Quenton Baker's Erasure Poems Grace Seattle Museum

Stefan Milne of Seattle Met interviews Quenton Baker, the poet behind a new installation at Seattle's Frye Art Museum. "Seattle poet Quenton Baker’s Ballast examines the 1841 revolt aboard the Creole—the most successful on a U.S. slave ship. In the installation Baker strikes through senate documents to create erasure poems; he adds new work as commentary," Milne explains. From there: 

Here, Baker talks Ballast:

What drew me to the revolt was that I didn’t know about it. I consider myself a student of history…. And the fact that I hadn’t even come across this yet, it was like, how is this possible? I know about all the unsuccessful ones.

The very first erasure I did was with whiteout. I think that was an unconscious acquiescence to what a typical poem looks like. And then I made that intentional choice to move to blackout.

Learn more at Seattle Met.