On April 2, Francis W. Parker’s 12th annual Poet-In-Residence Tina Chang started off her day of poetry events with a MX. Her goal was to educate students about the job of poets and share her work with students.
Throughout the day, Chang visited classes, hosted a lunch for upper school students, and held an evening reading session. During her MX, she recited poems from her first full-length poetry collection and took questions from audience members.
Chang was born in Oklahoma to Taiwanese immigrants who had met in Canada. But, after finding out that her father had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, the family moved to New York City in hopes of providing him with the best treatment. When her father died, Chang and her brother were sent to Taiwan where she learned to further embrace her East Asian heritage. Eventually, she moved back to New York where she fell in love with language: “I was at this early age, intensely curious about language because it signaled a major change in my life.” Having spent so much time outside of the United States, she found it difficult to assimilate into schooling, despite her rising passion for writing.
After a middle school English teacher noticed her strong attention to an assigned poetry exercise, her dedication to writing began to take off. “As I continued on my studies, my love of reading and writing grew,” she said. As a result, Chang majored in English Literature at Binghamton University where she works as a professor and the Director of Creative Writing today.
Today, Chang is the author of three full-length poetry collections, the recipient of a Dana Award, and was a finalist for the prestigious Asian American Literary Award. Named as the first female Poet Laureate of Brooklyn in 2010, Chang held the position for over a decade where her main goal was to expand the reach of poetry by working directly with younger generations. “A lot of the young people who approach me are of mixed race, and they feel so held and so seen [in my work],” she said. “It’s so good to know if my writing has reached somebody.”
Her motivation for representation in literature combined with the birth of her son led her to create her third full-length poetry collection, “Hybrida.” Due to an escalation of violence in New York City against people of color, Chang needed a way to express the intense emotions she was internalizing. Like her previous collections, Hybrida focuses on the injustices in the changing world around her; themes largely center around police brutality but also the strong familial connections born out of times of struggle. “Misery inspires me. Whenever I was at my lowest, I had to pull myself up. But, belief in myself and the world has carried me to the present.”
This same determination allowed Chang to push past doubts she has had in her own work. Following the tragedy of 9/11, she struggled immensely to find a place for her writing. “I wanted to know what the use of my own poetry was amidst all that loss,” she said. “But then, I became more involved in poets from around the world and started giving myself value for my creativity.” To young authors struggling with similar feelings of uncertainty, Chang suggests allowing oneself the room to grow creatively. “Experiment to see what it is that you feel the most comfortable with. Find voices to become your forms of inspiration.”
In a conversation prior to the MX, Chang shared with The Weekly that her upcoming collection, Lion, will center around female justice and Asian American visibility. Similar to other works, Lion will be a response to the systemic targeting of minorities. It will be published by W.W. Norton in October.
The evening with Chang was part of the Poetry at Parker series sponsored by the Jeanne Harris Hansell Endowed Fund for Poetry, established in the name of Jeanne Harris Hansell ’45. Prior presenters have included Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Nikky Finney, Louise Glück, Kevin Young, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Natasha Trethewey, Elise Paschen ’77, and Gabrielle Calvocoressi.
