{"id":22050,"date":"2024-04-03T09:16:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T13:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=22050"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T20:40:13","slug":"poet-explores-musicality-of-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/poet-explores-musicality-of-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet, Tutor, Critic: Alumna Explores ‘Musicality of Language’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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National Poetry Month<\/em><\/a> in April encourages a focus on the importance of poets and poetry in society. In recognition of this literary celebration, Kalamazoo College spoke with Zakia Carpenter-Hall \u201906 about her roles as poet, teacher and critic, and the way each of those relationships with poetry feeds the others.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the earliest memories Zakia Carpenter-Hall \u201906<\/a> holds of the \u201cmusicality of language\u201d that eventually drew her to poetry involves family, cultural heritage and growing up in Pentecostal churches. Her grandfather and uncle both served as pastors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a musicality and cadence in the way that they presented stories,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cI remember being very young and wanting to listen to sermons for those reasons and for the story within a story. I loved that there were layers to the parables they told, and that I could get something out of it, even at an early age. For me, though, that didn\u2019t translate into storytelling; it translated into wanting to write poetry.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the age of 13, Carpenter-Hall was writing her own poetry. Yet at 19, she still found it difficult to absorb the words of Diane Seuss \u201978, writer in residence and a professor of English<\/a> at Kalamazoo College at the time. Seuss was the first person to tell Carpenter-Hall she could pursue poetry professionally if she wanted to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t personally know anybody who was a Black writer, a Black poet, who was actually doing that as a career,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if it was really possible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Carpenter-Hall left K feeling like she could not continue writing or furthering her education. After a couple years with AmeriCorps, an opportunity arose to move to the United Kingdom, where she initially pursued teaching at the elementary level. When she decided that wasn\u2019t the right fit, her family and friends encouraged her to write. She gave herself a year to pursue it full time, \u201cand then I just never went back. I got other jobs, writing-adjacent jobs, and I just kept going.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to change my relationship to writing and education. I learned how to have my own connection to writing, research and scholarship outside of an institution and away from the motivators of external gratification and grades. I had to learn how to enjoy writing again, like I did when I was a child.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of Black poets she met in England who became friends and mentors, Carpenter-Hall forged a new relationship to poetry that opened the door for her to return to school. She earned a Master of Fine Arts with distinction and is a fully funded researcher seeking a Ph.D. She also is writing, teaching and reviewing poetry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really, really like having such a variety of things that I\u2019m doing,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cIt all feeds into my writing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She teaches classes at a variety of places, including for the Poetry School<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeaching is like a laboratory of being able to explore whatever I\u2019m thinking about at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to teach classes on topics like myth, the body in poetry, and composition through a lens of collage. I love seeing how students work and develop over time, and how they interact with different texts. I will think I\u2019m asking them to do one thing, and they will give me something I never would have expected. Students are wonderful in that way; you just cannot pinpoint, when you put an assignment together, how people are going to respond to it. As a teacher, you have to grow and continue to adapt your own perceptions, and I love the challenge in that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her poetry reviews and poems have been published in Poetry Wales, The Poetry Review, Wild Court and Magma, and she has written multiple reviews for Poetry London. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReviewing poetry helps me incorporate other techniques and ways of presenting experiences and ideas,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cIt trickles into my own work, especially the things I find intriguing when I see other people doing them. Thinking about those things critically, and the way I have to read in order to review a collection, helps me to absorb what those different writers are doing, which then ends up coming out in my own idiosyncratic way in my work.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When writing poems, she gravitates toward prose poems, sequences and long poems (\u201cI like the challenge of holding the reader\u2019s attention and seeing how long I can keep something of interest to me hovering in the air before gravity causes it to hit the ground,\u201d she said). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am interested in whatever suits the content of what I\u2019m writing,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cI think about how I want the poem to be read, and I never think about form first. I usually write my early drafts in prose, and then I think about form in terms of what the poem wants to be, what the poem is trying to do. Once I have a sense of that, I break the lines and try different things until I hit on something that releases the poem. It\u2019s a marriage of form and content for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prose poetry balances the lyricism of poetry with hints of the narrative of fiction, Carpenter-Hall said, without the beginning, middle and end readers would expect from a story. \u201cReading one is the experience of being dropped in the middle of something strange and unexpected.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her least favorite part of writing is getting words down on paper\u2014or on the back of an envelope, typed at a computer, entered into a mobile app or whatever happens to be handy. With two young children who are both already interested in writing in their own ways, Carpenter-Hall can\u2019t afford to be picky and will use any available medium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes an idea will be resonant enough to where I need to put it down on paper or I hear lines in my head, but usually I trick myself into writing something by taking a class or agreeing to a deadline that forces me to go through that process,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce I feel like I have something here that can be molded, like clay for a sculpture, then that\u2019s the fun part for me. It\u2019s like a puzzle. I get to shape things; I get to move things around; I get to say, \u2018Ooh, is this the beginning or is the beginning at the end? What about this line? Can I move this over here? What does that do to the poem?\u2019 I\u2019m looking for that feeling when you put a puzzle together, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Ah, it\u2019s complete\u2019\u2014except with poetry, I don\u2019t know what that finished thing is going to look like when I start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to many published poems, Carpenter-Hall\u2019s debut poetry collection, Into the Same Sound Twice<\/em><\/a>, was published in April 2023 by Seren Books.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy poetry is like a universe in the palm of your hand,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s vast, in the condensed space of a book, and it\u2019s felt, it\u2019s experienced through the senses. I have to ground the ideas and lived experiences in the physical world, so you have the vastness, but you also have intimacy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key motifs in Carpenter-Hall\u2019s poems include water, hair and gold. Many of her poems explore themes including science, the environment, human relationships and interactions with each other and the natural world, intergenerational familial relationships, motherhood and mothers, music, the speculative and surreal, expansiveness, the universe and space beyond, permeable borders, and visual art.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I would like people to know about my poetry is that it is both complex and accessible,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cPeople who may not read poetry regularly might think, \u2018Oh, if there\u2019s a poem with a mother, it\u2019s your mother, and if it seems like a story from your life, that\u2019s it.\u2019 I want people to know that, at least for my own poetry, it has a bit of allegory, it has myths embedded in it. I don\u2019t see it as facts we can know; I\u2019m not led by the specifics of what happened on a certain occasion. There\u2019s more of an emotional truth and other meaning I\u2019m trying to uncover. I\u2019m always looking for the layers beneath an experience, for what I don\u2019t understand about this thing that happened. I\u2019m trying to explore the edge of what I know and go beyond that.\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"A
A poet, teacher and critic, Zakia Carpenter-Hall \u201906 explores science, relationships and the edge of the unknown in her poetry. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\u201cI think one of the things people get wrong about poetry is that they tend to think it’s not for them if they don’t have an immediate connection to it or they didn’t forge a connection to it in school,\u201d Carpenter-Hall said. \u201cFor me, it’s like music; everybody has a kind of music that they like; I think everybody can have a kind of poetry that they appreciate reading or hearing. It\u2019s different from other genres, because it doesn’t have to be narrative and it’s not always about literal sense, so you’re using a different way of thinking and feeling, as with music. It’s about how this makes you feel\u2014the relationship between you and the poem \u2014and I think if people opened themselves up and tried different kinds of poetry and mediums, they can find some that they enjoy.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"A
With the help of Black poets she met in England who became friends and mentors, Carpenter-Hall forged a new relationship to poetry that opened the door for her to seek advanced degrees.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Pitch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Zakia Carpenter-Hall \u201906<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of words, rocaille beads pour from my mouth and all the garments I\u2019ve presented have been held together with a glue gun applied to the seams. Ms. Fashion Exec says, How do you plan to make money?, as the carpet begins to unspool because that too was somehow made by me, flecks of paint peel off the walls and swirl around the room. I am as silent as snowfall, but I show them diamonds made of paper, shoes constructed solely in felt. One interviewer asks whether or not this is a joke. This is not a business, the panel says, as the room fills up with my attempts\u2014like the enchanted broom in Fantasia<\/em> which kept going back to bring forth buckets of water long past there being a need\u2014drawings I drew, dance choreography. It\u2019s too much, they say, all this longing and striving. A gale comes in of the same force that\u2019s beating against my lungs, as if someone\u2019s opened windows on the 100th floor of a skyscraper, this ledge of fashion, and this gust eats at the panel\u2019s notes. The judges still try to get their questions to me by courier, their clothes billow away from their bodies. What would you do if you had the money?, they ask. I tell them there would be more of me, and I would be gesticulating like a conductor in the centre of it all. Waves of sound and light crash at my feet. Building works commence next door and it sounds as though the workers are trying to break into the room with chisels. The panel take out their Louis Vuitton hard hats and persist, like this is just another wardrobe malfunction. And the room begins to glow white-hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into the Same Sound Twice<\/em> (Seren, 2023)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Carpenter-Hall\u2019s Work<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visit Zakia Carpenter-Hall\u2019s website<\/a> for more about her life and work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purchase Carpenter-Hall\u2019s first collection of poetry, Into the Same Sound Twice<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer, Carpenter-Hall will teach an online course titled Zig Zag Motifs: Lyric Invitation, Immersion and Criticism Masterclass through the Poetry School. Learn more and enroll<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpenter-Hall will be one of the contributing editors for the winter 2024 issue of Poetry Wales. To submit work for consideration, watch for the submission window to open here. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Zakia
Carpenter-Hall\u2019s debut poetry collection, \u201cInto the Same Sound Twice,\u201d was published in April 2023 by Seren Books. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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aria-label=\"archive of category Alumni\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/alumni\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Alumni<\/a><a aria-label=\"archive of category News Stories\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News Stories<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/english\/\" rel=\"tag\">English<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/poet-explores-musicality-of-language\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/poet-explores-musicality-of-language\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/poet-explores-musicality-of-language\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p>Zakia Carpenter-Hall \u201906 discusses her roles as poet, teacher and critic, and the way each of those relationships with poetry feeds the others.<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22050"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25072,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050\/revisions\/25072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22050"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=22050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}