RPL in the News: Glass Jaw: Boxer Raisa Tolchinsky, MRPL '24, Reads from Her Award-winning Book of Poetry

In addition to being scholars of religion, Raisa Tolchinsky and Annette Reed share a common passion: They are both fighters—Tolchinsky, a boxer, and Reed, a trained Muay Thai fighter.

On April 18, the cold rain beat down against the windows of the Harvard Book Store as a full house of Harvard University students, faculty, and community members gathered inside to hear Tolchinsky, MRPL ’24, read from her debut collection of poems, Glass Jaw. Some attendees sat in plastic folding chairs while others lounged on the floor or leaned against bookshelves, enthralled by Tolchinsky’s visceral poetry.

The poetry reading was followed by a discussion with Reed, Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. The two discussed everything from religion and gender to poetry and fighting.

Tolchinsky shared that the first half of the book “is written in the voices of many women.” This multifocal narrative allows her to highlight and honor the diversity in the experience of being a female boxer. In the second part of the book, Tolchinsky sharpens the narrative.

“The second half crosses from a chorus of women boxers into a single voice, as she descends further and further into the ring,” she explained. In both halves, the book follows a Dantean descent and ascent through the physical, emotional, and spiritual experience of being a female boxer, a woman in a male-dominated space.

Read the full article at hds.harvard.edu