Niina Pollari


Form N-400 Erasures

Feb 23, 2017
https://www.niinapollari.com
N-400 erasures in NY Tyrant


< Artists + Writers


Niina Pollari, lives and works in New York

“The raw material for Niina Pollari’s poem ‘Form N-400 Erasures’ is the long, opaquely-worded application form for becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. Expansive and arduous, the application holds a looming significance for newcomers to the United States. Pollari deletes most of Form N-400’s text in crude, black strokes to form her poem. ‘Have you / been / in / total / terror?’ the poem asks, then gives you a choice: Check yes or no. Published less than a month after Trump’s first executive order banned citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days, ‘Form N-400 Erasures’ is an example of erasure poetry, a poetic form that has spiked in popularity since Trump’s elections galvanized a culture of resistance online.”

– Rachel Stone, “The Trump Era Boom in Erasure Poetry,” The New Republic, 2017