
She believes “Poetry is more sensual than pure historical prose. There’s something about the archive being distilled through poetic language. I am able to attack the truth in a different way… What’s great about a poem is that you don’t have to answer any questions, you can just wrestle with them.”
When asked about her process, Clark explained she values collaboration and the joy of writing as opposed to seeing poetry as a profitable outlet. She said, “The pure process of creating with other people in a community was just essential for me to live.”
Professor Lily Gurton-Wachter asked, “Do you think that letting go of that need to succeed has let you thrive?”
Clark replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
In retrospect of the class visit, Professor Gurton-Wachter mentioned, “The speed at which [Clark’s] brain moves through her texts… I could listen to her talk for hours.”
The word “inspirational” was thrown around by several students as well.
Penelope Phan ‘24 said, “Her poery about her experiences regarding race, sexual assault, and growing up in an unjust world resonated with me the most. She exposes the painstaking truth of what it is like living as a person of color in general, but also allows her audience to understand Black pain.”
Clark leaves an impact on the Smith community, both as a visitor, professor, and speaker this semester. Clark is the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence and she read at the Poetry Center on Sept. 28. Her writing clearly impacts students and her fellow professors alike; the anticipation of her event was buzzing throughout many English courses; the turnout was overflowing with professors and students alike.
Her note of how to find inspiration left a strong impression with hints of optimism and a lust for life, “If you live constantly amazed and catalogue your life, then you have all these details to come back to when you sit down to write.”
Her book, I Can’t Talk About The Trees Without The Blood, is available for purchase at Broadside Books.
[Image: Tiana Clark holds up a book in front of a wall that says “books are magic.” (photo by tianaclark.com)]
