Melania Luis Merte is a weaver of worlds and of words. In her new book of poetry,

Plentanes and Our Becoming, she tackles everything from self-love to colonialism.

Melanie and I talk about centering blackness in her identity and in her writing,

and the very first poem she ever wrote that got her in a lot of trouble. Melania, congratulations on this book being out in the world.

Thank you.

Since so much of your work deals with diaspora and displacement, I want to begin with your

parents' story. Tell me about how it is

that your mom and dad met. My parents met through an aunt of mine, my Tia Leslie. She lived in

Santo Lomingo in the capital, and my mom ended up moving to the capital when she was like 18 or 19,

I believe. She was just helping my aunt out by cleaning the house and like

running errands and things. And one day my father called his brother, my Tio Ramon, who was married

to my Tia Leslie. And my mom ended up picking up the phone. And he kind of was like, oh,

like kind of like falling in love with her voice and like her And he kind of was like, oh, like, kind of like falling in love

with her voice and like her wit. So he ended up flying to Santo Domingo to meet her and they

started dating. I believe six months later, they ended up getting married. My father was already

living in the United States. He had an auto shop and he was a mechanic. He also was a

teacher and he taught mechanic in English, French, and Spanish. And so he kind of already had a

career in New York. And so he wanted to bring my mother. This is how, you know, my immigration

story comes about. Do you think your mom understood what she was giving up by moving to the United States?

Oh, she completely did. I mean, she talks about it all the time. She tells me she's like, you know,

because now I'm a mother. And I chose to have my child in the Dominican Republic, but that's with

the knowledge that he would gain dual citizenship and that he would be both a citizen of the Dominican Republic, but that's with the knowledge that he would gain dual citizenship and that he

...