This past Thursday, January 23, 2020, I attended Elizabeth Bradfield’s reading of her poetry as a part of the Phoenix Reading Series. During this event, Elizabeth Bradfield informed attendees of her background as a writer and naturalist. Specifically, she focused on her travels and time in Antarctica. She read about a dozen poems about her travels as a naturalist in Antarctica, from her collection Toward Antarctica. Before each poem, Bradfield gave a brief explanation of the inspiration or background knowledge that was appropriate to better understand the piece. Each poem was also accompanied by a photo related to the poem in a slide show form.
Having not attended any prior events of the Phoenix Reading Series, I was not sure what to anticipate what this event would be like. To me, the parts that stuck out most was whenever Bradfield gave us an explanation or history lesson before each poem was readout. Not having much knowledge about Antarctica before this event, I found this part especially useful as it allowed me to better understand and appreciate each piece. Also, by explaining each poem’s content, it helped build up anticipation before each poem was read. Another moment that stuck out to me in particular, was when Bradfield discussed how there is no native population to Antarctica. This made me think, how on earth could these poems possibly relate to this course. I would find out over the next forty-five minutes that I was very wrong.
The collection of poems that were read from Toward Antarctica, sparked me to think back to our course on multiple occasions. One of the biggest things that made me think back to class was the mention of all the different nationalities of people aboard the ship to Antarctica. In one poem, she emphasized all of the various nationalizes and identities of the specific jobs on the boat and how boat was an internationally marked ship. She listed off how the butlers were Indians, maids were Pilipino, gift shop employees were Argentinian, and hairdressers were South African. However, the tour guides were of all different races and sexualities. This made me think back to class and how we discuss how one term can mean different things depending on where in the world you are from. With people originating from all over the world, and the ship being internationally marked this means that there is not one natality who is dominate, all of these people were working for the common goal of having a successful trip to Antarctica. I also thought back to stereotypes with this too, all of the “lower” jobs were maintained by just one specific race, while the tour guides had a variety of identities. In other poems, the ship captain is mentioned to be from Greece, and the mention of Russian guests too, this helps build on the diversity of people and ideas on the ship.
Elizbeth Bradfield sharing about her personal life had me think back to what we have been learning in class multiple times. Bradfield identifies as a queer woman and has a same sex partner. She shares in a poem about breaking a bracelet from this special woman in her life. This made me think about how her being from America, specifically New England. She can discuss her sexuality in an open environment, where others on the ship may not be able to form where they are from. To add, Bradfield said how her being required to pack and wear a nice dress and heels, was something she never had to do before when working on a ship. This also, made me think of class in how what we can and cannot wear as women is something many American feminists focus on, whereas this is something that the women from other geographical parts of the world on the ship probably did not consider coming from more conservative environments.
The biggest thing that resonated with me from this event was how labor-intensive traveling to Antarctica is and how open of a person Elizabeth Bradfield is. Bradfield was able to inform me through poetry about all the different aspects of travel. I did not know about how venerable the environment is there and all the precautions that must be taken before debarking the ship. Not to mention, all of the uptake and care that a boat of that size requires. I will also remember how Elizabeth Bradfield was comfortable to share about so many different aspects of her like. I admired how she was willing to expose so much about personal herself and be open so that listeners could fully comprehend what this trip was like for her. In all, this event allowed me to widen my worldview and helped apply classroom information in a different environment.
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