Washington, DC poet Elizabeth Acevedo spoke at this year’s Aspen Summit on Inequality and Opportunity, weaving her work into a talk about growing up the daughter of Dominican immigrants in New York City, learning the art of poetry, and teaching that art to students (who weren’t always as enthused as she was). Above, you can see Acevedo’s poem about teaching creative writing to young women of color in a detention center, recognizing their trauma and avoiding the teacher-as-savior mentality. Below, she muses on her mother’s immigrant background, learning to do laundry by hand, and the small but stinging ways racism rears its head in everyday life.
You can watch Acevedo’s entire talk below.
