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For many, feminism is represented by women's rights activist Gloria Steinem. For others, Steinem represents an exclusive model of feminism that only accounts for the needs of middle-class white women. So when I came across In Conversation: Gloria Steinem and Suheir Hammad in New York magazine a few weeks ago, I was excited. Not only was a mainstream magazine interested in talking to women about feminism, but it also provided a forum for two seemingly disparate feminist leaders ("old," white, and Jewish; "young," woman of color, Muslim) to talk about issues relevant to a wide variety of women today. I was particularly excited to hear what Hammad had to say:
I think of feminism as a socially just and imaginative world. You know, in my twenties I was taught that feminism meant we had to be supersmart, in the realm of intellectualism—to make rational, detached, unemotional pleas. But now I think what Gloria and all our sisters have given us is imagination. It’s a question of: Can I imagine that world?
"Right on!" I thought. "I want to learn more about this woman." Then I wondered why I didn't already know more about her. In fact, the article was the first time I heard of Suheir Hammad, which is not cool given that Lesley-Ann Brown of Blackgirl on Mars said, "To say that Suheir's voice is important is an understatment. To say it is vital, the truth." (Brown also gives the details for Hameed's book launch party in New York City on Oct. 30, noting, "If you're in the neighborhood and miss this--man, I don't know what the hell to say to you.")
Suheir Hammad's website gives only the briefest glance into this fascinating activist poet's life. She was born in October 1973 in Amman, Jordan to Palestinian refugee parents. When Hammad was five years old, she immigrated with her family to Brooklyn, New York. An univerified article on Wikipedia adds that:
As an adolescent Hammad was heavily influenced by Brooklyn's vibrant Hip-Hop scene. She had also absorbed the stories her parents and grandparents had told her of life in their hometown of Lydda... From these disparate influences Hammad was able to weave into her work a common narrative of dispossession, not only in her capacity as an immigrant, a Palestinian and a Muslim, but as a woman struggling against society's inherent sexism and as a poet in her own right.
Harriet's Daughter at Don't Do That posted a YouTube video of Hammad reading an updated version of her poem "First Writing Since," noting that viewers should, "Watch the faces of the people as they are listening to her." (If you want to read the full text, Rebecca Bush at Just a Thought posted it.) Mansabu at Outsider Poetry described how powerful one of Hammad's new poems is:
As I listened to the rhythmic patterns in her last poem, these are the lines that struck me most. In the poem, “I Always Loved Criminals” /“People actually pay you to write poems…”/”I don’t tell them, I get paid just enough for rent. Rent means a home, even if you’re broke, it’s home.”/”We workshop poems and their stories are not original or fictional.” A woman will tell you ever home she has ever inhabited has been broken into, starting with her body”/. What to say to this? I realize as Suheir was reading, I could sense the pain, anguish, anger, and passion in her voice. I believe the most exhilarating aspects of her readings is that she’s not reading, but having a personal conversation with you through her poetry. In essence, this is the energy which attracts me to her writings;it is her ability to give you memoirs inside of a poem, and to make you feel visually what she conveys through the spoken word. Her style is polished, political, honest, and easily digested.
Although Hammad and I come from very different backgrounds, it is impossible for me to not relate to what she wrote here; can any woman disagree with the line, "A woman will tell you ever home she has ever inhabited has been broken into, starting with her body”?
That said, I do not agree with all of her politics. But I don't have to in order to respect her thoughts, as these were derived from her experiences and her perspective, which is the point of pure feminism: to allow women to
