Photo provided by Writers Institute
By Hannah McLucas, Staff Writer
On Oct. 12, Susquehanna’s Writers Institute welcomed poet Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez to give a virtual reading of her work. This event was part of the Writers Institute’s Seavey Reading Series.
Ramirez was born in Puerto Rico to a military family and raised in the United States. According to her website, Ramirez is the author of two collections of poetry, “Coconut Curls y Café con Leche” and “Despojo.” Her work has also been published in The Acentos Review and A Gypsy’s Library among many other publications. She details her emotions and experiences as a minority woman.
Ramirez explained that when she first started writing poetry it was just for her, but it grew into her having a mission and purpose for her poetry. She did not just want people to think her writing was beautiful, she wanted her words to be meaningful and for people to be able to relate to them. A lot of what she wants to accomplish in her poetry is empowerment.
“I want to empower women, particularly young women, and even more specifically young women of color,” Ramirez said.
She said she wants to accomplish this because she’s seen and knows how our society treats young women of color and she wants to shine a light on this sad truth.
Throughout her readings Ramirez offered pieces of advice to young writers. She explained that the best way to not box yourself into one style or genre of writing is by, “reading other genres and reading other authors.” This is the best and most authentic way to gain different perspectives, according to Ramirez.
Another piece of advice she offered is, “don’t be afraid to experiment in your work, your work is your work, and no one can tell you it’s wrong.” She wanted young writers to understand that there is no right or wrong way to write, it’s all a matter of your own feelings and self-reflection, outsiders cannot tell you your experiences are wrong.
She read a variety of poems from both of her collections; one of the works she read is her opening poem from her debut collection, “Coconut Curls y Café con Leche,” titled “Mi Gente.” She said she chose this as her opening poem because it is the best introduction to her work and who she is as a person. This poem illustrated how her heritage is unable to be simply translated into English life, but instead the beauty remains in her homeland.
She also read poems from her newest collection, “Despojo.” She explained that her idea for this collection came from the word despojo, which is a cleansing ritual. This fit her collection because there are a lot of heavy topics and she looked at this collection as her own “cleansing” from these topics and emotions so that she is able to move forward in life.
