Suheir Hammad

Suheir Hammad in 2009

Suheir Hammad (born October 25, 1973) is an American poet, author, performer, and political activist. 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.^[1]

As an adolescent growing up in Brooklyn, Hammad was heavily influenced by Brooklyn's vibrant hip-hop scene. She had also absorbed the stories her parents and grandparents had told her of life in their hometown of Lydda, before the 1948 Palestinian exodus, 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 by Annemarie Jacir, which premiered at as an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival. She is now working on her third publication which will be a book of prose. She will also be partaking in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books where she has written a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible.^[2]

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
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^[3]

Works

Born Palestinian, Born Black. Harlem River Press, 1996, ISBN 0-86316-244-4.^[4]
Drops of This Story Harlem River Press, 1996.
Zaatar Diva Cypher Books, 2006, ISBN 1-892494-67-1
Breaking Poems Cypher Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9819131-2-4
Born Palestinian, Born Black. UpSet Press, 2010, ISBN 9780976014225

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
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

↑ Poetry for the People – brief Bio Archived August 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
↑ http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/biography/writers/
↑ American Booksellers Association (2013). "The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation [1980–2012]". BookWeb. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013. 2009 […] Suheir Hammad, Breaking Poems (Cypher Books)
↑ "In Motion Magazine". In Motion Magazine. 2001-11-07. Retrieved 2013-06-17.

Additional Resources

Hanna, SM. "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

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