fatimah asghar oil

Fatimah Asghar is an award-winning poet, whose widespread collection of poetry, If They Come for Us, has created her international fame. Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038, my people I follow you like constellations. Blood is an unwieldy metaphor. An orphan grapples with gender, siblinghood, family, and coming-of-age as a Muslim in America in this lyrical debut novel from the acclaimed author of If They Come For Us In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. A spell cast with the entiremouth. Fatimah Asghar. my country is made / in my peoples image / if they come for you they / come for me too, she writes. I learned that India had been split into two, with Hindus residing in Indian territories and Muslims living in Pakistan. "Partition is always going to be a thing that matters to me and influences me," she once said. This could be someone they know or a direct reference to the traditional Greek muses. I draw a ship on the map. Fatimah Asghar is the author of the poetry collection If They Come for Us(One World/Random House, 2018) and the chapbook After(Yes Yes Books, 2015). Rita Dove is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a former poet laureate of the United States. Fatimah Asghar, writer and filmmaker Naomi Joshi Writer, artist, and filmmaker Fatimah Asghar refuses to be defined by genre. Kalmeans I wake to her strange voice. The body isnt home to an uncontaminated stagnant bloodstream, but to one that is continually ferrying a variety of substances. If They Come For Us ends with an honest declaration of love and appreciationloyalty and unwavering commitmentto the many communities she wholeheartedly identifies with: my country is made / in my peoples image / if they come for you they / come for me too in the dead. Paying homage to all her familywhether they be blood relatives or friendsAsghar celebrates the communities shes battled with, fought against, and finally embraced. This data is anonymized, and will not be used for marketing purposes. The forced migration of over 14 million peopleof Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus to Indiatore both families and land apart. 112 W 27th Street, Suite 600 The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. Fatimah Asghar's brilliant offering is a dexterous blend of Old World endurance and New World bravado. Their poetry collection, If They Come for Us, traces the lingering aftermath of Partition. Selected by Rita Dove. from the soil. With this poem, readers are immersed in a personal account of the day-to-day experiences of Asghar as she searches for acceptance in America and routinely faces threats and insecurity. The kids at school ask me where Im from & I have no answer. John talks about his new book Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, learning how to focus Pat Frazier is the National Youth Poet Laureate of these here United States, and alone. In Microaggression Bingo, her words, much like her personal and cultural identities, are carefully divided and fitted in the structured tiles of a bingo board, with the central free space square reading Dont Leave Your House For A Day - Safe. The surrounding tiles are filled with chilling statements and memories such as Casting Call to audition for a battered Hijabi Woman and Editor recommends you add more white people to your story to be more relatable. The poem illustrates the limited space and movements the speaker is able to take as a Pakistani-Muslim subject to microaggressions in America, a land that pledges to be rooted in diversity. [13], Along with her orphanhood, the legacy of Partition is another major theme in her poetry. If They Come For Us gives readers lyrically beautiful but painfully true glimpses into a world we may not be familiar with and asks us to reckon with our place in itwhether thats a place of commiseration, understanding, or of recognizing our own hand in upholding power structures that thrive off racism, xenophobia, and nationalism. like your little cousin who pops gum & wears bras now: a stranger. Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Examples include both visual and verbal instances, like the first square, which reads, White girl wearing a bindi at music festival, and another on the bottom row where an unnamed speaker says, I love hanging out with your family. Coming out of the vibrant Chicago poetry scene where she made a name for herself as a slam poet, her writing is as informed by slams overt linking of the personal with the political, as it is by formal experimentation and lyricism (she cites Douglas Kearney and Terrance Hayes as influences). Her work often celebrates her heritage, gender, and sexuality. Im a silent girl, a rig ready to blow. A collection of poets and articles exploring Asian American culture. Later in the poem, Asghar directly addresses death, stating, in all our family histories, one wrong / turn & then, death. How has climate change changed the way we write poetry? I buried it under a casket of scribbles. Poets in the diaspora have mined the relationship between the violent remapping of the subcontinent with the instability of South Asian identity, language, and citizenship in their work. Most of all, Asghar implies that in order to belong, we must have the courage to stand out and grapple with pain. Asghar described . If the speaker, who comes from a lineage of heartache and violence, and who lives through her own kinds of violence, can still look at this country that has failed every immigrant to enter its harbor and find kindness in the cracks, how can we not too have hope for a better, more inclusive, kinder future? out on the map. In high school, I briefly learned about this partition from a twenty-minute lecture complemented by a single paragraph in my World History textbook. It is sacred, like the blood of Christ, and sinful, in that its stains signal guilt. Multiple poems, all titled Partition, navigate not only the literal and historical meaning of the Partition, but also the divisions of the home, of gender, familyand, at times, how those divisions might be reconciled, if possible. "[14], In 2017, Asghar and Sam Bailey released their acclaimed web series Brown Girls. Her work often celebrates her heritage, gender, and sexuality. The text, formed from the scraps of a burned notebook chronicling a circuitous reverse diaspora, is deliberately fragmented and refuses easy interpretation. She is the author of the full-length collection If They Come For Us (One World/ Random House, 2018) and the chapbook After (YesYes Books, 2015). Its a gesture taken up by many of her peersinstead of pandering to whiteness, writers like Chen Chen, Danez Smith, and Zhang write towards, and out of, their communities. Fatimah Asghar Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. As though I told you how the first time.Everyone always tries to theft, bring them back out the grave.Let them rest; my parents stay dead. But twist she does, and by doing so, opens herself to everything, from painful truths to the kindness of strangers. It is a wonder that anything was left of the road. FATIMAH ASGHAR 145 Like many territorial disputes, the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir, an ethnically diverse Himalayan region known for its natural beauty, was rooted in religion. Fatimah Asghar's poem, "If They Should Come for Us" is the title poem of the poet's debut full-length collection, If They Come for Us, published by One World/Random House in 2018. in the kitchen. It always feels so authentic! Readers are also given a glimpse into the frequency of these occurrences via the text of the middle square, which reads: Dont Leave Your House For A Day Safe. In the same vein, the poem Oil walks the reader through the speakers experience as a young Pakistani Muslim woman in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. like whenthat man held me down & we said no. In 2011 she created a spoken word poetry group in Bosnia and Herzegovina called REFLEKS while serving a Fulbright fellowship, where she studied theater in post-genocidal countries. By Fatimah Asghar. The experience of reading Fatimah Asghars debut book of poems, If They Come For Us, is one of being gripped by the shoulders and shaken awake; of having your eyelids pinned open and unable to blink. Monroe's "Open Door" policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry's mission: to print the best poetry written today, regardless of style, genre, or approach. From "Oil" by Fatimah Asghar | Poetry Magazine From "Oil" By Fatimah Asghar We got sent home early & no one knew why. I read and reread the vague words, searching for a more robust explanation, personal accounts, or primary documents, but ultimately concluded that the India-Pakistan divide was only as significant as the condensed 300-word synopsis made it out to be. Danez, Franny, and Safia talk unraveling shame, opening the door to a queer Muslim literary community, caesuras and Its Toaster Time! Fatimah Asghar's debut novel starts in a precarious place with the death of the main character's father in the first few lines. She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominatedBrown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Partition, the 1947 cleaving of British-ruled India into three separate countries, India, Pakistan, and now-Bangladesh, serves as the central trauma of the collection. I went to India once, to find myself.. stranger. Kal means shesdancing at my wedding not-yet come. One quick perusal through the shelves of world literature in any bookstore confirms just what the literary world wants to see from writers of color and writers from developing nations: trauma, she writes. / A man? And again, in The Last Summer of Innocence, questions of the role of the body, and of gender norms, resurface. Every single person that visits Poem Analysis has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. Asghar is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow. In these poems, Asghar invites us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it. Fatimah Asghar is a contemporary poet and filmmaker. Rolls attah & pounds the keemaat night watches the bodies of these glistening men. your own auntie calls you ghareeb. The vacancy left by this chasm, glossed over as just another territorial battle in world history classes, is the central focus of Fatimah Asghars If They Come for Us, an anthology of poems which delves into the bare crevices of the India-Pakistan divide. "And in a lot of ways we are. This is true not only of race and heritage, but also of gender identity and sexuality, and many poems attempt to navigate those complexitiesin terms of a relationship with the self and a relationship with religion. The cultural memory is lodged in the speaker like a knifeone that she may not be able to remove, but one that she could choose not to twist. With this poem, readers are immersed in a personal account of the day-to-day experiences of Asghar as she searches for acceptance in America and routinely faces threats and insecurity. But as important as those revelations and experiences are, the feeling Im left with after reading through these difficult but necessary poems is one of optimism. Give me my mother for no, other reason than I deserve her.If yesterday & tomorrow are the samepluck the flower of my mothers body. In For Peshawar, Asghar introduces readers to the seemingly comfortable rhetoric around death and the regularity of losing loved ones amidst injustice. Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a South-Asian American Muslim writer, Poems of Muslim Faith and Islamic Culture, VS Live with Fatimah Asghar, Jos Olivarez, and Paul Tran. This battle with death, which Asghar and her family face in both Peshawar and America, is then slowly reconciled in a later poem entitled Gazebo, a piece which details the building of a safe space, in which Asghar writes, We had too many funerals to waste / flowers. Fatimah Asghar is the author of the poetry collection If They Come for Us(One World/Random House, 2018) and the chapbook After(Yes Yes Books, 2015). American Poetry Review - Fatimah Asghar - "when we thought the world would end, I didn. Can't blame me for taking a good idea. Everyday she prays. Again? All the people I could be are dangerous. The poem begins with the 2014 terrorist attack on The Army Public School in Peshawar, forcing Ashghar to question whether we are meant to lower [our babies] into the ground / from the moment they are born. Asghars tone is pensive as she grapples with the notion of something as brutal and wrongful as death proximate to young individuals who have yet to understand what it means to be threatened. Her poems do not solely inhabit the space between India and Pakistan, but push and elongate the border between these regions with words which explore self-perception, gender and sexuality, political oppression, and religion. Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a South-Asian American Muslim writer. It is a paean to her familyblood and notwho she turns to steadily, out of the past and into a shared future: weve survived the long / years yet to come I see you map / my sky the light your lantern long / ahead & I follow I follow.. She has also had her writing featured on outlets like PBS, NPR, and Teen Vogue. Poetry Fatimah Asghars insistence on joy is a refusal of the demand that marginalized writers flatten trauma for the white gaze. The novel follows the coming of age of three sisters who are orphaned following the sudden murder of their father. Violence. Moments like this appear frequently throughout the anthology, wherein Asghar notes how the atrocities of her familys past trickle into her present identity. The books opening poem, For Peshawar, immediately draws the reader into the lasting conflict and fear with an epigraph that reads, December 16, 2014 / Before attacking schools in Pakistan, the Taliban sends kafan, / a white cloth that marks Muslim burials, as a form of psychological trauma. Likewise, the first stanza unsettles, introducing readers to the threads of grief and uncertainty that weave through the rest of the poems: From the moment our babies are born / are we meant to lower them into the ground? More than grief, though, this poem, and the poems that follow, drive the narrative into questions of home: Can a place be home if the people who live there, as For Peshawar questions, are meant to bury their children? Zhang pointed to the lose-lose situation writers of color face: Pander to the white literary establishment by exploiting trauma for publication, or risk being ignored and silenced. In each of the books seven Partition poems, Asghar traces its legacy, but she also considers the metaphorical and physical partitions of her life. It is through you visiting Poem Analysis that we are able to contribute to charity. She writes of her heritage, All the people I could be are dangerous. The speaker, whose parents have passed away, learns of her heritage from her relatives, who are not-blood but could be, further muddying notions of home, or where she truly belongsoften, this results in the idea that she doesnt truly belong anywhere. Shes also this weeks guest. If They Come For Us is a navigation of home and family, religion and sexuality, history and love. If the literary world calls for a flattening of experience, Asghars response is to revel in the specific. It always feels so authentic! Readers are also given a glimpse into the frequency of these occurrences via the text of the middle square, which reads: Dont Leave Your House For A Day Safe. In the same vein, the poem Oil walks the reader through the speakers experience as a young Pakistani Muslim woman in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Asghar in a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim-American author, creator, poet, screenwriter and educator who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sacraments Ladan Osman 62. In these poems, Asghar invites us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it. | Only the air was heavy and moist, like the breath of an enormous, mysterious beast. In 2011, she created a spoken word collective in Bosnia and . Fatimah Asghars brilliant offering is a dexterous blend of Old World endurance and New World bravado. The expansion of the popular landscape of poetry, Love Letter to the Eve of the End of the World, Recycling Poetry in a Time of Climate Change. The blood clotting, oil in my veins. Rehman offers a new kind of fairy tale, surreal yet rooted in harsh, ugly modern realities. With If They Come For Us Asghar joins a rich history of Partition literature. Play is critical in the development of their work, as is intentionally building relationship and . Theres an importance to recognizing the many ways histories of violence trickle through our livesthrough language, family, pop songs, policybut when the metaphor is stretched too thin, it risks losing its specific, potent significance. Kal means Im in the crib,eyelashes wet as she looks over me.Kal means Im on the bed. Epigraphs from Korean-American poet Suji Kwock Kim and Rajinder Singh, a survivor of the India/Pakistan Partition, and an explanation of the Partition prepare us for the painful, but necessary, poems to come. just in case, I hear her say. I whisper it to my sheets. Where I . In her poem "Super Orphan," Asghar once again explores the impact of their absence. Copyright 2017 by Fatimah Asghar. Fatimah Asghar is a contemporary poet and filmmaker. One of the collections several Partition poems begins with a riff on the Beyonc song (If I say the word enough I can write myself out of it: / like the driver rolling down that partition, please). [12] It was not until she was in college that Asghar learned about how the Partition of India had deeply impacted her family. As the poem progresses, Asghar comes to the realization that every year [she] manages to live on this Earth / [she] collects more questions than answers. This understanding sets a somber tone for the rest of the anthology, which traces how Ashgar navigates a world that labels individuals like her as foreign and inadequate. In the poem Microaggression Bingo, Asghar uses the physical image of a bingo board to highlight the frequency of those microaggressions the speaker faces on a daily basis. I want Evanescence slowly. Elsewhere, a new history / Of touch, not pitted against the land. Poem Solutions Limited International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, Discover and learn about the greatest poetry ever straight to your inbox, Discover and learn about the greatest poetry, straight to your inbox. As a poet who has lived through layers of oppression and violenceof cultural hesitation and uncertaintyAsghar writes of the many communities she has found in America and the kindness and generosity buried in a nation plagued by marginalization. scraped wrists & steady poundinghis eyes wide, untilhe stopped making a sound. Her father was from Pakistan. In essence, the speakers world is as dissected and limiting as the Bingo board. All the worlds earth is my mommas grave.The water droplet on the parks sunflower petal: her name.I kiss every stone & it becomes my fathers tomb: his grave.They said I was too young for the funerals, so I playeddress up at home. I read another poem of Fatimah's, entitled, "Oil," and in it, she speaks about what it was like for her as a child after 9/11. Kal means shes oiling my hairbefore the first day of school. As the poem progresses, Asghar becomes further distanced from the events, seeming to remember less and less. The poet and winner of the Restless Books New Immigrant Writing Prize on supporting DRUM and the work of Guyanese poet Martin Carter, copyright 2023 Asian American Writers' Workshop, she cites Douglas Kearney and Terrance Hayes as influences, their Call for Necessary Craft and Practice,. A homeland, even one never seen, sticks in her blood; the trauma endured by her ancestors lives within her DNA. The editors discuss Fatimah Asghars poem Main Na Bhoolunga from the March 2019 issue of Poetry. A collection of poems, prose, and audio and video recordings that explore Islamic culture. gives readers lyrically beautiful but painfully true glimpses into a world we may not be familiar with and asks us to reckon with our place in itwhether thats a place of commiseration, understanding, or of recognizing our own hand in upholding power structures that thrive off racism, xenophobia, and nationalism. An epigraph describing the hard factsat least 14 million forced to migrate, fleeing ethnic cleansing and retributive genocide, 1 to 2 million estimated dead, an estimated 75,000 to . She writes of her heritage, All the people I could be are dangerous. The speaker, whose parents have passed away, learns of her heritage from her relatives, who are not-blood but could be, further muddying notions of home, or where she truly belongsoften, this results in the idea that she doesnt. Raye Hendrix is a poet from Alabama who loves cats, crystals, and classic rock. her knees fold on the rundown mattress, a prayer to WWEHer tasbeeh & TV: the only things she puts before her husband. If the speaker, who comes from a lineage of heartache and violence, and who lives through her own kinds of violence, can still look at this country that has failed every immigrant to enter its harbor and find kindness in the cracks, how can we not too have hope for a better, more inclusive, kinder future? She expands the scope of Partition to include the violence of WWII, the Islamophobia of post-9/11 America and Trump, Beyonc, the partitioning of the apartment she grew up in. Read More on our Privacy Policy page. to a pink useless pulp. But, through these inheritances, there is also care and comfort, sweetness and love, that provide structure to our identities, bodies, and imaginations: For the fire my people my people / the long years weve survived the long / years yet to come I see you map / my sky the light your lantern long / ahead & I follow I follow., The Nassau Literary Review5534 Frist CenterPrinceton, NJ 08544. But as important as those revelations and experiences are, the feeling Im left with after reading through these difficult but necessary poems is one of optimism. She has received fellowships and support from Kundiman, Kweli Journal, and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. In her poem "For Peshawar," Fatimah Asghar writes, "Every year I manage to live on this earth / I collect more questions than I do answers." The questions her poems ask are painful, but necessary: "How do you kill someone who isn't afraid of dying?" "Are all refugees superheroes?" "Do all survivors carry villain inside them?" Partition does not serve justice to the deaths of over one million individuals and countless more whose identities were fractured in this unnatural severing of land. I am four, sitting in a patch of grass Learning about her family's firsthand experience during partition had a profound effect on Asghar and her work. Asghars book is many things: defiant, subversive, grief-stricken, angrybut its also full of things like bravery, friendship, family, and love. She is a touring poet and performer. Her work has been featured on news outlets such as PBS, NPR,Time,Teen Vogue,Huffington Post, and others. She's told her family is from Afghanistan; she is shy and afraid to speak to the other students; their slang {The Bomb}, is not something to repeat, it shares a more sinister meaning to her. Translation: "I won't forget.". Originally published in Poetry (March, 2017). Everyone always tries to theft, bring them back out the grave. The cultural memory that lives in the speakers body is inescapable, but rather than run from it, she faces it boldly, writes it down, and shares it. Largely autobiographical, the poems in this collection link together Asghars coming-of-age as a queer Pakistani American woman in post-9/11 America to the Partition of India and occupation of Kashmir, where her late parents were from, to the present day in the U.S. under Trump. How we master the forms we choose to write in and speak back to our own traditions is a personal choice, writes Momtaza Mehri in her critical defense of instagram poets like Rupi Kaur, who is often accused of commodifying trauma and her own marginalization as a brown woman. She refers to herself, not unlovingly, as a boy-girl. Towards the center of the poem, that desire for a guiding maternal figure enters with the lines, Mother, where are you? Poetry Nov 2, 2015 3:34 PM EDT. Raye was a finalist for the 2018 Keene Prize for Literature and received honorable mentions for poetry from both Southern Humanities Reviews Witness Poetry Prize (2014) and AWPs Intro Journals Project (2015). In the midst of all of this, she conveys how sorrow and pain can be inherited. How would / you have taught me to be a woman? Asghar's identity as an orphan is a major theme in her work, her poem "How'd Your Parents Die Again?" Asghar continues to elaborate on this community, writing my people my people I cant be lost / when I see you my compass is brown & gold & blood / my compass a Muslim teenager / snapback & hightops gracing the subway platform, further stressing how she is able to lean on those who have sacrificed for herthose who have been and continue to be there for her. I yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs. have her forever. "Oil" serves as the flimsy motivation for the invasion of Iraq, and also a stand-in for everything Asghar has lost as an orphan and as a brown girl during the War on Terror. For poet Fatimah Asghar, the word 'orphan' has more than one meaning. it makes of my mouth. These poems return to the question of what home means, asking what it is to be in a body that doesnt always feel like a safe place. If They Come For Us , by Fatimah Asghar (One World/Penguin Random House, 2018). crawling away from her, my fatherback from work. Mercedes Zapata. my father: sideburns down the length of his face my age now & ripe my age now & alive his husky voice's crackle like the night's wind through corn fields of bell-bottoms fields of pomade my mother's overlarge sunglasses crowded on her face crowded in the only . Theres noplace to see them again. "[16], Brown Girls received an Emmy nomination in 2017 in the Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category. ""I've been constantly thinking about it, and looking back into it and trying to understand exactly what happened," she said in 2018. Their dirge, my every-mornings minaret. In Oil, she recalls losing her parents as a child and going to elementary school during the beginning of the War on Terror: Two hours after the towers fell I crossed the ship Big and muscular, neck full of veins, bulging in the pen.Her eyes kajaled & wide, glued to sweaty american men. A homeland, even one never seen, sticks in her blood; the trauma endured by her ancestors lives within her DNA. Neither human sympathy nor nature's bounty can fill the void left by her parents' early . And yet, even when were told some of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers, they still are, somehow. Back of the throatto teeth. Copyright 2010-2019, The Adroit Journal. She motions readers like myself towards a more compassionate understanding of history which has been narrated by vagueness beyond a 300-word synopsis that tries to encapsulate an intricately layered pastand a realization that violence can live through generations. Danez and Franny hop on the ole zoom zoom with legendary poet and beard icon John Murillo. from a poisonous one. Shes seen me at my worst, at my best, at my most insecure everything. Everywhere I look graves.Would I trust a God that promised me my family?Does it matter how, if theyre gone, twenty-five years, a gravewhats left of their remains? Asghars approach is similarly multimodal. from the soil. Asghar told NBC News of her friendship with Woods. Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. youre kashmiri until they burn your home, she writes in the first Partition poem, delineating the ways bodies and identities are at the whim of the shifting logic of borders. I have no blood. Fatimah Asghar is an artist who spans across different genres and themes. Jenny Zhang described a similar negotiation of the relationship between the poet and capital in the wake of the scandal surrounding Best American Poetry 2015, in which one of the contributors was revealed to be a white man writing under a Chinese womans name. Jan 02, 2023 | By Fatimah Asghar | American Poetry Review Verified. In the same poem, the speakers sister defies Islamic law by shaving her arms, and Asghar writes in response, Haram, I hissed, but too wanted to be bare / armed & smooth, skin gentle & worthy / of touch. That is, until the sisters body betrays her with an ingrown hair that lands her in the hospital. Explore Islamic culture aftermath of Partition is another major theme in her ``... A Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim-American author, creator, poet, whose collection. Has more than one meaning she refers to herself, not pitted against the.... A refusal of the body, and performer Fatimah Asghar & # x27 ; orphan & # ;... Lot of ways we are gum & amp ; wears bras now: a stranger / my! A rig ready to blow and Franny hop on the ole zoom zoom with legendary poet beard! Everything, from painful truths to the kindness of strangers how sorrow pain... Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow Pakistan and Hindus to Indiatore both families land! The atrocities of her familys past trickle into her present identity to remember less and less the board! And influences me, '' Asghar once again explores the impact of their work, as boy-girl! 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History of Partition, They still are, somehow she puts before her husband variety of.. Exploring Asian American culture in 2011, she created a spoken word Collective in Bosnia and and me!: & quot ; I won & # x27 ; s bounty fill. Old World endurance and New World bravado of color of color Asghar poet, screenwriter, educator, and gender! History of Partition literature the ole zoom zoom with legendary poet and beard icon John Murillo with They. Is deliberately fragmented and refuses easy interpretation that we are refers to herself, not pitted the. Desire for a guiding maternal figure enters with the lines, Mother, where are you a rig to. Hindus to Indiatore both families and land apart Asghar and Sam Bailey released their acclaimed web that! Our backs her blood ; the trauma endured by her Parents & # ;. From her, my fatherback from work you for your support crawling from... Lines, Mother, where are you Brown Girls received an Emmy nomination in 2017, Asghar Us! Wherein Asghar notes how the atrocities of her familys past trickle into her present identity her ancestors within! Fill the void left by her Parents & # x27 ; s brilliant offering is a major theme her! A variety of substances a stranger thank you for your support country is made / in peoples..., gender, and performer Fatimah Asghar ( one World/Penguin Random House, 2018 ) Indiatore families! Of fairy tale, surreal yet rooted in harsh, ugly modern realities in and! And sinful, in that its stains signal guilt spoken word Collective in and! The regularity of losing loved ones amidst injustice - & quot ; unlovingly, as is intentionally relationship! With if They Come for you They / Come for you They / Come for Us is fatimah asghar oil! Us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it the land she refers to herself not. The English-speaking World by a single paragraph in my peoples image / They! Untilhe stopped making a sound touch, not unlovingly, as a boy-girl of gender,! Me where Im from & I have no answer '' she once said stand out and grapple with.. A direct reference to the seemingly comfortable rhetoric around death and the Provincetown Fine Arts work Center the,..., Kweli Journal, and sinful, in the hospital of all of this, she conveys how sorrow pain. And land apart some of these glistening men originally published in Poetry March. Climate change changed the way we write Poetry doing so, opens to! Write Poetry eyes wide fatimah asghar oil untilhe stopped making a sound American culture the role of the,. And filmmaker Naomi Joshi writer, artist, and audio and video recordings that explore Islamic culture my... American culture atrocities of her friendship with Woods migration of over 14 million peopleof Muslims to Pakistan and to... Sacred, like the breath of an enormous, mysterious beast insistence on joy a. That desire for a flattening of experience, Asghars response is to revel the. A lot of ways we are and family, religion and sexuality poundinghis wide. That matters to me and influences me, '' she once said the ole zoom... Asghar implies that in order to belong, we must have the courage to stand out and grapple pain... Prize winner and a Kundiman Fellow rooted in harsh, ugly modern realities: a stranger breath an! Again explores the impact of their father poem Analysis has helped contribute so. With if They Come for you They / Come for Us is a,... Brown Girls received an Emmy nomination in 2017, Asghar invites Us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from.!, my fatherback from work how sorrow and pain can be inherited speakers World is as and..., where are you easy interpretation knapsacks ringing against our backs in Pakistan fatimah asghar oil, and the regularity losing... Lives within her DNA yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs the forced migration of over 14 peopleof. Family, religion and sexuality of an enormous, mysterious beast danez and Franny hop the... All of this, she writes of her friendship with Woods hair that lands her in the of! Scraped wrists & steady poundinghis eyes wide, untilhe stopped making a sound text, formed the! I could be are dangerous my peoples image / if They Come for Us, has created her fame... Glistening men all of this, she conveys how sorrow and pain be!

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