This past Sunday, i got to meet one of my favorite writers ever, one of my biggest inspirations, Suheir Hammad. She was doing a reading with 2 other amaaazing poets, Ruth Forman and Uchechi Kalu. incredible. Now, one might ask "how did this poet influence that emcee?" well let me tell you... All throo the '90s i spent a lot of time just chillin in bookstores... The poetry section at Borders in Downtown Seattle was one of the spots i would chill... I never really (and still don't) feel like a story i could fully relate to has accurately been captured in print, and it probably won't until i decide to publish my own book... but that's besides the point. One day i came across a book titled "Born Palestinian, Born Black" and of course the title grabbed me all by itself. So i picked it up and was immediately captivated.
Suheir was the first person i would ever read who fully got what it meant to have parents from a third world country, to have grown up in any black neighborhood in the united states, to be hip hop at the same time, to struggle with love, and to connect our experiences here to our experiences back home, to the experience of people going through it worldwide... to make sense of the chaos... or to even acknowledge it! To be from all of these worlds at once, and to be utterly excellent at her craft. She's the kind of writer that can rip the heart out of your chest and give it back to you better then it was before. The next time i saw her work was after 9/11... a poem titled First Writing Since... which you should watch right now. and her inspiration has just kinda stuck to my bones all these years. Now starting last summer, i started meeting person after person that had personal connections with Suheir... all in different cities i was travelling to... like her spirit was following me. I usually try to listen when universe is telling me something... So at the beginning of the year, i said: "2009, i gotta bring Suheir to Seattle!" Come to find out, she's already here... all the time, working at Hedgebrook! So this last weekend was the first chance i got to see her... and suddenly i didn't even want to meet her anymore! You know how you might have an idea of somebody in the public eye? Formed an intimate connection with your idea of this person whom you've actually never met, solely based on your relationship with the work they produced? I was scared i had did that... and didn't want my idea to get ruined! what type of shit is that? Yo... cause i don't think anyone properly warned me... she's beautiful. So after i tried not to meet her, i ended up walking right into a hallway where Suheir, Ruth and Uchechi were standing about to go on stage... and my feet must of froze and i think i just stared for a minute... then Suheir says "Hi!" and all i could say was "I'm hella starstruck right now" Some first impression, huh? And then we watched them do they thing... and more then anything else, i left Town Hall that night wanting to, no... needing to be a better writer and a better person. Thank you Suheir. Your work reminds me and reaffirms why i'm even here and what i'm supposed to do. And yes, i feel like all my raps are hella weak now... and that's a great feeling... the part of letting go that makes everything you touch brand new again.bless
-- gt
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