{"id":375,"date":"2012-04-05T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T17:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/review-the-lens-of-natasha-tretheway\/"},"modified":"2012-04-05T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T17:20:00","slug":"review-the-lens-of-natasha-tretheway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/review-the-lens-of-natasha-tretheway\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Lens of Natasha Tretheway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

by Joe Nelis
\nEastern Student Representative, 2012-2013
\nIndiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA<\/p>\n

We\u2019re lucky to live in a world where diversity is more widely celebrated than it is condemned. \u00a0It\u2019s not perfect by any means, but it is closer to equal today than during the time depicted in Natasha Trethewey\u2019s Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em>, our Common Reader for the 2012 International Convention in New Orleans. \u00a0Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em> received the 2003 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and was named a 2003 Notable Book by the American Library Association. \u00a0Trethewey herself won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for her more recent poetry collection, Native Guard<\/em>. \u00a0Trethewey treated us Sigma Tau Deltans to a historically and contextually grounded reading that should open our eyes to the depth and complexity of life, culture, and race during any time period.<\/p>\n

With Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em>, Trethewey performs a poetic retelling of the photographs of a mixed-race prostitute taken by the historically renowned E. J. Bellocq of New Orleans in the early twentieth- century. \u00a0Through the creative-critical lens of Trethewey\u2019s text, we see a recreation of the historical context in which this woman, Ophelia, lived and worked. \u00a0Through the poems she shared with us, including \u201cCountess P-\u2019s Advice for New Girls,\u201d \u201cPhotograph of a Bawd Drinking Raleigh Rye,\u201d and parts of the \u201cLetters from Storyville,\u201d Trethewey gave the audience significant insights into the life of women like Ophelia.<\/p>\n

Even living in an oppressive time, Ophelia was a woman with personal growth in mind, always educating herself. \u00a0Trethewey experienced her share of racism and sexism growing up as a woman of mixed race in Gulfsport, Mississippi. \u00a0During her reading, Trethewey elaborated upon issues close to her that any Deltan could appreciate. \u00a0She discussed important factors from her past that fuel her passions and creative drives now. \u00a0She gave us a deeper insight into the research and work done to write Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em>, from studying Bellocq\u2019s actual photographs to her archival dig through historical records. She revealed her frustrations as she tried to break away from writing in a set form, and how, through her challenges to herself, she came to embrace her historically-oriented, character-driven style. \u00a0From the readings, to her commentary, to her Q & A, Trethewey spoke with clarity and strength that kept her Deltan audience captivated. \u00a0We were lucky to have her share her work with us in New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Nelis Eastern Student Representative, 2012-2013 Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA We\u2019re lucky to live in a world where diversity is more widely celebrated than it is condemned. \u00a0It\u2019s not perfect by any means, but it is closer to equal today than during the time depicted in Natasha Trethewey\u2019s Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia, our Common […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-convention","category-society-wide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wordybynature.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}