Toi Derricotte's Visit to the University of Missouri-Columbia!

Poet Toi Derricotte

Tender, University of Pittsburgh Press, ( 1997)

Family Secrets    They told my cousin Rowena not to marry Calvin―she was too young, just eighteen, & he was too dark, too too dark, as if he had been washed in what we wanted to wipe off our hands. Besides, he didn't come from a good family. He said he was going to be a lawyer, but we didn't quite believe. The night they eloped to the Gotham Hotel, the whole house whispered―as if we were ashamed to tell it to ourselves. My aunt and uncle rushed down to the Gotham to plead― we couldn't imagine his hands on her! Families are conceived in many ways. The night my cousin Calvin lay down on her, that idol with its gold skin broke, & many of the gods we loved in secret were freed. —from Tender 1997

When speaking about confessional poetry, Toi Derricotte quoted her former mentor, poet Audre Lorde, by explaining “Shame keeps everyone silent; and silence keeps everything the same.” Indeed, this is very true and was one of many statements that stood out from Derricotte’s visit to our class. After reading Derricote’s poetry, attending her reading and having her personally visit our Contemporary African-American Poetry course, I now have a better understanding of the need to break that “silence” through the use of poetry.  There is a necessity for this kind of poetry, because it acts as a medium for comprehending the reality of conventions and customs, the consciousness of opinion and the desire for equality. For example, in her poem, “Family Secrets,” the speaker explains how the concept of believing that lighter skin tones are superior to darker skin tones in the black community is an idea that is lost when those of different shades come into physical contact with one another. The speaker states “The night my cousin Calvin lay/down on her, that idol with its gold skin/broke, & many of the gods we loved/in secret were freed.” Derricotte’s enthusiasm and explanation of Cave Canem, the poetry foundation co-founded by her, was also very informative. In her explanation, she explained how the program came about, because there as a need for black poets to have a safe haven where they could write the poetry they really wanted to. She told our class that “there are a lot of black poets out there who are invisible,” and that there are “a lot of people ready to really write great poetry.” Derricotte’s notion of there being a strong desire for providing black poets with a place to congregate artistically as writers was, indeed, true. As a poet, I admire Cave Canem. Hopefully, I can attend a retreat with her one day and write under her guidance.