Welcome to The Cahokian... A thousand years ago Cahokia — across the Mississippi from what is now St. Louis — was one of the biggest cities in the world. Now it's an empty green spot next to the highway. I'm a middle-aged gay man living in New York City, center of the world, future footnote on somebody's future map. Welcome to the new world.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Poetry of war & peace
This is a brief December 2010 performance from Brooklyn-based Palestinian/American poet Suheir Hammad. She recites two poems, "What I Will" and "break (clustered)." It's a really beautiful performance: the words are powerful and moving and her delivery is absolutely stunning. The message, of course, is everything, and somehow you know exactly what she's talking about, even though like many great poets her words are quite unspecific. It's funny because this makes the words so human, pulling shared threads together so evocatively you realize it's irrelevant whether she's talking about Palestine or Brooklyn. (Ditch the corporate propaganda video following the performance if you watch this by clicking through to the TED site. Sorry 'bout that.)
Thanks to my friend Jennifuh for turning me on to the work of her friend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thank you for sharing that message.
ReplyDeleteI had to regain my composure, ish, you know how much I love poetry and use it often...but when delivered as Suheir Hammad did makes the words so powerful. Truly unbelievable, I will watch it again later, it made quite an impact on me.
ReplyDeleteShe's really good isn't she?
ReplyDeleteish: You might like the poem I posted today on http://popoph.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteThe War Works Hard