2008 Woodie Awards
Pulitzer prize-winning poet at ECU
Natasha Trethewey draws from her own experience
Elise Phillips, Assistant Pulse Editor
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Features
The ECU Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English and the Creative Writing program presented a night of poetry with Pulitzer prize-winning poet Natasha Tretheway last night.
Students, faculty and members of the community gathered at Hendrix Theatre at 8 p.m. to hear Tretheway read from her poetry portfolio, including her prize-winning book of poems Native Guard, which was published in 2006. The publication of Native Guard made Tretheway only the third African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer prize.
Mayor of Greenville Pat Dunn opened the presentation with words for Tretheway and the audience.
"I think it's a great honor to have a Pulitzer prize-winner [come]," said Dunn. "On behalf of the City Concil and the city of Greenville, I'm delighted to welcome you."
Dunn also presented Trethewey with a paperweight engraved with the seal of Greenville.
John Hoppenthaler, assistant professor in the Department of English and friend of Trethewey, arranged for the poet to come to ECU. He has published many of her poems, and told the crowd last night that "publishing these poems by Natasha will always be the highlight of my career."
Trethewey's poems are filled with historical references that pertain to her own life. As a child born to a Black mother and White father in the mid-60's in racially-divided Mississippi, Trethewey experienced her share of prejudice and racial hatred. Born in a time when miscegenation (the marriage of a Black and White couple) was outlawed in her home state, Trethewey understood what it was like to be looked at as a "half-breed" or "mulatto," as one of her poems states.
Some of her other works include her experience of having a cross burned by the Ku Klux Klan in her yard and the after-effects of Katrina in her home state of Mississippi. She told the audience that she felt compelled to tell the "violent history and terrible beauty of my South, my Mississippi."
Students, faculty and members of the community gathered at Hendrix Theatre at 8 p.m. to hear Tretheway read from her poetry portfolio, including her prize-winning book of poems Native Guard, which was published in 2006. The publication of Native Guard made Tretheway only the third African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer prize.
Mayor of Greenville Pat Dunn opened the presentation with words for Tretheway and the audience.
"I think it's a great honor to have a Pulitzer prize-winner [come]," said Dunn. "On behalf of the City Concil and the city of Greenville, I'm delighted to welcome you."
Dunn also presented Trethewey with a paperweight engraved with the seal of Greenville.
John Hoppenthaler, assistant professor in the Department of English and friend of Trethewey, arranged for the poet to come to ECU. He has published many of her poems, and told the crowd last night that "publishing these poems by Natasha will always be the highlight of my career."
Trethewey's poems are filled with historical references that pertain to her own life. As a child born to a Black mother and White father in the mid-60's in racially-divided Mississippi, Trethewey experienced her share of prejudice and racial hatred. Born in a time when miscegenation (the marriage of a Black and White couple) was outlawed in her home state, Trethewey understood what it was like to be looked at as a "half-breed" or "mulatto," as one of her poems states.
Some of her other works include her experience of having a cross burned by the Ku Klux Klan in her yard and the after-effects of Katrina in her home state of Mississippi. She told the audience that she felt compelled to tell the "violent history and terrible beauty of my South, my Mississippi."
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