19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 13
“I’ve learned it takes practice to be a master of
something painful, satisfying, seemingly useless.
First, understand, you must be broken.”
— FROM “AN ELABORATE NON-YOGA POSE IN WHICH YOU REALIZE
YOU WERE NOT MADE FOR THIS WORLD” IN MISTRESS
In college, she remembers hearing a fellow writing
student share a poem about a death in her family. In just a
few lines, Sebree felt the mourners’ devastation. “I realized I
wanted to be involved in a business that makes someone feel
this acutely in such a finite amount of space,” she said.
But pursuing poetry as a profession felt like a gamble.
Her mother, a chemist-turned-attorney, was confused when
Sebree declared she wanted to study poetry in graduate school.
She still couldn’t picture it as a career—much less earning
money from her poems. Instead, the goal, she said, was to
deepen her practice and craft. “From the beginning, I knew
I was not setting off on a financially lucrative path,” she said.
“No one goes into writing poems to be rich and famous.”
Poetry “resonates with people by speaking
to a larger experience in ultimately
powerful and meaningful ways.”
— CHET’LA SEBREE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
Given the breadth of Sebree’s subject matter—from Sally
Hemings in Mistress to the maternal voices in Blue Opening—
it can be difficult to find thematic connections throughout her
work. Sebree says the through-line in her poems is clearing
space for the things people don’t talk about. “There are so many
emotional truths that we bury in service of respectability or
just making other people comfortable,” she said.
Indeed, Sebree’s poems highlight the uncomfortable
truths that shadow human existence—what it means to fail,
what it means to hurt other people, what it means to get hurt
ourselves. “We so often put ourselves in rigid boxes thinking
we need to be just one way in order to be loved or accepted,”
she said. “Across my writing, I want to showcase a wide
variety of experiences and say, ‘These are the things that
make us human.’”
Part of that effort also includes exploring Black women’s
experiences. In a world that, Sebree says, tries to make Black
women feel small, she wants her verses to paint fully-realized
lives. “What does it mean for me to live in this world—in this
body—in a way that celebrates it?” she asked.
Finding Your “Access Point”
Some of her themes are based on her own experiences.
Sebree grew up in Delaware and often visited family outside
of Philadelphia. She attended a small, predominantly
white Quaker school where she stood out as one of
the few Black students in class. Still her
family sometimes chided her for
mimicking her white schoolmates.
“It always felt like I was yo-yoing
between worlds, and I never fit in,”
she said. Indeed, in her GW classes,
she feels particular responsibility
to “all of my students who feel like
they don’t see anyone else who
represents them,” she said.
Many of her students are often
surprised to hear how much
research she conducts before
writing her poems. “Everyone thinks
I just sit down and write
A poet, essayist and
educator, Assistant
Professor of English
Chet’la Sebree challenges
form and convention on
and off the page.
GW Arts & Sciences | RESEARCH & LEARNING | 13
