The Veterans Room at the Oak Park Public Library was full of laughter, conversation and the voices of children on Jan. 21 as members of the Oak Park and River Forest community waited to hear from Erika Eckart, head of Oak Park and River Forest High School’s English Division.
On Nov. 15, Eckart published a book of poetry, “The Mothers” (Finishing Line Press). OPRF’s community as well as Eckart’s friends and family filled the brightly lit room to hear Eckart read her work and talk about her writing process.
“I found it really interesting,” said OPRF freshman Sylvia Volk. “ I don’t really know anything about motherhood, but I thought it was really eye opening. And I thought about things that I didn’t really think about, and we talked about things that people don’t talk about often.”
“The Mothers” is a collection of prose poetry written by Eckart over the years, centering on Eckart’s relationship with her own mother as well as being a mother herself, with a particular focus on the effect scarcity and disability can have on mothering. The poems use nature analogies and fairy tale tropes adding a sense of familiarity even to those who have not personally been through the experiences Eckart describes in her book.
“Motherhood so overlaps with just womanhood in society. It’s a thing I’ve been writing about for a long time.” said Eckart. “ And a lot of my work is about my family. The first half [of the book] is sort of my mothering, and the second half is her and my grandmother mothering me.”
The event began with an introduction by Rebecca Fishow, author of “How To Love A Black Hole,” among other works. Fishow interviewed Eckart and guided the discussion after the reading.
Eckart began by reading a total of six different poems from her book and after each poem she would break down what inspired the poem and what her process for writing the poem was. In “Tethered” she says “Maybe that’s the message that breached bodies leave us: a tether works two ways, it can keep you safe and attached or pull you under.”
The audience was warmly receptive. “To see her up there talk about her life and talk about her process as a writer, it is just a very beautiful thing,” said OPRF English teacher James Sieck. “We’re really grateful that she was able to share this with all of us and let us in on, you know, her process and these very, very honest and powerful stories.”
“Listening to her read her poems, I would call it a gut punch,” said OPRF English teacher Melissa Godinez. “I’m just in awe of how talented she is and I’m just so happy that more people can see that talent.”
One of the poems in “The Mothers,” “Cut,” has been published before in Agni, a literary magazine. “When Agni took my poem that did something to me as a writer, where I was like, oh, these are valuable,” said Eckart. “And, I’m worthy, which I didn’t feel before.”
In addition to publishing “The Mothers,” Eckart also recently received a master’s degree from the University of Illinois Chicago Writing Program.
After Eckart finished reading her poems, she and Fishrow began a dialogue about the actual process of how Eckart wrote the poems and the style in which the poems were written, before wrapping up with a question and answer session with the audience.
While discussing her process Eckart mentioned that she is beginning to work on a braided non fiction piece about breastfeeding and capitalism.
“I want to show that to my students, this thing I produced was not a magical thing that just popped. This took so much work, and it is really just work, said Eckart. “So I really want students to know that they’re capable of hard things if they put in the effort and to be a model to my students.”
