Whether or not we “got” the poems, what many of us understood about Whereas is its ability to show the violence committed against Native American people, the effects of that history, and what it feels like to be robbed of a land and language all at the same time.

“How she can write one paragraph that can shoot off into eight different directions and manage, by virtue of the ability to look at herself in the mirror and recognize who's there, to not get lost.”