What was your journey to URI?

So, I started out as a graduate student in the English department, pursuing a Ph.D. in English and creative writing. And my goal was to look at symbols from West Africa, particularly Adinkra symbols, and how they were transferred to the United States, and then use them as a point of reference to talk about my own personal experience as a Ghanaian immigrant in the United States.

And then midway, I decided to do an MBA, which was thinking of ways in which I can support myself financially, but also ways in which I can bridge the gap between English and business. Or, you know, a lot of African immigrants, they think of how are you going to make money? So, I started thinking of strategies and pathways. And I initially I just wanted to do a certificate course or take one or two classes. So I finished in 2022, which feels like five years ago, but it was just like, if I were in 2023 would have been a year ago. 

And then I went to do a post-doc at Mount Holyoke, but now I’m here back at URI in the Africana Studies Department as an assistant professor. So I believe that I’ve traveled through different departments to learn ways in which I can, you know, teach my students how to grow. And also to be confident in whatever choices they make, no matter how bizarre they may sound.

Why did you choose URI specifically?

URI, is I think, one of the only East Coast schools that has a Ph.D. in creative writing and literature. And as an immigrant, I was tired of moving and I wanted to be as close to home as possible. So I my family’s in New York, and even though it’s 3 hours away, it’s a good distance to be able to travel back and eat some traditional food and, you know, speak the language. And as a poet, I needed a space that would really allow me to grow as a scholar and a scholar practitioner. URI has that, plus the English faculty were really, really supportive and amazing in that way.

What was your favorite memory?

It’s a very interesting question. My favorite memory, even if it’s not academic, I know this is going to sound very nerdy, but I guess I’ll get right to it. I really loved going to the library. I’m obviously a nerd, but I really liked just looking for a book and finding it and going to the library to pick it up and reading it through, and just seeing other students at the library. I also worked as a tutor at TDI Town. It was during the summer and they were dancing to the electric slide and it was just a really cool image of students of color who felt like they were united and could be together and feel supported. It was like this joy that I hadn’t seen a lot of, especially being one of two black people in my department.

How has your work in English literature and creative writing affected the way that you teach? 

What I love to teach my students is how they can use their voices to target the background and show you how to use their voices to  change the world, but also how to learn how others have used their  voices to change the world. And so in the Africana Studies Department, I’m teaching primarily poets or literature by people of the African  Diaspora. 

And if you know the history of people, of African diaspora, of African  descent, they’ve had to go through slavery, right? The transatlantic  slave trade that took many of them far away from home. They become descendants of people who have difficulty tracing where they’re from.  How do you make sense of yourself when you find  yourself in a place where you don’t know anyone? You don’t have a  sense of where you’re from and you’re in a land where you call  home, but you don’t feel like you belong there. 

So in many areas of any student’s life,  people move far away to college, right? They feel that they don’t belong. So, my job as a teacher is to say, you’re here now, you do belong, but let me  teach you how to practice your voice of belonging. And so in class, we’re reading poems, we’re reading short stories, we’re watching Netflix. I’m teaching them ways to be engaged and to use their lived  experience to also tell their story.

How have your personal experiences and identity influenced your research interests and poetry? 

So I began writing poetry when I was 12 because I had just moved from Ghana and I didn’t understand what was going on in America, especially the winter. I began to just recollect memories through writing. What I realized was that when I would share with other people, they would say, you’re a poet. I’m felt like, no, I’m just struggling to assimilate. That’s really what’s going on. But I also realized that as I continued to write, it became healing for me. And so my poetry deals more with the ideas of belonging, especially being a Ghanaian who moved to America at a very young age, but also how to make meaning of the self. 

What inspires you?

You can’t wake up and say, I want to write poems just to inspire people. You have to be in a place where the voice comes out or the words come to you. Like the burdens of life will lead you to poetry. I’m transitioning to write more happy poems, but I write a lot of sad poems because I live in a very sad place. So I spent a lot of time grieving over the loss of my country. 

Why do you think it’s so important to investigate these stories and make sure that they are told?

I think I’ve discovered that humans thrive in community and the only way we are able to feel supported or feel that we can attempt anything is if we feel that someone is either physically supporting us or virtually or tangibly, or making a support known. 

Pretty much whatever I’m doing now is serving as a  representation, especially for young black women who want to be  professors, who want to do research, who think that it’s impossible to be a poet and a professor, that it is actually possible. 

What is the key takeaway that you hope students learn through your courses? 

Stop using their phones. 

I know for me… I want you to know that it’s a growth process and  they should be more proud of themselves for working hard and getting a  B than just shooting to get an A because it’s an A. I was a very type A student. The essence of education is not for you to just earn a grade,  but for you to learn something. So I just want them to be confident in  their growth process. And this is also applicable in life itself. So whenever you attempt something, and you don’t get the thing that you want, you can realize that if you take your time, you will get to it.

What are you most proud of?

The president invited me to come by to read a poem for his inauguration. I think that was  one of my most important achievements that has been connected to URI. I gave it my all, especially at this event, because I knew I was gonna  come back. But I also really had to connect to the place of Kingston  and also the place of URI. And writing that poem really allowed me to search for myself as a black woman in a place where I didn’t  necessarily feel that I belonged. 

But at the end of the poem, I felt like I was a Rhode Island. Being on the stage and having the governor and all these  presidents from all these universities to hear my voice was a very  transformative moment because I’m this little girl from Ghana who has  traveled all the way from New York and now is in Rhode Island and now  is on the stage with these very important people. 

I’m making an impact with my voice through poetry. And that felt like I could change the world in that moment.