A River Entrenched in Rock

This thesis centers on my Afro-Cuban culture (specifically addressing the experience of being a Black Cuban Woman in America). While the general objective of writing poems address my ancestry, the subject matter of this work can also be seen to alternate between identity and human relationships, between the experiences of being Black and being a woman. The poems are written to resemble the tone and narrative bent of a memoir and serve to make a connection to a larger or more universal experience. Situated in the geography of this work is a composite of two languages; poems are written in English with an undercurrent of Spanish words throughout the text. This mixture of language echoes the inherent music of my family*s mode of communication and is something I hope to capture on the written page. In the structure, form, and style of the poems, I explore variation not only in content, but also in shape, maximizing on craft without compromising voice. The poetry queries to the fullest extent possible and on as many levels, the intricate complexities of race, ethnicity, gender and language, while at the same time searching to craft an aesthetics that pays homage to the idea of both culture and individual expression. Moreover, as an emerging poet who exists in the literary gaps of historical, postcolonial, and modernist writing, this thesis is not only an opportunity and quest for me to locate my poetic traditions within a context, but also an opportunity to create my own.