Nineteen

“The Venus Hottentot” by Elizabeth Alexander (1990)

The title poem of the collection from which “Nineteen” is taken is also Alexander’s most-anthologized piece. Powerful and urgent, the poem uses two personas—the “exoticized” African woman in question and the prurient white scientist who wants to collect her—to present a searing indictment of the violence against Black bodies. Sharper in tone than “Nineteen,” the poem is also a great example of Alexander’s distinct use of personas and voices.

“Narrative: Ali” by Elizabeth Alexander (2001)

Another persona poem, “Narrative: Ali” was published 10 years after “Nineteen.” Its structure mimicking 12 rounds in a boxing match, the poem is narrated in the fictive voice of boxer Mohammed Ali reflecting on the lynching of Emmett Till, a Black child lynched in Missouri for supposedly offending a white woman. The poem engages with the theme of racial violence and trauma that is central to Alexander’s body of work, and its innovative structure shows her experiments with form.

“The Blue Terrance” by Terrance Hayes (2006)

This formal poem by Hayes also deals with coming of age, sexual awakening, and Black identity and culture, much like “Nineteen.” While Alexander’s tone is more meditative and circumspect, Hayes’s speaker employs a dramatic, heightened register.