Poetic and academic freedom converge at Phi Beta Kappa ceremony
Celebrated poet Natalie Diaz urged students and attendees of the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises to consider how poetry can be a powerful conduit for connecting with others. “Poetry is where I can love who and what are most difficult to love in this world,” Diaz said Tuesday morning at Sanders Theatre. She shared with the audience that her brother, who struggles with addiction, was the inspiration for her first collection of poems, “When My Brother Was an Aztec” (2012). It allowed her to process her relationship with him in a way that helped her better navigate the world. “Poetry is a place where I can look at my brother and love him in ways that I can’t in my every day,” she said. She told the newest inductees into PBK: “I wish that whether it comes through poetry or anything else that you love, that you have that place to find...