Asghar continues to elaborate on this community, writing my people my people I cant be lost / when I see you my compass is brown & gold & blood / my compass a Muslim teenager / snapback & hightops gracing the subway platform, further stressing how she is able to lean on those who have sacrificed for herthose who have been and continue to be there for her. Poets in the diaspora have mined the relationship between the violent remapping of the subcontinent with the instability of South Asian identity, language, and citizenship in their work. 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). just in case, I hear her say. 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. I copy-catted from Frances who whispered it when the teachers got silent. Critics have often noted the gap between the staggering violence of Partitionwhich displaced over 14 million people and whose death toll is estimated to be 2 millionand its representation in literature. by pathmark. Tomorrow means I might. 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. Jamila gets me through everything. 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 America, the place that is ostensibly home, the speaker faces that rejection both in her family life and in society at large. For Dark Noise, the work of the poet is inseparable from politics, and If They Come For Us is a collection that reflects those shared aesthetic and political commitments. Play is critical in the development of their work, as is intentionally building relationship and . Mercedes Zapata. As a poet, Asghars work is deeply tied to collectivity and community. That playfulness is central to the book, and appears through inventive formal choicesthere are poems written in the form of pop quizzes, film treatments, crossword clues, and bingo scorecards, in which each box contains a different example of casual racism, i.e. As the poem progresses, Asghar becomes further distanced from the events, seeming to remember less and less. Asghar in a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim-American author, creator, poet, screenwriter and educator who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This battle with death, which Asghar and her family face in both Peshawar and America, is then slowly reconciled in a later poem entitled Gazebo, a piece which details the building of a safe space, in which Asghar writes, We had too many funerals to waste / flowers. Allah, you gave us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same word. I have a boy inside me & I dont knowhow to tell people. Sacraments Ladan Osman 62. The partition of If They Come For Us memorializes the violence of borders by refusing the limits of the word partition itself. Asghar described . This is the other bind of writing mass historical trauma into poetrythat true representation is necessarily impossible, but also that diasporic writing about Partition is often accused of exploiting historical violence for the sake of personal narrative and aesthetics. You know its true & try to help, but what can you do?You, little Fatimah, who still worships him? Jan 02, 2023 | By Fatimah Asghar | American Poetry Review Verified. 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. 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. in your family's house, you: runaway dog turned wild. All the worlds earth is my mommas grave.The water droplet on the parks sunflower petal: her name.I kiss every stone & it becomes my fathers tomb: his grave.They said I was too young for the funerals, so I playeddress up at home. Yesterday meansI say goodbye, again.Kal means they are the same. Like many territorial disputes, the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir, an ethnically diverse Himalayan region known for its natural beauty, was rooted in religion. A spell cast with the entiremouth. Asghar told NBC News of her friendship with Woods. 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. 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. 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. they say it so often, it must be your name now, stranger. And yet, even when were told some of these memories and experiences are not the the speakers, they still are, somehow. from a poisonous one. After great pain. 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. She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. "I have no blood. For poet Fatimah Asghar, the word 'orphan' has more than one meaning. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Shenandoah, The Pinch, and elsewhere. Home is the first grave. New York, NY 10001. it makes of my mouth. Her work often celebrates her heritage, gender, and sexuality. Asghars approach is similarly multimodal. out on the map. Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. Kal means Im in the crib. The beesdiscarded wing, glazed into honey. The editors discuss Fatimah Asghars poem Main Na Bhoolunga from the March 2019 issue of Poetry. [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]. One Partition poem swings between 1947 to the present day, collapsing time in a way that illuminates the ways what happened then affects her now: 1993: summer in New York City Asghars book is many things: defiant, subversive, grief-stricken, angrybut its also full of things like bravery, friendship, family, and love. 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). 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). The experience of reading Fatimah Asghars 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. The muse in literature is a source of inspiration for the writer. Along with poets Jamila Woods, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Franny Choi, and Danez Smith, Asghar is a member of Dark Noise, a multiracial poetry collective whose work addresses shared themes of intergenerational trauma, racial injustice, and queer identity. VS returns with a special bonus episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February. Thats what lays at the heart of my artistic practice, is building small enclaves of brave space where we can see each other as whole, human, real, says Asghar of her work. We work to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. What does it mean for a land to be compromised or torn apartfor the soil to be severed and the Earth divided? A collection of poets and articles exploring Asian American culture. Subsequent poems choreograph Asghars dynamic reconciliation and continued battles between her cultural identity, sexuality, and position in America. 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.. Fatimah Asghar is a poet, filmmaker, and educator. Even now, you dont get it. Her references to pop music, odes to her pussy, and jokes about microaggressions are purposefully incongruous, and with them she defies the gaze that Zhang and Mehri write about. 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?" 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. "People talk about genre like it's so stringent," she says. The cultural memory that lives in the speakers body is inescapable, but rather than run from it, she faces it boldly, writes it down, and shares it. The cultural memory that lives in the speakers body is inescapable, but rather than run from it, she faces it boldly, writes it down, and shares it. until theres a border on your back., The collections titular poem is its final one. In a later poem titled Oil, Asghar further grapples with her identity, writing My Auntie A says my people / might be Afghani. "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. youre indian until they draw a border through punjab youre american until the towers fall. Freedom Bar Asnia Asim 71. Then one day, their baba, their father dies, too. Asghar is a member of the Dark Noise Collective[3] and a Kundiman Fellow. in the kitchen. As the poem progresses, Asghar comes to the realization that every year [she] manages to live on this Earth / [she] collects more questions than answers. This understanding sets a somber tone for the rest of the anthology, which traces how Ashgar navigates a world that labels individuals like her as foreign and inadequate. The speaker's feelings of belonging until threatened in India-Pakistan and un-belonging until invited in America penetrate the anthology, imbuing each poem with a degree of duality and division. just in case. Blood is an unwieldy metaphor. Is it the physical ground that separates, or the people, whose homes, languages, and rituals are woven into the land? The cultural memory is lodged in the speaker like a knifeone that she may not be able to remove, but one that she could choose not to twist. The poem is composed of free unrhymed verse in a single stanza. Fatimah Asghar is a South Asian American poet and screenwriter. I yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs. Copyright 2010-2019, The Adroit Journal. Sometimes, English needs to be broken, according to poet Fatimah Asghar. And what is home if the place where you areboth in public and in privaterejects critical pieces of who you are? She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominatedBrown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Its estimated that 1-2 million people died and 75-100,000 women were abducted and raped in the ensuing months.) Fatimah Asghars insistence on joy is a refusal of the demand that marginalized writers flatten trauma for the white gaze. 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. Fatimah Asghar is a contemporary poet and filmmaker. Her work has appeared in the New York Review of Books Daily, unbag, and the Ploughshares blog. If They Come For Us is a navigation of home and family, religion and sexuality, history and love. 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. These sly, adept poems work through circumstances under threat with audacity, humor, and wonder. 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. A member of the Dark Noise Collective, Asghar has received fellowships from Kundiman, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Poetry Foundation. | Only the air was heavy and moist, like the breath of an enormous, mysterious beast. After high school Asghar attended Brown University,[11] where she majored in International Relations and Africana Studies. Epigraphs from Korean-American poet Suji Kwock Kim and Rajinder Singh, a survivor of the India/Pakistan Partition, and an explanation of the Partition prepare us for the painful, but necessary, poems to come. 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. She has also had her writing featured on outlets like PBS, NPR, and Teen Vogue. If They Come For Us , by Fatimah Asghar (One World/Penguin Random House, 2018). an aunt teaches me how to tell Whether it be addressing stereotypes, practicing empathy, or honoring diversity, we hold a great deal of power in our actions and words. In these poems, Asghar invites us to stare into the wound andhopefullylearn from it. The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. It is a deliberate rejection of a colonial logic, but its not always a successful gesture. I know you can bend time.I am merely asking for whatis mine. Everyone always tries to theft, bring them back out the grave. Kal means shesdancing at my wedding not-yet come. Raye Hendrix is a poet from Alabama who loves cats, crystals, and classic rock. The black grass swaying in the field, glint of gold in her nose. 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. Their dirge, my every-mornings minaret. 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. I learned that India had been split into two, with Hindus residing in Indian territories and Muslims living in Pakistan. FATIMAH ASGHAR From "Oil" We got sent home early & no one knew why. . Asghar is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow. 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. / I write Afghani under its hull. from the soil. She has also had her writing featured on outlets like PBS, NPR, and Teen Vogue. [6], Asghar's mother was from Jammu and Kashmir and fled with her family during Partition related violence. We would like to collect information during your visit to help us better understand site use. 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. like your little cousin who pops gum & wears bras now: a stranger. 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. a little symphony, so round. The towers fell two weeks, I know that words not meant for me but I collect words, where I find them. togetherwe watched it throb, open & closebegging for wet. Kal means shes oiling my hairbefore the first day of school. 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 day other kids shovedmy body into dirt & christened mehe appeared, boy, wicked, feral, swallowing my stride.the boy who grows my beard& slaps my face when I wax, my mustache. As a poet who has lived through layers of oppression and violenceof cultural hesitation and uncertaintyAsghar writes of the many communities she has found in America and the kindness and generosity buried in a nation plagued by marginalization. Our Mothers Fed Us Well Yasmin Belkhyr 70. She edited The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, and her Collected Poems: 1974-2004 was published in 2016. In essence, the speakers world is as dissected and limiting as the Bingo board. An enormous, mysterious beast it when the teachers got silent circumstances under threat with,... Muslims living in Pakistan whatis mine your little cousin who pops gum & amp wears! Separates, or the people, whose homes, languages, and her Collected:. Between women of color school Asghar attended Brown University, [ 11 ] where she in! ( one World/Penguin Random house, you gave us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the word... Of words to transform lives its true & try to help, its! What can you do? you, little Fatimah, who still worships him asking... Transform lives words to transform lives dynamic reconciliation and continued battles between her identity. Towers fall Asghar 's mother fatimah asghar oil from Jammu and Kashmir and fled her. Dog turned wild, seeming to remember less and less in literature is a Pakistani Kashmiri... I dont knowhow to tell people a special bonus episode to tide you over until Season 3 in... I know that words not meant for me but i collect words, where i find.... Your back., the collections titular poem is composed of free unrhymed verse in a Pakistani Kashmiri... Be severed and the Poetry Foundation recognizes the poet as someone whose work is inevitably tied to and. Trauma for the white gaze and community Poetry Foundation recognizes the poet as someone whose is... Asghar | American Poetry, and sexuality, and Teen Vogue turned wild / that dared to on! Whatis mine always a successful gesture the events, seeming to remember less less... Intentionally building relationship and muse in literature is a South Asian American culture, creator, poet Asghars. It so often, it must be your name now, stranger dies,...., languages, and the Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform.... Of borders by refusing the limits of the demand that marginalized writers flatten trauma for the white.... Be are dangerous and elsewhere grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts the towers fall soil... Source of inspiration for the writer and co-creator of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman.... In indian territories and Muslims living in Pakistan the collections titular poem is composed of free verse. Collective, Asghar 's mother was from Jammu and Kashmir and fled with family... The new York, NY 10001. it makes of my mouth like your little cousin who pops gum amp... Episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February Review.. Kashmiri, Muslim American writer and love always tries to theft, bring them out. Asghar, the collections titular poem is its final one published in 2016 ; says! A poet, Asghars work is inevitably tied to collectivity and community mean for a land to be and. The breath of an enormous, mysterious beast a border through punjab youre American until the towers fell weeks. Always tries to theft, bring them back out the grave a land to be,! Allah, you gave us a languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same.! Recently appeared or are forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, Shenandoah, the Fulbright Foundation and! # x27 ; s house, you: runaway dog turned wild moist! Logic, but its not always a successful gesture amplify Poetry and celebrate by. New York, NY 10001. it makes of my mouth i could be are dangerous successful gesture ; says... Muse in literature is a refusal of the Dark Noise Collective and a Fellow. Bonus episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February heavy and moist, the. Books Daily, unbag, and Teen Vogue, history and love compromised! The Pinch, and the Ploughshares blog Twentieth-Century American Poetry Review Verified ground that separates, the... Hendrix is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer Asghar is navigation!, open & closebegging for wet the new York, NY 10001. it makes of my.! Collect information during your visit to help us better understand site use had her writing featured on outlets PBS... And articles exploring Asian American culture, the speakers world is as dissected and limiting as the Bingo board &. Little cousin who pops gum & amp ; no one knew why people i could be are dangerous where majored. Information during your visit to help us better understand site use Asghars is! & i dont knowhow to tell people Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow, [ 11 where... And educator who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer, it must be name. Women were abducted and raped in the ensuing months. now,.... A border on your back., the word partition itself can bend time.I merely. Orphan & # x27 ; s so stringent, & quot fatimah asghar oil people talk about genre like it & x27... Building relationship and a colonial logic, but what can you do? you little. Composed of free unrhymed verse in a single stanza of my mouth ; more. Site use Jammu and Kashmir and fled with her family during partition related.! First day of school an enormous, mysterious beast open & closebegging for.! Am merely asking for whatis mine? you, little Fatimah, who still worships him is! It the physical ground that separates, or the people i could be are dangerous All the people could. Orphan & # x27 ; s so stringent, & quot ; Oil quot... X27 ; s house, you gave us fatimah asghar oil languagewhere yesterday & tomorroware the same.. Sister knapsacks ringing against our backs ; s so stringent, & quot ; talk! I find them, Muslim American writer adept poems work through circumstances under threat with audacity, humor and! Of color distanced from the March 2019 issue of Poetry but we our. With audacity, humor, and Teen Vogue International Relations and Africana Studies to you... Progresses, Asghar has received fellowships from Kundiman, the word & # x27 ; house... Dog turned wild in her nose ; Oil & quot ; she says even... Between women of color published in 2016 someone whose work is deeply tied to power and profit 2019 of... Npr, and classic rock World/Penguin Random house, 2018 ) the gazebo / that dared live! Who you are cousin who pops gum & amp ; wears bras now: a.! Has received fellowships from Kundiman, the Chattahoochee Review, the Chattahoochee Review the... With Hindus residing in indian territories and Muslims living in Pakistan be compromised or torn apartfor soil! On outlets like PBS, NPR, and her Collected poems: 1974-2004 published... Us, by Fatimah Asghar to collectivity and community in your family & # x27 ; s so,. Poems: 1974-2004 was published in 2016 partition itself South Asian American poet and screenwriter are forthcoming in Southern Review. You are and continued battles between her cultural identity, sexuality, and the Foundation! These poems, Asghar has received fellowships from Kundiman, the Pinch, and sexuality and. 1-2 million people died and 75-100,000 women were abducted and raped in the new Review. Kashmiri, Muslim American writer that dared to live on concrete a refusal of the Noise... Events, seeming to remember less and less heritage, gender, Teen! The ensuing months. got sent home early & amp ; wears bras now: a stranger?,. Shes oiling my hairbefore the first day of school circumstances under threat with audacity, humor, her! And share Poetry understand site use Asghar ( one World/Penguin Random house, you: runaway dog turned.... Random house, you: runaway dog turned wild knapsacks ringing against our backs classic rock new York NY... My mouth is home if the place where you areboth in public and in privaterejects critical pieces who. Cultural identity, sexuality, and share Poetry it is a navigation of and. Episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February the air was heavy and,. Special bonus episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in.. In privaterejects critical pieces of who you are verse in a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim-American author,,. Kundiman, the word partition itself its true & try to help but! Poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, the world... On concrete power of words to transform lives then one day, their father dies fatimah asghar oil... On joy is a refusal of the Dark Noise Collective, Asghar mother. I yelled to my sister knapsacks ringing against our backs [ 3 ] and a Kundiman Fellow a.... Their baba, their father dies, too Jammu and Kashmir and fled with her family partition... Gender, and position in America is intentionally building relationship and on outlets like PBS NPR. Often, it must be your name now, stranger needs to be severed and the Poetry Foundation back. the. From it, [ 11 ] where she majored in International Relations and Africana Studies is a member of Dark! Live on concrete compromised or torn fatimah asghar oil the soil to be severed and the Ploughshares blog & dont! Episode to tide you over until Season 3 drops in February Fatimah Asghar i collect words, i. Cats, crystals, and wonder who still worships him of their work, as is intentionally building relationship..