I have had many people say to me that they do not like poetry. When I ask them why, they often tell me that poetry is inaccessible. While some people see a poem’s ambiguity as a gateway to further possibilities, others see that same ambiguity as a closed door. As an intern with Poetry Matters, I have appreciated the opportunity to work towards wedging that door just a little more open.
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Poetry Matters is an initiative out of the English Department at Â鶹AV that works to foster conversation around poetry. Initially, I applied to this internship because I was interested in the ways that this initiative was engaging with academic and cultural communities, not only within the English Department, but also within the larger community.
Under the supervision of Dr. Miranda Hickman, the director of Poetry Matters and a professor in the Department of English at Â鶹AV, I have spent this summer working alongside another intern, Jayda Smith, to research Dr. Barbara Althea Jones—a Trinidadian-born poet and plant geneticist in Montreal during the sixties.
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During this internship, Jayda and I have had the unique opportunity to spend time looking through Jones’ fonds at Â鶹AV Archives. While most of these papers consist of notes from Jones’ studies and research on solanum vernei (a species of potato plant), the fonds also contain copies of Jones’ C.V.s which have been invaluable blueprints as we have worked to better understand Jones’ life as a poet, plant geneticist, performer, and Black activist.
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While there have been many highlights throughout this internship, one that stands out readily in my mind is an excursion Jayda and I made to the Jewish Public Library Archives. We made the trip expecting to find only one pamphlet with a brief description of a guest lecture Jones delivered at the Women’s Institute of Jewish Studies in Montreal, but with help from one of the archivists, we were also able to find a copy of a literary journal that featured one of Jones’ poems. Until that moment, we had only read Jones’ earlier poetry, so it was exciting to find one of her later works.
Since then, we have had similar moments of discovery as we have sifted through local newspapers, materials at Â鶹AV Archives, Library and Archives Canada, as well as Concordia Special Collections and Concordia Archives.
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This summer, Jayda and I have also been fortunate to speak with experts in various fields relevant to Jones’ life and work. Early in the summer, we met with Dr. Erin Hurley to discuss her research on Black theatre in Montreal during the sixties. We also spoke with Gwendolyn Owens, director of the Visual Arts Collection at Â鶹AV, to learn about her research on Gordon Matta-Clark who, like Jones, studied at Cornell University in the sixties. More recently, we met with David Austin, a historian, and the author of two books that have informed our research: Fear of a Black Nation and Moving Against the System. I am very thankful to those who took the time to speak with us about their research.
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This summer, I have learned that archival research can provide a doorway to poetry and to poets that may otherwise seem inaccessible to most readers. Our work in the archives involved looking through a daunting collection of papers to piece together a larger and more accessible narrative of Jones’ professional and artistic life. We hope that the short biography that we are preparing to share on the Poetry Matters website will offer a doorway to Jones’ poetry for readers that would not otherwise have encountered her remarkable work.
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I would like to thank Professor Hickman not only for her exceptional guidance and support throughout this internship, but also for sharing with us her initial interest in Dr. Barbara Althea Jones. Also, as a recipient of The Dean of Arts Development Fund, I would like to thank Dean Lisa Shapiro and the Arts Internship Office for making this internship possible.
