Poetry Unbound Divya Victor — First Petition
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Apr 18, 2022 Divya Victor, author and Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University, discusses the immigration process and the complexities of relationships and emotions. The podcast explores the use of verbs, space, and embodied imagination in poetic language. Divya Victor's poem, 'First Petition', delves into the experiences of migration and the challenges of immigration forms. The podcast also shares a personal connection as the speaker recounts an encounter with a woman named India.
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Forms Flatten Human Complexity
- Immigration forms force complex lives into flat boxes that can't contain relationships or histories.
- Divya Victor shows how paperwork becomes a substitute language for personhood and belonging.
Seven-Year Petition Journey
- The poem traces a seven-year petition process from filling I-130 to the mother arriving at the gate.
- It follows the speaker knitting a nest of paperwork and rehearsing answers for an interview over years.
Prepare And Translate For Interviews
- Prepare answers and coach loved ones for rigid immigration interviews to avoid missteps.
- Translate love and history into the narrow categories officials demand, even when inadequate.