William A. Lowell, Esq.
Charles A. Cheever, Esq.
Choate, Hall & Stewart
Two International Place
Boston, Massachusetts 02110
October 10, 2019
Dear Mr. Lowell and Mr. Cheever,
One of the greatest things about America is the fact that, as citizens, we pledge our allegiance not just to a flag but to a hope of a better future, to building that future over this country’s history of racism, enslavement of Black persons, and native erasure. Since recent years have demonstrated reactionary regress inspired by xenophobia and America-First mentalities, I am writing this letter in the hope that you will consider the legacy that the Amy Lowell Scholarship leaves by basing it's application criteria so intensely (and profusely) around defining "Americans" as those citizens who were "born here."
As a child of defectors who was born in Romania, my experience growing up in Alabama was that of being told no matter how much I learned, no matter how passionate my academic and intellectual engagement, I could not be President of this country. My thoughts on leadership didn’t matter. My citizenship, itself, reflected my second-class status. Meanwhile, my neo-Confederate friends could lead the Chambers of Commerce and state governments with an eye to the Presidency.
I've been inspired by the poetry community's dedication to human rights, equality, and justice, and I am concerned about the way that huge funding is still off-limits to poets who were not born here and yet have paid their lives, their tax dollars, and their dreams to this country.
The "Amy Lowell Scholarship for American Poets Travelling Abroad" seems, on its surface, to be driven by considerations of merit. It asks for a poetry submission without focus on byline or academic background. It also states, clearly, "preference" will be "given to those of progressive literary tendencies".
At no point does it ask about financial disability or previous travel (which would be appropriate questions if the intent of the scholarship was to reward untraveled Americans citizens without means to go abroad).
The application process is free and simple. All that is required is:
Two copies of the completed application. You may also, but need not, submit a 2 to 3 page curriculum vitae (again, two copies).
A sample of your poetry, consisting of either up to 40 typed pages (two copies) or two copies of a printed volume of your poetry and two copies of no more than 20 additional typed pages.
I don’t understand how a traveling scholarship intended to benefit underprivileged American poets doesn’t require any of the following: 1) a listing of their prior travels outside the country 2) a statement of their economic need 3) any evidence that they are better qualified to represent “Americans” than the sheer luck of being born here.
When I downloaded the application, I discovered that it asked for a birth certificate and that the primary information culled on that one sheet of paper had to do with where a citizen was born. As stated in your FAQ:
"Any poet of American birth who is able and willing to spend one year outside the continent of North America. There is no age requirement, and there is no requirement that applicants be enrolled in a university or other education program. While many recent winners have been published poets, there is no requirement that applicants have previously published their work."
Past recipients of this fellowship include several of my favorite poets--writers whose work I cherish deeply. But past recipients reflect a very narrow view of “American”.
I believe that Amy Lowell would not be on the side of human beings who currently agitate to diminish the value and rights of naturalized US citizens and immigrants.
I believe that Amy Lowell would be disgusted by the Birther conspiracy around President Obama and its resonance in our popular culture. If I am wrong in these beliefs, Amy Lowell's poetic excellence would not be enough to enable me to overlook a definition of "American citizen" that excludes naturalized citizens.
At first, I considered suggesting a more appropriate title for this fellowship. Maybe it’s the title that feels jarring. For example, "The Amy Lowell Travelling Scholarship for Native-Born Americans"--but that's the rub, isn't it? See, those who are actually native to America are not centered in this Fellowship. (I could be wrong, but it seems that fewer than 5% of awardees have a tribal affiliation.)
This Scholarship is not about First Peoples--it's about the people who replaced them. It's about the stories we tell about the country we can only honor through progress, restitution, and acknowledgement. Amy Lowell's efforts to portray the lives of First Americans in her posthumously-published Ballades for Sale reveals the way in which primitivist stereotypes can underlie even the most progressive intentions.
As a naturalized US citizen whose parents risked their lives (and me) to flee Ceausescu's dictatorship, I cannot accept the sort of nativism which makes that citizenship somehow inferior to that of those who did nothing to gain citizenship. Being born in the USA is enough of a privilege without institutionalizing this privilege in a poetry scholarship intended to preserve the legacy of a powerful female poet whose struggled to be accepted in a country that rejected her sexuality.
I don't believe that any law or wrong is immutable.
I don’t believe that any foundation cannot change. I don’t believe a will or a trust housed in a law firm cannot evolve or develop under changing social conditions.
I don't believe that we are hostage to bad ideas from the past unless we deliberately choose to replicate and extend those ideas into the future.
I understand--and was reminded when protesting President's Bush's war in Iraq with a son incubating in my womb--that standing for the GOOD in one's country, as opposed to the bad, may render one "un-American" in the mouths of those whose institutions depend on historic preservation. If we spent as much money caring as we do bombing, this world would be so different. So very, very different.
What I believe conspires with what I understand in hope.
I hope more for the legacy of the "Amy Lowell Scholarship for American Poets Travelling Abroad". I hope more for how this “America” extends itself into the world. And I hope more--so much more--for this country.
Yours in poetry and hope,
Alina Stefanescu, minor writer
P. S. If this fellowship is modified to include all US citizens, I promise that I will not apply for it at any point in time. I want to be clear about my intentions—though I discovered this fellowship when looking for assistance, my hope is that fellow “second-class citizens'“ do not discover this and experience the nativist rejection (which already leaves deep scars in most naturalized citizens). I don’t want this for myself—I want it for what it means to be “American” at a time when that meaning is associated with anti-immigrant sentiment, racism, xenophobia, and committed disregard for human rights. I want it, also, for Amy Lowell’s legacy, which I know can be revised to include what we know now rather that to perpetuate ad-infinitum the cruelties and inequalities of the past.