Author and poet Elizabeth Acevedo celebrates The Poet X at Kean’s Common Read

By L.K. Mata Cuevas | Published by October 18, 2021

Dominican-American writer and author, Elizabeth Acevedo, visited Kean University as part of Hispanic Heritage Month and Kean’s Common Read where all first-year students read the same book. This year’s book was Acevedo’s The Poet X.

Acevedo, a poet, New York Times best-selling author, and first woman of color to win the UK’s famous Carnegie Medal, participated in a series of activities on Sept. 29 that included a reading from her famous book at Wilkin Theatre. But first, faculty and students accompanied her in a 45-minute Q & A session at the Miron Center’s Little Theatre.

“Good afternoon, I am super-hyped to be here!” Acevedo said. “This is my first in-person event since February of 2020, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but Kean.”

Acevedo’s excitement was equally shared and expressed by the students, who started the session by asking her about personal motives and why to add entries from her own diaries into her narrative while writing The Poet X.

“Using some of my own journals helped me kind of calibrate what was the language I was using when I was 15, 16?” she said. “What was the feeling that I had? What was the way I thought about my mother, about my body, about the world?”

Of course, she made sure the students understood that, even though she found inspiration in her own experiences, the story was not necessarily about her.

“People often imagine that this is autobiographical and they’re like – oh, she just uses a different name, like it’s the same person,” she asserted. “But I wish I was Xiomara when I was a young person. To me, she is an alter-ego of all the bravery I wish I had possessed.”

Such transparent answers and jokes about “how personal and spicy” they were getting with their questions left the audience in awe during that moment of her visit.

Valerie Allen, an English K-12 TSD (teaching students with disabilities) major, couldn’t hide her excitement about having the chance to be there and meet her after being exposed to her literature by a professor’s recommendation.

“What I learned about Elizabeth Acevedo is that she is just dynamic,” Allen said. “From all that I’ve learned so far, nothing was going to stop me from coming here today.” The junior and twice honor student said. “I wanted to hear her up close and personal and get some wisdom from her.”

After the intimate session, Acevedo moved to Wilkins Theater, with the capacity for a larger group of students. The reading was held for almost an hour and a half and by 4.30 p.m students were leaving the place, visibly thrilled and animated.

Finally, a reception was held at the Human Rights Institute for Acevedo. Students didn’t hesitate to follow and hoped to get some of their books signed, some pictures, and perhaps exchange some words with her.

As was the case for Special education major, Jainin Plasencia, who was all smiles after getting her to sing her book and meet her closely for a couple of minutes.

“I think her writing it’s been life-changing for me,” Plasencia said. “So, being able to see her and talk to her about how much her works have meant to me was really an amazing experience. I’m so glad I got to go to this event.

Even though Acevedo and The Poet X have been widely acclaimed because of the way it reaches young adults and the power of its prose in regard to nowadays social issues, that hasn’t stopped a more conservative or religious side of society to speak against.

In late 2020, Charlotte Observer reported that a couple from North Carolina sued their son’s school, Lake Norman Charter School in Huntersville, asking federal courts to remove Acevedo’s laureate book from the school’s reading list.

The parents alleged that Xiomara’s reflections about religion were an assault on Christianity and a violation of the First Amendment.

However, the academic staff at Kean University consider the reading of this book as an opportunity for the students to think about others’ circumstances. In a statement for Kean News, Kean President Lamont O. Repollet explained that the “shared reading experience will open a dialogue and help build community on campus.”

Tamara Hart, a General Education professor, said that beyond its importance for inclusiveness, equality, and diversity, it is also important for students to see more of the reality of their lives in what they read.

“It’s important to read work from writers who are contemporary and currently active in the world of literature, who are talking about issues that are important and timely in our current socio-political climate.” Professor Hart said.

Acevedo recognized the glories of winning and accepting awards change everything. She defends her work and characters like Xiomara by growing and evolving with her audience, regardless of the success her book has achieved and how it can be perceived.

“I don’t want to make what people want me to make… so, I got to disappoint a lot of people because I’m making things that I hope people didn’t even know they wanted,” the author continued. “I don’t ever want to write for the market or what I’m being told people want.”

In a statement made, exclusively for The Tower, Acevedo talked about the reason why it is expected women of color to behave and contain or modify their thoughts and ideas.

“I think the way that intersectionality it’s particularly treated it in the United States, that if you are a woman, and a woman of color, or poor or queer, you have all these intersections kind of working against you; in terms of how power puts other people on a pedestal or will give other people opportunities. Acevedo said and continued. “So, I think a lot of the silence it’s being learned because we’ve just been told that in every category, we’re inferior.”

Perhaps, that is what Elizabeth Acevedo is changing with her prose, stories, and books. How minority groups are represented in literature and what could it be if given the opportunity to grow out of prejudiced portraits. 

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