MENTOR COMMENTARY

Mentorship Recipient:
Inheritence

Recipient Reflection:
​​Ijeoma Umebinyuo

On "Inheritance" by Ijeoma Umebinyuo

by Ali McClain

I have always been attracted to literature that addresses women and silence so I was immediately intrigued by “Inheritance” by Ijeoma Umebinyuo. I loved the rich images and the short, concentrated lines.

Ijeoma and I began the revision process by addressing the poem’s pace and clarity issues. I wanted to make sure the reader clearly understood that this is a poem about breaking the cycle of silence from one generation of women to the next through a powerful and intimate ritual.  

We focused on the poem’s pace. Initially, the poem was shaped into one long stanza. I suggested for Ijeoma to slow down the poem by dividing the poem into three stanzas and inserting a few punctuation marks. The first stanza would concentrate on the birth of the newborn girl. The second stanza would focus on the ritual of the grandmother unwrapping “the pouch of silence” and the last stanza would reveal the newborn’s power and voice.

Ijeoma welcomed my suggestions without hesitation. She is a writer who is tackling very necessary themes and I am so grateful for her work.

Ijeoma concluded the mentorship with an inquiry about recommended poetry handbooks. I suggested Edward Hirsch’s A Poet’s Glossary, A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry by Robert Haas and The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Eavan Boland and Mark Strand. Ijeoma’s concern about developing her skills as a poet proves her promise.

Ali McClain
​
Ali McClain is a poet, educator, consultant and youth advocate.  She directs one of the city's most successful after school and summer program for girls ages 10-18 at West Side Community House.  Ali has been writing and performing poetry for over 15 years.  She has taught and performed at Playhouse Square, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Juvenile Detention Center, various schools throughout Cuyahoga County and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of acerbic, which is an arts collective dedicated to providing a safe and resourceful home to artists of color. She is currently working on her first collection of poetry and is a current graduate student for poetry at Cleveland State University's NEOMFA program. Her work has appeared in A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts From a Segregated City and she is the recipient of the 2016 Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize for her poem “Kinsman.”