Sydney Mitchell ’26 Reflects on Her Storytelling Journey at Maryland

From reading poetry on stage to researching the region’s jazz scene, the English major explored storytelling through writing, music and research.

By Chelsea McLin M.A. ’19

For graduating senior Sydney Alexandria Mitchell, one moment at the University of Maryland stands apart: reading the poem “At Times Like This” in front of  Nikki Giovanni, the poem’s author and one of the most influential voices in American poetry. Giovanni was the featured guest for an event to launch the Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities

“The poem is about grief and how we remember people we’ve lost,” Mitchell said. “Being able to meet her and read her work was incredibly meaningful.”

Giovanni died just eight months later. For Mitchell, an English major, the moment reflected an academic path shaped by creativity and a desire to understand how stories function in people’s lives.

Mitchell has long been intrigued by the power of words. Before she mastered spelling or grammar, she was already filling notebooks with stories. Homeschooled for most of her childhood, Mitchell entered the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) at 15 through an early entrance program. After two years, she took a gap year—teaching English literature and creative writing to elementary and middle school students, working in the public library system, and co-writing the play “Oddments,” which premiered at CSM’s Brad and Linda Gottfried Theater. The play follows young assault survivors navigating trauma, using art and storytelling as a tool for healing.

When Mitchell arrived at UMD, choosing English as a major “was never really a doubt” for the Dean’s Senior Scholar. She pursued creative writing and joined the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House, a campus hub for literary arts, where she found mentorship and community. 

“I will always be grateful for the warmth of the Writers’ House,” said Mitchell. “I found a space to express myself fully and a classroom full of people truly listening.” 

That sense of community helped open doors to opportunities like the 2024 Frederick Douglass Center event featuring Giovanni, where Mitchell was selected as one of two students to read after responding to a call for self-nominations from Writers’ House director Ross Angellela.

As an English student, she continued exploring storytelling across forms. She created a chapbook, “What’s Next,” with poems in the “Terpoets Anthology” and “Stylus,” both student initiatives rooted in Writers’ House. One of the published poems is called “Blues Alley,” which reflects her interest in storytelling through music.

For Mitchell, music had long been a way of preserving stories across generations. She grew up studying ballet and music, her mother trained in opera performance, and her grandmother was a blues singer. In the English honors program, she explored that connection further. Under the mentorship of English Professor Barry L. Pearson, Mitchell conducted research across D.C., Maryland and Virginia, immersing herself in the local jazz scene. English Professor Jason Rudy, who served as a second reader on her thesis, also left a lasting impression through his support and encouragement. Mitchell praised Rudy’s “immeasurable kindness, patience, encouragement and challenge.”

Mitchell connected with Elijah Jamal Balbed, who hosts the UMD Jazz Jam each month at Busboys and Poets in partnership with Clarice Presents, where she has been a frequent attendee since her first year at UMD. Balbed helped connect her with artists and live performances across the region.

At one jam session, Mitchell watched a newer musician struggle through a solo. Instead of criticism, more experienced performers responded with encouragement, creating space to try again. “It really showed the generosity of the community,” she said.

That moment became central to Mitchell’s honors thesis, which examines storytelling in performance, the broader value of oral traditions and music as language in the jazz scene of the D.M.V. Drawing on the work of Zora Neale Hurston, she combined literary analysis with ethnographic methods, including interviews, observation and oral histories. Mitchell argues that jazz is a language and the way jazz music is played and performed in the DMV demonstrates the region’s unique history. She defines the “D.M.V. dialect” as the regional way of playing jazz music. “In D.M.V. jazz, one can trace a story of resilience in every performance,” she writes in the thesis. 

“Mitchell's thinking is nuanced, creative and deeply smart,” said Rudy.” It's been a joy to be in conversation with her over the last year, as she's written her Honors thesis and finished her coursework at UMD.”

Mitchell’s interests have also expanded to questions of language and cultural memory. For graduate study, she hopes to explore how literature can represent languages that have been lost or suppressed, particularly in communities affected by colonization or displacement. 

Her work extends beyond research. She served as a technical and media assistant for the Black Studies podcast co-hosted by English Professor John Drabinski, works for Studio A as a gallery docent and dance instructor, while also serving as a resident assistant.

Mitchell ultimately hopes to become a professor—and she said her time at UMD has already shaped how she envisions the classroom: “I want it to be a space where students feel comfortable and can grow,” she said.