Patricia Frazier Named Chicago's First National Youth Poet Laureate

Chicago’s first National Youth Poet Laureate is 19-year-old Patricia Frazier, reports Adam Morgan for Chicago Magazine. "Like Gwendolyn Brooks and many of her mentors at the poetry nonprofit Young Chicago Authors, Frazier’s work is often grounded in place," writes Morgan, who spoke with the young poet about her work, her influences, and her future plans. An excerpt:

Who are some of your influences in poetry?

The biggest one is Gwendolyn Brooks. I feel like she’s followed me throughout my life, even when I didn’t want to read poetry. I lived in Bronzeville, I went to Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep. Her books were always around. She’s what inspired me to say, “Okay, my story matters.” And then Nikki Giovanni, Zora Neale Hurston, a mentor I had named Mama Brenda who passed away a couple of years ago. I like to read a lot of people. My absolute favorite, go-to poet is from Sudan, and her name is Safia Elhillo. I always go back to her work when I’m stuck.

Can you tell me a little bit more about your debut book, Graphite?

It’ll be published in September by Haymarket Books. It tells a story of loss — the loss of my home, the loss of the matriarch in my life. But it also tells a story of rebirth — of who can you become once you’ve lost some of the negative ideas about the places you’ve lived in. And it’s kind of selfish, but it also investigates how queer people change after some of their family members who they really, really loved pass away, and they’re not worried about, “What’s my grandmother going to think? What’s my grandfather going to think when I bring this person to dinner?” Getting at the ugliness of being selfish in those ways is very important.

Why is it called Graphite?

It’s inspired by Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and a Zora Neale Hurston quote, “I feel most graphite when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” It relates to my grandmother being “graphite”— something that’s erasable, something that’s black, something that’s supposed to be erasable and is doing its job by being erased. How black people and people of color or marginalized people in general have always made survival out of erasure...

Read their full conversation here. And congrats to Frazier!