This article is a poetic retelling of insight gained as a Black woman surviving graduate school. The purpose of this autoethnographic narrative is to document a few pivotal graduate school experiences that illustrate all that it means to become disciplined in and by higher education. Although the violence committed in such a privileged space may seem trivial, the hurt is real and needs to be given voice. Written to warn and to inspire those not yet overcoming, the metaphor of Persephone and Demeter (as adapted by Rita Dove) is invoked in this essay to demonstrate how it is more than possible to reign in the midst of pain.
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