Tag: Adrienne Rich
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The Graph of a Cry
My dissertation is available as a book for academics, libraries, and those who are interested to read more about the phenomenal journey of the American ghazal. This dissertation analyzes the journey of the ancient Arabic poetic form of the ghazal to America to provide insights into transnational poetry and cultural mobility. While the movement of…
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Building Inclusive Safe Spaces: my brown dream
Two institutions have come under the radar recently for allowing their platform to spout bigotry; both apologized, and in their inner circles professed that the core consensus was to give everyone a forum to vent out their inner feelings. However offensive they might have been they had the “right” to express. Here is my (to…
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Liars, Cadavers and Vultures
“The liar often suffers from amnesia. Amnesia is the silence of the unconscious.” (Rich, Adrienne. Arts Of The Possible: Essays and Conversations. 32) Cadavers are Useful Things Vultures in wake Shoulders tense Crouching Hovering Pecking Gawk, squawk Peck, peck, peck Delicious diseased flesh Old World or New World? Filled with acid Leak, leak, leak Urine…
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Paris in the rain
Saturday, January 10, 2015, I was to be in Paris for the day to meet poet and translator Marilyn Hacker. I had many questions about her experience with the ghazal and ghazal poets; she was generous enough to offer her day to me. On Monday 5th I booked my tickets to travel by the Thalys…
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The walls of the room I am building
The Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies had their research day conference on 26th May 2014 in Amsterdam. The day was titled – Doing Gender in the Netherlands: Feminism in Transition (Activism, Institutions and Canons). I was there to present a paper: Tumbling Wall: Adrienne Rich Dismantles a Male Form. My paper spoke about the…
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“Dedications”
“I know you are reading this poem late, before leaving your office of the one intense yellow lamp-spot and the darkening window in the lassitude of a building faded to quiet long after rush-hour. I know you are reading this poem standing up in a bookstore far from the ocean on a grey day of…
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The dots I can’t connect
In my deep moments of losing and finding myself in a ghazal (right now I am reading: “Red Ghazal”) I find my mind turning to songs I’ve heard. Sometimes I can find a direct connect between the two e.g. reading Adrienne Rich and listening to Abida Parveen sing Mirza Ghalib‘s ghazals, Rich often refers to…