Just One Thing with Tara Betts

Tara Betts’ poem “This “accent” I can’t lose & they can’t place” explores the identity and expectation caught in the cadence of a voice. Here, she shares just one thing about the piece:

"This 'accent' I can't lose & they can't place" came out of a couple of things. One being that I have often toted around a paperback copy of Gwendolyn Brooks' BLACKS when I'm having a hard time writing. Her diction, storytelling, and sense of form embodies so many things that I admire that I sometimes revisit a poem or flip to a line. One day, I saw the quote that became the epigraph for this poem, and it reminded me as someone born and raised in Illinois, in America that people have heard my voice and thought it didn't gibe with my appearance or that I was from the South, but I really sound like the people that raised me. Education, moving to Chicago and New York, none of that changed me, but I feel like the expectation is to sound a certain way, and accepting the lilt, twang, and bass in my voice felt like a rebellion that kept me rooted.