On Writing as Listening
The need for study, upcoming book launch, and more
I have been quiet the last three months. On separate occasions across craft talks, podcast episode recordings, and recent panel conversations, I have had the fortune of listening to Palestinian poets Hala Alyan, Zaina Alsous, and George Abraham talk about what Palestinians genuinely need vs. the social pressure in the U.S. to opine publicly as solidarity. There are limits to the use value of incessantly saying something regardless of whether one has anything truly useful to say. These poets have also highlighted ways to think about what we need, those of us living, writing, resisting, and observing from our complicity at the heart of the empire. Processing the Israeli siege on Palestine and its implications for the world, for my communities, and for the significance of my life and actions as a queer Muslim, a poet, and a product of two generations of genocide survivors in writing, both on Substack and through poetry, has been necessary to my reorienting my being in the world at this time. As the U.S. election approaches, the effects of climate change batter multiple areas of the world, and the empire continues to ignore the suffering in Congo, Sudan, and so many other places, our vocal insistence on not forgetting, on not becoming complacent, is urgent.
However, I am learning to honor the crucial call to study in silence, engage deeply, and recognize when the urge to opine has more to do with fighting helplessness than cultivating actual solidarity toward material change. The experience and response to my small meditations thus far on Substack have helped keep me going, and underlined the importance of using one’s voice. To honor both together and understand the limits of my position while using what little platform I have, I will endeavor, in this space, to study and bring attention to the work those who know more and better, those with genuine insights and resources for guidance as my as cultivation of solidarity through greater stillness—writing, in this case, as listening.
There is great cognitive dissonance in seeing this as my responsibility while, absurdly, celebrating the release of my debut collection of poetry, The Relativity of Living Well. How does one celebrate a book in this landscape? The poems in the collection recall the 2020 Trump presidency and the ice in my veins as I watched so many New Yorkers die of neglect and lack of social safety nets around me, and by the end of the collection, document the impact of watching another kind of mass death by neglect. This has become the central formative experience of my later adulthood. What does it mean to have written a book about a mass disabling event when mass disablement—the creation of conditions for amputation, starvation, and death by scarcity of resources and services, let alone direct bombing—is the primary approach to foreign policy in the country where I live, whose chosen supremacist language I write in?
As I think about the privilege of wilting into despair and the responsibility to keep going, of meeting head-on the accidental blessing of my safety and invitation to a rich life, I am grateful to Hala Alyan for reminding me often that while poetry may not have the power to stop bombs, it can fortify the spirit and our bonds to one another so that we can, in fact, keep going. Poetry can be transformative in strengthening our resolve and call to action, and helping us feel less alone in our rage and horror. I hope that as we all choose our ways to contend with our time and care for ourselves and our loved ones, my small offerings will be fruitful in helping directing your attention as I direct my own.
Book Launch: Friday, November 1, 2024
Brooklyn Poets, 144 Montague St., Brooklyn, NY
6:00 PM Doors, 7:00 PM Reading | Ticket Link
My launch event in October had to be rescheduled, and I could not be more excited to kick the next month off with this stunning line up at Brooklyn Poets. I have the honor of having my dear friend and brother in poetry, Anthony Thomas Lombardi as my MC and the exceptional Theo LeGro, Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, and Itiola Jones as my features!
Anthony Thomas Lombardi’s rhapsodic meditations on overcoming drug addiction and survival as the divine gift and risk of joy has shaped my understanding of recovery life as disability life and nudged me toward finding my own relationship with divinity. Theo LeGro is a queer Vietnamese American poet whose stirring and surprisingly sexy poems about the aftermaths of surviving breast cancer have long honed my understanding of the difference between not dying and choosing to live. Eduardo Martinez-Leyva’s deeply queer, Latine Texan narratives cut our time’s new masculinities in a new shape with deeply inspiring linguistic play, and the lovely Itiola Jones, a queer Nigerian-American poet writing about intergenerational global experience and how to conjure our own magicks reminds me of the joys within the psychic weight of migrant being. It’s going to be a beautiful event. Join us!
News, Announcements, & Opportunities:
I spent last weekend at my first ever Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, NJ and had the tremendous honor of reading and speaking on panels with Mahogany L. Browne, Imani Cezanne, Nancy Mercado, Ching-in Chen, George Abraham, and Gein Wong. I am electrified by the experience, and have come away newly committed to the power of poetry. If you’re unaware of the festival and like the idea of excellent curations of greats and emerging poets alike, check out Dodge for next year!
The great mother of disability justice and my personal hero Alice Wong (who just got the McArthur Genius Award!!! fuck yeaaaah) included The Relativity of Living Well as part of her giveaway program that provides a free copy of new books on disability and chronic illness to the first requesters. If you’re in the crip community and have been sleeping on this program, subscribe to the Disability Invisibility newsletter!
The Woodland Pattern Small Press Bundle, as an effort to make up for the enormous loss of SPD for the poetry community, offers a subscription that sends out three small press titles a month. I am deeply honored to announce that December’s Small Press Bundle will include The Relativity of Living Well! Consider subscribing or gifting a subscription to poetry lovers over the holidays.
I am one of many disabled desis who participated in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) oral History by Nureena Faruqi and illustrated by Lohita Kethu called Digital Kinships: Disabled and/or chronically ill South Asian Americans on finding community in which South Asian Americans with chronic illnesses and disabilities discuss how they find community on the internet and the particular challenges of our racial experiences as disabled subjects. Check it out!
Epiphany Magazine Fresh Voices Fellowship
Apply: I serve as the poetry editor for Epiphany Magazine, where our Fresh Voices Fellowship is open for applications. This fellowship supports one emerging Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other writer of color who does not have a BA nor MFA in creative writing, and is not currently enrolled in a degree-granting program. One Writer, in Prose or Poetry, Will Receive: A $2000 stipend; Publication in a print issue of Epiphany; A one-year subscription to Epiphany; The opportunity to participate in the editorial and publication process of a small non-profit literary magazine, and to build close relationships with the editorial team during the course of a twelve-month fellowship; A Q&A to be published on Epiphany’s website.I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with and mentor our future fellows. If this is an opportunity that sounds right for you, do not hesitate to ask me questions, and apply!
Submit: One of my goals as a curator of Epiphany’s poetry archive is to expand and diversify its voices and the experiences they share. If you are a BIPOC LGBTQIA+ poet or translator of poetry, please consider submitting to Epiphany for our next submission cycle.Early Bird Registration for In Surreal Life January session
The luminous Judith Ohikuare and I have served as stewards of Shira Erlichman’s In Surreal Life online program for poetry for the last two years, and January will be our last session before we pass the baton! If you are looking for a warm, safe, and inspiring place to jump start your practice of deepen it, I could not recommend ISL more strongly. If you are a BIPOC poet, you can apply to be. Surreal Scholar and take the course for free! Check out early bird registration and let me know if you have any questions!
SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, October 27, 2pm
No, Dear Magazine Issue 32: ARTIFICE launchBlinky’s Bar, 609 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY
No, Dear Magazine, a mighty little journal featuring established and emerging New York City poets is celebrating their 32nd issue guest edited by Serena Dokuaa Oduro, and this reading will feature the poets in the issue! I am always moved and grateful for the No, Dear community, I’m proud to serve on their board, and would love to have you join us! This event is free and open to the public.
SAVE THE DATE: Friday, December 13, 2024
Poetry Reading with Kendra Sullivan for Center for the Study of Women and Society at The Graduate Center, CUNY365 5th Avenue, New York, NY, Segal Theater (Rm. 10016)
6:00 PM ET - 8:30 PM ET | RegisterI have the honor of returning to my graduate alma mater to read alongside one of the most admirable movers and shakers I’ve ever known, Kendra Sullivan, poet, public artist, and activist scholar. She is the Director of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she leads the Andrew W. Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research and coleads the NYC Climate Justice Hub. She is also the publisher of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative and the co-editorial director of Women’s Studies Quarterly. Kendra makes public art addressing waterfront access and equity issues in cities around the world and has published her writing on art, ecology, and engagement widely. She is the co-founder of The Sunview Luncheonette, a cooperative arts venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
I mean, come on. And what I mean by that is, come on out!
Beautiful Things That Recently Moved Me:
“The Art of Disappearing” by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Poem Beginning With a Retweet” by Maggie Smith
“What Women Want” by Kim Addonizio
I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always by Douglas Kearney (album version)
Chrome Valley by Mahogany L. Browne (grammy nominated album version)
SHIRA (Did you know she’s also a sick af musician? Check out her Bandcamp)
Until next time!
What a beautiful post. I just read the poetry you shared at the end and am listening to the music recommendations. A calming end to the windy stormy day which is today.
My copy of Relativity came this week. I’ll need an autograph as soon as is convenient, please.