News at Eleven: In Thrall, [Natasha] Trethewey further investigates

her biracial identity while challenging preconceived societal classifications, both in the South and beyond. In "Help, 1968," she recalls her mother being mistaken for her maid. In that poem--inspired by a Robert Frank photograph from his 1958 book, The Americans--she writes:

when my mother took me for walks,
she was mistaken again and again
for my maid. Year later she told me
she'd say I was her daughter, and each time
strangers would stare in disbelief, then
empty the change from their pockets.

from Creative Loafing: U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey explains her undying obsession with the South

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