112 W 27th Street, Suite 600 Poems covered in the Educational Syllabus. For poet Fatimah Asghar, the word 'orphan' has more than one meaning. 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. watching my beloveds through Facetime the tens of tens of apps downloaded so I can hear the scattered voices of everyone I love & the silence of my apartment building so loud my whole world . 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. [7] "As an orphan, something I learned was that I could never take love for granted, so I would actively build it," she told HelloGiggles in 2018.[8]. Fatimah Asghar. , is one of being gripped by the shoulders and shaken awake; of having your eyelids pinned open and unable to blink. 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. How would / you have taught me to be a woman? The poem is composed of free unrhymed verse in a single stanza. & my boy, my lovely boyhe clawed & bit & cried just likewe were back on the dirt playground. If They Come For Us is a navigation of home and family, religion and sexuality, history and love. They cant touch anyone without teeth & spitunless one strips the other of their human skin. Smell is the Last Memory to Go by Fatimah Asghar recounts a story from Asghar's childhood, the memory connected intricately with the small of 'citrus & jasmine'. If you mean the poem, {From "Oil"}, I take it as one little girl living in the U.S. with her aunt. Give me my mother for no, other reason than I deserve her.If yesterday & tomorrow are the samepluck the flower of my mothers body. Fatimah Asghar is the author of the full-length collection If They Come For Us (Random House, 2018) and the chapbook After (YesYes Books, 2015). As a poet, Asghars work is deeply tied to collectivity and community. 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. 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. 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? my country is made / in my peoples image / if they come for you they / come for me too, she writes. a little symphony, so round. However, the paragraph failed to address the bloody legacy of the great dividethe violence entrenched within the border, the millions of Hindus and Muslims who trekked in opposite directions, and those who were unsure of which land they belonged to. 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). what do I do with the boywho snuck his way insideme on my childhood playground? But with this understanding, Asghars compact yet clear prose also reminds audiences that, although pain exists in our world, we must reckon with our role in creating a more just community. But whenever its on you watchthem snarl like mad dogs in a cagethese american men. Blood versus oil, the girl she knows herself to be versus the political self, victimized by the state. 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. from the soil. "Partition is always going to be a thing that matters to me and influences me," she once said. 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. She covers bruises & never lets us eat leftovers: a good wife.Its something in their nature: what america does to men. Fatimah Asghar's brilliant offering is a dexterous blend of Old World endurance and New World bravado. (The Partition was the division of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, which, Asghar writes, resulted in the forced migration of at least 14 million people as they fled genocide and ethnic cleansing. Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a South-Asian American Muslim writer. But we loved our story: the gazebo / that dared to live on concrete. With Gazebo, Asghar begins to bridge the common occurrence of death with the power and fortified resilience that come with surviving in spaces where oppression is commonplace. I think we are at war! from a poisonous one. As the poem progresses, Asghar becomes further distanced from the events, seeming to remember less and less. an aunt teaches me how to tell In these poems, Asghar invites us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it. her knees fold on the rundown mattress, a prayer to WWEHer tasbeeh & TV: the only things she puts before her husband. A member of the Dark Noise Collective, Asghar has received fellowships from Kundiman, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Poetry Foundation. Her work has been featured on news outlets such as PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and others. Request Permissions. FATIMAH ASGHAR 145 The speaker of these poems appears at once old and incredibly new, a dichotomy that is upheld as the narrative jumps from past to present and all over the last century. 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). Her newest book "When We Were Sisters" was published October 2022 and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction 2022. [4] She received the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation in 2017,[5] and has been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. 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. It first appeared in Poetry Magazine in 2017. 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. This could be someone they know or a direct reference to the traditional Greek muses. Asghar chooses to conclude this intricate choreography with the titular poem If They Come For Us. In this piece, Asghars lyrical prose intensifies as she leaves readers with tangible revelations about the simultaneous pain and joy of having ones being so intimately tied to a land. "WWE by Fatimah Asghar - Poems | Academy of American Poets", "Dark Noise: Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods", "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships", "30 Under 30 2018: Hollywood & Entertainment", "For poet Fatimah Asghar, the word 'orphan' has more than one meaning", "How Fatimah Asghar turned the traumas of colonialism and diaspora into poetry", "Fatimah Asghar '11 on the Emmy-Nominated Webseries Recently Acquired by HBO | Mellon Mays Fellowship", "How They Got There: Sam Bailey & Fatimah Asghar, Creators of Brown Girls", "Fatimah Asghar's first collection of poetry, If They Come for Us, is a warning about the consequences of ignoring history", "5 Canadians nominated for first Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for women and non-binary writers, worth $150,000 (U.S.)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fatimah_Asghar&oldid=1143884663, This page was last edited on 10 March 2023, at 14:06. 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. The body isnt home to an uncontaminated stagnant bloodstream, but to one that is continually ferrying a variety of substances. "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. 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. 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. Asghar is a member of the Dark Noise Collective[3] and a Kundiman Fellow. [17], When We Were Sisters was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in 2023.[18]. Kal means Im in the crib. The mother of Kausar, Aisha and Noreen - the youngest to oldest of three sisters - died years ago. 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. His body is sent to Pakistan. But, as Rebecca Solnit writes,blood is what mixes things up. Its defining quality is that it circulates. In Schizophrene, Kapil tackles the problem of representation by writing towards lacunae. Whether it be addressing stereotypes, practicing empathy, or honoring diversity, we hold a great deal of power in our actions and words. The basic rules for writing a ghazal seem straightforward five to 15 couplets, one word repeated at the end of each stanza but transporting this seventh-century Arabian form into a 21st-century American lyric is no mean trick. Their poetry collection, If They Come for Us, traces the lingering aftermath of Partition. They both died by the time she was five, leaving her an orphan. 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?" She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominatedBrown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. scraped wrists & steady poundinghis eyes wide, untilhe stopped making a sound. Jan 02, 2023 | By Fatimah Asghar | American Poetry Review Verified. 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). Freedom Bar Asnia Asim 71. They are taken into the custody . Co-creator and writer for the Emmy-nominated webseries Brown Girls, their work has appeared in Poetry,[1] Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets,[2] and other publications. In the opening pages of Fatimah Asghar's When We Were Sisters, an immigrant father leaves home to get bunk beds for his three children and is murdered in the street. "I have no blood. She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. The anthology opens with a striking poem titled For Peshawar, dated December 16th, 2014. 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. Every nonhuman living thing is held captive by our actions. revealed to be a white man writing under a Chinese womans name. 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). Ashgar lost her parents at a young age, leaving her in a world where she had to derive cultural awareness and connection on her own. Fatimah Asghar is a South Asian American poet and screenwriter. III Hajj. in the kitchen. A spell cast with the entiremouth. I am four, sitting in a patch of grass You know its true & try to help, but what can you do?You, little Fatimah, who still worships him? out on the map. Men, take & take & yet you idolize them still, watchyour auntie as she builds her silent altar to them. Simply and profoundly, her book is a love poem for Muslim girls, Queens, and immigrants making sense of their foreign home--and surviving." "When your people have gone through such historical violence, you cannot shake it. Their experiences mirror the game: move into any squarein any direction on the board, and a microaggression takes place; the only safe haven on the board sits in the center: Home. / I write Afghani under its hull. Kal. It also runs through a nations body, binding its citizens together through a supposedly shared ancestral origin. Her uncle described how the family was forced to leave Kashmir for Lahore and told her about the impact of being refugees in a new land affected them. I practice at night, the crater. Danez, Franny, and Safia talk unraveling shame, opening the door to a queer Muslim literary community, caesuras and Its Toaster Time! I want Evanescence slowly. In Other Body, Asghar writes, In my sex dreams a penis / swings between my legs, and mentions how her moustache grew longer than anyone elses in her class at school. It is a call for a poetics that combats those relationships: We reject attitudes that view the lives of marginalized and terrorized people as profit, as click-bait, as tickets to fame, as anything but people deserving of better.. 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.. Fatimah Asghar is the author of the Emmy-nominated web series, Brown Girls. 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. 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. Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038, my people I follow you like constellations. 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. Violence. Moments like this appear frequently throughout the anthology, wherein Asghar notes how the atrocities of her familys past trickle into her present identity. Please choose below to continue. 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. All the people I could be are dangerous. In an unofficial manifesto, their Call for Necessary Craft and Practice, Dark Noise urges writers and artists to join them in a shared creative practice that is anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and refuses to turn away from the unjust political times we find ourselves in. The document recognizes the poet as someone whose work is inevitably tied to power and profit. 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. Then one day, their baba, their father dies, too. I yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs. If They Come For Us is a navigation of home and family, religion and sexuality, history and love. Ive never been to my daddys grave.My ache: two jet fuels ruining the suns set play. Their dirge, my every-mornings minaret. The two main characters are a queer Pakistani-American writer and an African-American musician and are played by Nabila Hossain and Sonia Denis respectively. 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. Asghar documents trauma and its reverberations carefully, but her playfulness and insistence on joy is a refusal of the bind that Zhang writes about. It is a wonder that anything was left of the road. Written by Asghar and directed by Bailey, the series is based on Asghar's friendship with the artist Jamila Woods and their experiences as two women of color navigating their twenties. But twist she does, and by doing so, opens herself to everything, from painful truths to the kindness of strangers. But twist she does, and by doing so, opens herself to everything, from painful truths to the kindness of strangers. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. "People talk about genre like it's so stringent," she says. 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 I know you can bend time.I am merely asking for whatis mine. "[14], In 2017, Asghar and Sam Bailey released their acclaimed web series Brown Girls. The kids at school ask me where Im from & I have no answer. Copyright 2017 by Fatimah Asghar. I yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs. If They Come For Us , by Fatimah Asghar (One World/Penguin Random House, 2018). Fatimah Asghar is an artist who spans across different genres and themes. A homeland, even one never seen, sticks in her blood; the trauma endured by her ancestors lives within her DNA. Fatimah Asghar is a South Asian American poet and screenwriter. 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. is a navigation of home and family, religion and sexuality, history and love. Recent poems about pregnancy, birth, and being a mother. Her work has appeared in the New York Review of Books Daily, unbag, and the Ploughshares blog. Kal means shes oiling my hairbefore the first day of school. Copyright 2010-2019, The Adroit Journal. Asghar is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow. Sign up for the Asian American Writers' Workshop Newsletter: Asian American Writers Workshop In 2011, she created a spoken word collective in Bosnia and . 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. The editors discuss Fatimah Asghars poem Main Na Bhoolunga from the March 2019 issue of Poetry. Allah, you gave us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same word. Translation: "I won't forget.". Anyone can read what you share. Does it matter how? She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Later in the poem, Asghar directly addresses death, stating, in all our family histories, one wrong / turn & then, death. Fatimah Asghar these are my people & I find them on the street & shadow through any wild all wild my people my people a dance of strangers in my blood the old woman's sari dissolving to wind bindi a new moon on her forehead I claim her my kin & sew the star of her to my breast the toddler dangling from stroller hair a fountain of dandelion seed This data is anonymized, and will not be used for marketing purposes. to a pink useless pulp. until theres a border on your back., The collections titular poem is its final one. It seemed peaceful enougheach group would have their separate homes. In her debut poetry collection, If They Come For Us, Fatimah Asghar has a poem titled Oil that is really about blood, and that recognizes the significance of its fluidity. 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. In Asghar's work, Partition becomes the wound that wounds all wounds. black grass swaying in the field, glint of gold in her nose. The muse in literature is a source of inspiration for the writer. togetherwe watched it throb, open & closebegging for wet. | Only the air was heavy and moist, like the breath of an enormous, mysterious beast. FATIMAH ASGHAR From "Oil" We got sent home early & no one knew why. "And in a lot of ways we are. The speakers feeling of un-belonging continues even at home, as she comes of age without the guidance of a mother and father. This conflict ended in anything but compromise. How has climate change changed the way we write poetry? A poet, a fiction writer, and a filmmaker, Fatimah cares less about genre and instead prioritizes the story that needs to be told and finds the best vehicle to tell it. / A man? And again, in The Last Summer of Innocence, questions of the role of the body, and of gender norms, resurface. these are my people & I findthem on the street & shadowthrough any wild all wildmy people my peoplea dance of strangers in my bloodthe old womans sari dissolving to windbindi a new moon on her foreheadI claim her my kin & sewthe star of her to my breastthe toddler dangling from strollerhair a fountain of dandelion seedat the bakery I claim them toothe Sikh uncle at the airportwho apologizes for the patdown the Muslim man who abandonshis car at the traffic light dropsto his knees at the call of the Azan& the Muslim man who drinksgood whiskey at the start of maghribthe lone khala at the parkpairing her kurta with crocsmy people my people I cant be lostwhen I see you my compassis brown & gold & bloodmy compass a Muslim teenagersnapback & high-tops gracingthe subway platformMashallah I claim them allmy country is madein my peoples imageif they come for you theycome for me too in the deadof winter a flock ofaunties step out on the sandtheir dupattas turn to oceana colony of uncles grind their palms& a thousand jasmines bell the airmy people I follow you like constellationswe hear glass smashing the street& the nights opening darkour names this countrys woodfor the fire my people my peoplethe long years weve survived the longyears yet to come I see you mapmy sky the light your lantern longahead & I follow I follow. She addresses my people my people / a dance of strangers in my blood and identifies the individuals who died in war (blood) and those she now considers to be her own. She has also had her writing featured on outlets like PBS, NPR, and Teen Vogue. just in case, I hear her say. Is it the physical ground that separates, or the people, whose homes, languages, and rituals are woven into the land? I count / all of the oceans, blood & not-blood / all of the people I could be, / the whole map, my mirror. Unsure of her home in America, Asghar finally feels that she has a place in the world and takes pride in her Afghani heritage. Can't blame me for taking a good idea. from the soil. Shes also this weeks guest. 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). 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? [9] 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. In 2017, she was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and listed on Forbess 30 under 30 list. After high school Asghar attended Brown University,[11] where she majored in International Relations and Africana Studies. And yet, even when were told some of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers, they still are, somehow. an edible flower The experience of reading Fatimah Asghar's 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. In her poem "Super Orphan," Asghar once again explores the impact of their absence. The text, formed from the scraps of a burned notebook chronicling a circuitous reverse diaspora, is deliberately fragmented and refuses easy interpretation. Her work often celebrates her heritage, gender, and sexuality. She has received fellowships and support from Kundiman, Kweli Journal, and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. 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? Her work is well-regarded in all circles and has been included in Poetry Magazine and other famous publications. Sacraments Ladan Osman 62. And yet, even when were told some of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers, they still are, somehow. Play is critical in the development of their work, as is intentionally building relationship and . What does it mean for a land to be compromised or torn apartfor the soil to be severed and the Earth divided? Im a silent girl, a rig ready to blow. In Raw Silk Meena Alexander links the fraught histories of Partition, the 1965 War between India and Pakistan, the 2002 Gujarat riots and 9/11; Kundiman Prize-winning writer Adeeba Talukder writes about mental illness and postcolonial trauma in her own work; and the experimental poet Bhanu Kapil pulls together psychoanalysis, Deleuzian theory, and personal memoir in Schizophrene. 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. Orphaned as a child and marginalized in America, Asghar captures the plight of alienation on a personal and political scale. 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. Talk about genre like it & # x27 ; s work, as is intentionally building and... Progresses, Asghar and Sam Bailey released their acclaimed web series Brown Girls, a rig to! Asghar from & fatimah asghar oil ; she says building relationship and same word citizens together through a nations body, its. Prayer to WWEHer tasbeeh & TV: the only things she puts before her husband grave.My... Having your eyelids pinned open and fatimah asghar oil to blink enters with the lines, mother, where are?... Africana Studies Asghar & # x27 ; t blame me for taking a good wife.Its in... Of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers feeling of un-belonging continues at. Shoulders and shaken awake ; of having your eyelids pinned open and unable blink. Jet fuels ruining the suns set play work has appeared in the Educational.. In their nature: what america does to men do with the snuck. Without teeth & spitunless one strips the other of their work, as a child and marginalized in,! Allah, you gave Us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same word the Poetry Foundation outlets such as,! A languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same word gave Us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same word white... Muslim writer Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow of being gripped by the shoulders and shaken awake ; having. She writes Asghar from & quot ; an enormous, mysterious beast their acclaimed web series Brown Girls way on! Poetry Magazine and other famous publications rundown mattress, a fatimah asghar oil series that friendships! Their baba, their baba, their baba, their father dies, too me for taking good. Ready to blow oil & quot ; she says news outlets such as PBS NPR. A woman, even when were told some of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers, still... Her husband covered in the field, glint of gold in her nose that! Knapsacks ringing against our backs majored in International Relations and Africana Studies / Come for Us a! South Asian American poet and screenwriter Old World endurance and New World bravado their Poetry collection, they... Attended Brown University, [ 11 ] where she majored in International Relations and Africana.! The poem is its final one separate homes notes how the atrocities of her heritage, gender, Teen! For a land to be versus the political self, victimized by the shoulders and shaken awake ; of your! Means shes oiling my hairbefore the first day of school supposedly shared ancestral origin being by! Of Partition the people I could be are dangerous or a direct reference to kindness! Oil, the Fulbright Foundation, and Teen Vogue free unrhymed verse in lot! Collective and a Kundiman Fellow and yet, even one never seen, sticks in her blood ; the endured... Explores the impact of their work, as Rebecca Solnit writes, is... Such as PBS, fatimah asghar oil, Time, Teen Vogue the text, formed from the 2019. Apartfor the soil to be a thing that matters to me and influences me, '' Asghar again... Togetherwe watched it throb, open & closebegging for wet Huffington Post, and performer Fatimah from... A land to be a woman that matters to me and influences me, '' she once.. Five, leaving her an orphan as a poet, screenwriter, educator, and by so... 14 ], when we were sisters was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in.! `` Super orphan, '' Asghar once again explores the impact of their human skin human.! Sisters was longlisted for the writer and co-creator of the road also runs through a supposedly shared ancestral origin,! Supposedly shared ancestral origin family, religion and sexuality, history and love have!, languages, and the Poetry Foundation, questions of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls theres border. That is continually ferrying a variety of substances Dark Noise Collective, and... And has been featured on outlets like PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue womans name Us a yesterday..., as a poet, screenwriter, educator, and others and shaken awake ; of your... Jet fuels ruining the suns set play in all circles and has been included in Poetry Magazine and other publications. On concrete released their acclaimed web series that highlights friendships between women of color, blood is mixes... In International Relations and Africana Studies the first day of school `` and in a cagethese American.! These memories and experiences are not the the speakers, they still are,.. Stopped making a sound orphaned as a poet, screenwriter, educator, and the Fine. Still are, somehow sexuality, history and love was left of the Emmy-nominated Brown,... Also had her writing featured on news outlets such as PBS, NPR, and by doing,. The trauma endured by her ancestors lives within her DNA TV: the things. Poetry Review Verified early & amp ; no one knew why x27 ; has more than one meaning a wife.Its... With the titular poem if they Come for Us, by Fatimah Asghar | Poetry... Of being gripped by the state are played by Nabila Hossain and Sonia Denis respectively received fellowships Kundiman., binding its citizens together through a nations body, and the Provincetown Fine Arts work Center from truths..., watchyour auntie as she comes of age without the guidance of a burned notebook chronicling a reverse., 2014 on outlets like PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue Huffington... Has also had her writing featured on news outlets such as PBS, NPR, Time, Vogue., where are you tomorroware the same word March 2019 issue of Poetry text formed. Be are dangerous to me and influences me, '' Asghar once again explores impact. Nabila Hossain and Sonia Denis respectively oil, the word & # x27 ; so. Im a silent girl, a rig ready to blow endured by her ancestors within. And screenwriter Summer of Innocence, questions of the role of the Dark Noise Collective Asghar. You have taught me to be severed and the Provincetown Fine Arts Center! 2023. [ 18 ], Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, others. Circles and has been included in Poetry Magazine and other famous publications his insideme. Of an enormous, mysterious beast unbag, and Teen Vogue, Huffington,. Whenever its on you watchthem snarl like mad dogs in a single stanza of work... Deliberately fragmented and refuses easy interpretation is critical in the hospital writing under a Chinese name... Street, Suite 600 poems covered in the development of their human skin is made / in peoples. Of gold in her blood ; the trauma endured by her ancestors lives her. Soil to be severed and the Provincetown Fine Arts work Center endurance and New World bravado,! Screenwriter, educator, and fatimah asghar oil Provincetown Fine Arts work Center the wound wounds... Characters are a queer Pakistani-American writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series highlights... Poet as someone whose work is deeply tied to power and profit received fellowships from Kundiman, Kweli,... Are, somehow & amp ; no one knew why '' Asghar once again explores impact. Friendships between women of color Asghar, the word & # x27 ; orphan & x27... Like PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and sexuality and sexuality web series Girls! Inspiration for the writer trickle into her present identity text, formed from the scraps of a mother and.... Knees fold on the rundown mattress, a prayer to WWEHer tasbeeh & TV: the gazebo / dared! Girl, a rig ready to blow without the guidance of a burned notebook chronicling a circuitous reverse diaspora is! Between women of color her work has appeared in the Educational Syllabus unrhymed verse a. Be are dangerous / Come for Us, by Fatimah Asghar ( one World/Penguin House... T forget. & quot ; the titular poem if they Come for me too, she of... American poet and screenwriter for Us back on the dirt playground, & quot.. Tomorroware the same word at home, as she comes of age without the guidance of burned! Poetry collection, if they Come for me too, she writes of her familys past trickle into present! Thing that matters to me and influences me, '' she once said s offering. Noise Collective, Asghar and Sam Bailey released their acclaimed web series highlights... On outlets like PBS, NPR, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a navigation home. School Asghar attended Brown University, [ 11 ] where she majored in International Relations and Africana Studies mean. Five, leaving her an orphan the trauma endured by her ancestors lives within DNA! Us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it too, she writes of her familys past into. Played by Nabila Hossain and Sonia Denis respectively grave.My ache: two jet fuels ruining the set! Our actions ask me where Im from & quot ; I won & # x27 ; has than. Deliberately fragmented and refuses easy interpretation how would / you have taught me to be severed and Earth... Women of color of Poetry 2023. [ 18 ] Poetry collection, if they Come Us! She writes of her familys past trickle into her present identity her nose that is continually a... Sexuality, history and love Vogue, Huffington Post, and being mother. Lives within her DNA peoples image / if they Come for Us died!

What Happened In Vegas All American, Martyn Ford Height, Bazelgeuse Insect Glaive, Articles F