Keisha Cassel
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Keisha (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Boston, MA. You can find their work in Variety Pack, Call and Response Journal, Onley (forthcoming), and their micro-chap Constructs (Ghost City Press.) They're also on the internet at keishacassel.com & @laughsatdanger on Twitter/Instagram.
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Keisha's poem is an erasure and best viewed on PDF, which you can find HERE.
On Subjugation[1]
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[1] Booker, M., Olds, S., & Shire, W. (2017). On the Subway. In Penguin modern POETS 3: Your family, your body (pp. 44–44). poem, Penguin.
Commentary
Keisha on “On Subjugation”:
I wrote this poem after reading Sharon Old’s, “On the Subway,” and desperately wanting to change the perspective of the poem, which is initially told from the perspective of an affluent white woman as she observes a young black man and projects her guilt and fear onto his body. When initially reading Old’s poem, I couldn’t help but imagine the different voices that would have been present on the subway and those voices that were already in the original text waiting to be called forth.
“On Subjugation” can be observed as taking place “On the Subway,” but in this moment, the interior world of the young black man in question is placed at the center of the poem’s universe, changing both the perspective and the impact of the poem.
Assistant Editor Belinda Munyeza on “On Subjugation”:
“On Subjugation” is a great example of how the art of erasure and its use of elimination can actually be a tool for more precise illumination. The poem from which this erasure is crafted already makes some compelling commentary on the nature of race relations in the persona’s world. “On Subjugation” carries this commentary forward. But what makes it so uniquely gripping is the way in which Keisha redirects the light, the way in which they bring the reader’s attention away from the persona in the original poem and point it more intently towards the boy on the subway. By eliminating all the details that describe and center the persona and leaving only the details that focus on the boy, the poet forces us to look even closer. They make us more attentive, more present to witness precisely what it is like to exist in a world of violent oppression on the part of the oppressed.
I wrote this poem after reading Sharon Old’s, “On the Subway,” and desperately wanting to change the perspective of the poem, which is initially told from the perspective of an affluent white woman as she observes a young black man and projects her guilt and fear onto his body. When initially reading Old’s poem, I couldn’t help but imagine the different voices that would have been present on the subway and those voices that were already in the original text waiting to be called forth.
“On Subjugation” can be observed as taking place “On the Subway,” but in this moment, the interior world of the young black man in question is placed at the center of the poem’s universe, changing both the perspective and the impact of the poem.
Assistant Editor Belinda Munyeza on “On Subjugation”:
“On Subjugation” is a great example of how the art of erasure and its use of elimination can actually be a tool for more precise illumination. The poem from which this erasure is crafted already makes some compelling commentary on the nature of race relations in the persona’s world. “On Subjugation” carries this commentary forward. But what makes it so uniquely gripping is the way in which Keisha redirects the light, the way in which they bring the reader’s attention away from the persona in the original poem and point it more intently towards the boy on the subway. By eliminating all the details that describe and center the persona and leaving only the details that focus on the boy, the poet forces us to look even closer. They make us more attentive, more present to witness precisely what it is like to exist in a world of violent oppression on the part of the oppressed.
