Anya Creightney interviews Eric Cartier and Amanda Hawk in Thibodaux, LA

Anya: So, first is, tell me your name, where you live, and a little about yourself. Easy intro question.

Eric: I’ll go. My name is Eric Cartier. I live in Baton Rouge. I’m a librarian. I studied history and philosophy at UMass Amherst, and my first job after graduation was as a docent at the Emily Dickinson Museum. I love poetry. 

Anya: That’s a beautiful museum. 

Amanda: My name’s Amanda Hawk, and I’m also a librarian, and I read a lot but I don’t read poetry. I’m a poetry newbie, sort of. 

Anya: And where do you live? 

Amanda: I live in Baton Rouge. 

Anya: You live in Baton Rouge too, okay. So, what’s your relationship to this venue, if any? None, just to hear Tracy? So I was going to ask if you’re a poetry reader, but you’ve already told me you’re a poetry nube, so happy to have you here. And you’ve said you love poetry. Did you bring Amanda with you?

Eric: I did. 

Anya: Okay good, good. So what did you think happened at poetry events before coming today? 

Amanda: Oh geez. I don’t know, I think I imagined it similar to what the event was—a reading, talking, discussing. 

Anya: Did you have any expectations or hopes, anything, before coming? 

Amanda: No, but I enjoyed all of the readings, and I felt like they were more approachable than I was expecting. 

Anya: Yes. Did anything resonate with you, either while Tracy was reading or the poems themselves? Did anything grab you? 

Amanda: I mean, the relationship to history—I also studied history—so using that influence—

Anya: In her own poems, you’re referring to. 

Amanda: Yeah, in her own poems, bringing that in was something I can relate to. 
Anya: How about you? 
Eric: I thought the erasure poem using the Declaration as primary source material was really fascinating because words belong to everybody and we can rearrange and combine them to create new ways to express different things. What she found in there is there and that was really fascinating and pretty exciting. 

Anya: Did the poem help you hear the Declaration in a different way than before hearing Tracy’s poem? Or think about the Declaration in a different way? 
Eric: I mean, it made me think about the idealistic impetus behind it. This is a list of our grievances. We are demanding our rights and justice, and we are going to stand up for them. And that’s a beautiful thought and thing, and how’s it happened in practice has been very messy and painful in the United States. So there’s a lot to think about there. 
Anya: Is there something you think poetry can do that you didn’t think it could do before having come to the event? Even if it’s something small. 
Amanda: I think, for me, I think more people should read poetry, and I think the collection we got is probably a good way to get at that in terms of just being accessible for people to start to understand and think about, like, “Oh, these poems can relate to my own life or someone else that I know,” and I think that’s an easy way to start to think about poetry rather than—I’m thinking of it like things that are really conceptual and take a lot of unpacking. But these are a lot more accessible. Hopefully more people will read poetry, and people who came here will enjoy their selections. 
Anya: Any lasting impressions?
Eric: I think she opened with some really important remarks, asking us to consider reading poetry to slow down. Things are moving very quickly now on a surface level, and rediscovering a deeper connection to language and ourselves and our feelings and other people is very important always, but particularly now with technological advances. I’m starting to wander here, but anyway, that was a wonderful opening, and she reads beautifully too. We were talking about that when you came over. 
Anya: Well thank you both.