diVERSES reKINDLED: In Conversation With Poet Cynthia Amoah

The identity we have been given is an identity that can be taken.

Cynthia Amoah, in her appearance on the Listening Room, spoke to her Ghanian roots, but also the complications that have arisen. What happens when listening to the music and eating the food aren't enough, and a wall still separates us from the very people we believe to be in communion with?

Vievee Francis's "the individual is universal" reminds us there are no monoliths. In my own experience, Cave Canem and Callaloo welcomed me as a Black poet.

But I'm also a biracial poet. Cynthia is a poet who has spent extensive time stateside.

Though we choose how we identify to a degree, what we don't have control over is how we are identified. We can influence identity by appearance and behavior. We can pay attention to what our desired group pays attention to.

Check enough boxes, the strategy goes, and people will associate us with the group we wish.

But there is no guarantee.

One of the greatest powers of poetry is the level of introspection it demands. One of the deepest levels of introspection is the learning of the self, not only with how we identify, but how we identified with how we identify.

Poetry is often more an art of questions than answers, and this case is no different.

Fortunately, there is more art at the bottom of the mountain than at the top.

Full conversation with Cynthia Amoah on the poetry reality show, the Listening Room: https://youtu.be/ytB_pyLnbvs