Suheir Hammad

Suheir Hammad() (born October 25, 1973) is an American poet, author, and political activist.
Biography
She was born in Amman, Jordan. Her parents were Palestinian refugees who immigrated along with their daughter to Brooklyn, New York City when she was five years old. Her parents later moved to Staten Island.
As an adolescent growing up in Brooklyn, Hammad was heavily influenced by Brooklyn's vibrant hip-hop scene. She had also absorbed the stories from her parents and grandparents of life in their hometown of Lydda, before the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, and of the suffering they endured afterward, first in the Gaza Strip and then in Jordan. 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.
When hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons came across her piece entitled "First Writing Since", a poem describing her reaction to the September 11 attacks, he signed her to a deal with HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She recited original works on tour for the following two years. In 2008, she was cast in her first fiction role in cinema, the Palestinian film Salt of this Sea (2008) by Annemarie Jacir, which premiered as an official selection in the Un Certain Regard competition of the Cannes Film Festival. She is now working on her third publication which will be a book of prose.
She took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books, for which she wrote a piece based upon the Book of Haggai in the King James Bible.
Film and video
Lest We Forget (2003) – Narrator
The Fourth World War (2004) – Narrator
Salt of this Sea (2008) – Soraya
When I Stretch Forth Mine Hand (2009) – Verses by
Things Fall Apart (2010) - Guest Speaker
Into Egypt (2011) – Writer and Performer
Produced plays
breaking letter (s) (2008), New WORLD Theater
Blood Trinity (2002), The New York Hip Hop Theater Festival
ReOrientalism (2003)
Libretto by Suheir Hammad
Awards
The Audre Lorde Writing Award, Hunter College (1995, 2000)
The Morris Center for Healing Poetry Award (1996)
New York Mills Artist Residency (1998)
Van Lier Fellowship (1999)
The 2001 Emerging Artist Award, Asian/Pacific/American Studies Institute at NYU
Tony Award – Special Theatrical Event – original cast member and writer for Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway (2003)
Suheir is also a talent associate for the Peabody Award-winning HBO show Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry (2003)
The 2009 American Book Awards
Works
Born Palestinian, Born Black. Harlem River Press, 1996, .
Drops of This Story Harlem River Press, 1996.
Zaatar Diva Cypher Books, 2006,
Breaking Poems Cypher Books, 2008,
Born Palestinian, Born Black. UpSet Press, 2010,
Periodicals
The Amsterdam News
Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire
Brilliant Corners
Clique
Drum Voices Revue
Essence
Long Shot
Atlanta Review
Bomb
Brooklyn Bridge
Fierce
STRESS Hip-Hop Magazine
Quarterly Black Review of Books
Color Lines
Spheric
The Olive Tree Review
The Hunter Envoy
Meridians
Mizna
Signs
Anthologies
In Defense of Mumia (Writers and Readers)
New to North America (Burning Bush Press)
The Space Between Our Footsteps (Simon & Schuster)
Identity lessons (Penguin)
Listen Up! (Ballantine)
Post Gibran: Anthology of New Arab-American Writing (Jusoor Press)
Becoming American (Hyperion)
Bum Rush the Page (Three Rivers Press)
The Poetry of Arab Women (Interlink Books)
Voices for Peace (Scribner)
Another World is Possible (Subway & Elevated Press)
33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History (Crown)
Trauma at Home (Bison Press)
Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray!; Feminist Visions for a Just World (Edge Work)
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway (Atria)
Short Fuse, The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry, edited by Swift & Norton; (Rattapallax Press)
Word. On Being a (Woman) Writer, edited by Jocelyn Burrell; (The Feminist Press)
References
Additional resources
Hanna, S. M. "Suheir Hammad's Negotiated Historiography of Arab America." Philology 61.1(2014): 44–71.
Harb, Sirène. "Naming Oppressions, Representing Empowerment: June Jordan's and Suheir Hammad's Poetic Projects." Feminist Formations 26.3 (2014): 71–99.
Hartman, Michelle. "‘A Debke Beat Funky as P.E.’s Riff’: Hip Hop Poetry and Politics in Suheir Hammad's Born Palestinian, Born Black". Black Arts Quarterly 7.1 (2002): 6–8. Print.
Harb, Sirène. "Transformative Practices and Historical Revision: Suheir Hammad’s Born Palestinian, Born Black". Studies in the Humanities 35.1 (June 2008): 34–49.
Hopkinson, Natalie. "Out of the Ashes, Drops of Meaning: The Poetic Success of Suheir Hammad". The Washington Post, 13 October 2002
Oumlil, Kenza. "'Talking Back': The Poetry of Suheir Hammad". Feminist Media Studies 13.5 (2013): 850–859.
External links
Suheir Hammad, text of "First Writing Since"
Suheir Hammad Performing "First Writing Since"
Suheir Hammad, text of "Mike Check"
Suheir Hammad performing "Mike Check"
"Into Egypt", short film
Profile on Suheir Hammad at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
Suheir Hammad performing two poems at the Palestine Festival of Literature
eFilmCritic.com interview with Suheir Hammad about "Salt of This Sea" by Dan Lybarger
"Poems of war, peace, women, power" (TEDWomen 2010)
1973 births
Living people
American Muslims
American poets
American writers of Palestinian descent
American women poets
American people of Jordanian descent
Proponents of Islamic feminism
People from Amman
Writers from Staten Island
Writers from Brooklyn
Jordanian feminists
American feminists
American Book Award winners
21st-century American poets
21st-century American women writers