December 14, 2025 • 47 mins
Check out Amanda's conversation with Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi!
Fatima's work strives to instigate action in service to world-building, social change, and collaboration. Her poems live in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, MAYDAY, Torch, Rise Up Review, and other portals. She is a fellow of the Pink Door Writing Retreat, the Anaphora Arts Writing Residency, In Surreal Life, and the Abode Virtual Summer Retreat. She is the author of the chapbooks EVERYTHING GOOD IS DYING and Moon Woman. Her first full-length poetry collection, DREAMS FOR EARTH, is forthcoming from Deep Vellum in 2025.
Fatima's Links: https://fatimaayanmalikahirsi.com/
CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel, PBS and Roku!
SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:
https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263
PBS: https://www.pbs.org/show/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke/?source=social
Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/
And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE!
Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...
Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop?
She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services
Music by: Buzu Buzu
https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/
Fatima's work strives to instigate action in service to world-building, social change, and collaboration. Her poems live in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, MAYDAY, Torch, Rise Up Review, and other portals. She is a fellow of the Pink Door Writing Retreat, the Anaphora Arts Writing Residency, In Surreal Life, and the Abode Virtual Summer Retreat. She is the author of the chapbooks EVERYTHING GOOD IS DYING and Moon Woman. Her first full-length poetry collection, DREAMS FOR EARTH, is forthcoming from Deep Vellum in 2025.
Fatima's Links: https://fatimaayanmalikahirsi.com/
CHECK OUT AMANDA'S NEW TV SHOW: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke! Now airing on the Archaeology Channel, PBS and Roku!
SUBSCRIBE AND STREAM HERE:
https://heritagetac.org/programs/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke-i28z2vn9bsc?category_id=65263
PBS: https://www.pbs.org/show/the-poet-speaks-with-amanda-eke/?source=social
Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/
And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE!
Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...
Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop?
She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services
Music by: Buzu Buzu
https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Poet Speaks, a show all about or tradition,
hip hop and cardboard boxes on the bloc, regeton Bandolero
so your heavy metal punk rock and La Junior Hide pop.
And what makes poetry so amazing, so incredible is this
absolute fascination and ability to change our lives, the old tradition,
(00:23):
the reason why we speak.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This is the Poet Speaks. Hello everyone, and welcome back
to the Poet Speaks Podcast. Now, our next guest is
a Black mother who spends time with forests and waters
on unseated lands of a soul keyed nation for work.
(00:48):
Strives to instigate action and service to world building, social
change and collaboration. Her poems live in Obsidian Literature and
Arts in the African Diaspora, may Day Torch Review and
other portals. She's a fellow of the Pink Door Writing Retreat,
the Annapour Arts Writing Residency Inso Real Life, and the
Adobe Virtual Excuse Me a Bode Virtual Summer Retreat. She's
(01:13):
the author of the chat books Everything Good Is Dying
in Moon Woman. Her first full length poultry collection, Dreams
for Earth, is forthcoming from Deep Velum in two and
twenty five. Everyone a big welcome to the Post Speaks podcast.
Fatima Iyan Malika Hersey, Fatima, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Thank you so much for having me. I am so
grateful to be here and starting off my week with
you absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thank you so much. Now, we're really really excited to
have you here. Now our first and foremost tell us
where you located the world. Where are we speaking to
you out from? Mm hm.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I am currently on Stolen Sulk Lens also known as
Souk on Vancouver Island in Canada.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Nice, nice, very nice? All right? Tell us how was
the How was the weather out there? How's it tream y'all?
I know we're kind of we're in the yello yo
months right now. We're fall end of summer, but we're
still not quite in the fall months. How's that weather
treving out there?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Mm hmm yeah, Fall is definitely rolling in hard. It
is cloudy today, it is missing. My children are about
to go on an adventure and they're putting on their layers.
If you can see the leaves starting to bronze and fall.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Nice, nice, nice, awesome. All right, Well, we're gonna go
ahead dive into it. Like I said before we even began,
I mean I love your work, and I love kind
of how you instigate different identities into what you do
as specifically as a writer. You know you really, I
feel like you really bring your whole self to the table.
Now you describe yourself as a black mother spending time
(02:46):
with forest and water on the unseated lands of the
soaky nation. Now, please do correct me by it, I'm
incorrectly pronouncing that. Now, how does that place both land
and water? How does that shape your poetry and worldview?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Mm hmm. Yeah. Before living here on Celk Lands, I
lived in Dallas, and I lived in the center of
Dallas doing all the busy, busy art things, and I was,
you know, thriving as an artist. But I realized after
the fact, I wasn't really hearing myself. I feel like
I wasn't really getting to the core of who I
(03:24):
am as a person and as an artist because there
were all of these external forces pulling me in so
many different ways. And so living where I do now,
in this tiny, tiny town beside the ocean, being able
to live so close closely to the Earth's rhythms, I
feel like I can really hear myself and your spirit
and hear God and just feel the interconnectedness of all
(03:47):
living things, and that closeness really makes its way through
I think in my poetry and how I move through
the world. And yeah, it's it's a whole kind of
shift and energy.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean that's such a big change though.
I mean from Dallas to to you know that area
in Canada, I mean Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Correct, yes, correct?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean what was kind of the biggest change that
you saw to now? You know, living from there to
where you are now, I mean, what would be the
biggest difference for you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The biggest difference is I am a black woman. I
am a black woman who grew up living amongst people
from so many different walks of life and countries. You know,
if you're at a red light in Dallas, you can
hear music from five different places boomen at one time.
And that is not the case where I live now.
(04:46):
And you know, things are changing. I've been here a
little over two years, going on two and a half years,
and I feel like every week or every month, my
town looks a little bit different. So that is nice.
I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfort. But
you know, for a while, there was a time where
if I saw someone, if I saw myself reflected in someone,
(05:07):
I would stop them on the street and say, hey,
what's your name?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, not many of us.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Let's connect. And I found a few friends like that,
So I'm I'm grateful that. You know. One thing about
living where I do live is that it makes it
really easy for you to find your people because you
can kind of like be in the grocery store and say,
I have not seen this person before and their spirit
is speaking to me. And you know, you don't have
to kind of like wait around and feel lonely. You
(05:33):
can just zoom right in.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah. No, absolutely. How big was the population size? Like
how many people live where you are? Now?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
That is a good question that I cannot actually answer.
It is a municipality, it is not considered a city.
So if that speaks to that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For sure for sure? Okay, wo wow, No, that is
so fascinating. I mean, like, I guess that would have
such a big effect on your worldview. I'd be going
from such a major metropolis of Dallas, Texas to where
you are. You know, like you said, the municipality of supernation, right,
tell me, I mean what is for you at this point?
(06:18):
How many how long has it been since you made
that move.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, we left Dallas. I left Dallas in August of
twenty twenty and actually moved to Oregon. And so I
was in Oregon for about a year and a half
or two years before coming to Canada. So I arrived
here in Canada in May of twenty twenty three. And
I feel like, I, you know, your world really shifts
(06:43):
when you became a parent, when you become a parent,
So I became a parent in Oregon, and it was
also the you know, the waves of the pandemic, the
delta omicron and everyone was inside, and so isolation was
a big thing. And so moving to Canada after the
world had kind of shifted by all means there is
still a pandemic. COVID is still a thing. People are
(07:04):
still dying every day, but the world has kind of
moved on despite And so living in Canada now as
a parent and living in a small town and having
found my community so easily, community means something so different.
Once you become a parent, you rely on people in
different kind of ways and you can offer people in
different kind of ways. I'm not sure if I answered
(07:27):
your question.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's that's absolutely wonderful. I mean, because I think that
that kind of that idea of just land and positionality,
where we are an environment a lot of people maybe
they do want to move, maybe they do want to
make a change in their lives, and they don't realize
it's literally maybe the environment of where they live, maybe countrywise,
city wise, just land municipality. Like you said, wise, it's
(07:51):
such a I think that's such an interesting thing. Now
kind of going into your work, specifically with your writing,
I mean, you know, you really gestured towards I think,
very large concepts like social change, collaboration. So there's such
large concepts, but they're also so minute in the same breath,
you know, and that idea of world building and these
(08:14):
relationships that we have with the things around us. You know,
tell me, how do you kind of balance that closeness
and intimacy of the you know, of the word, of
the spoken word, of the poetry of the writing with
really what is the urgency of collective action of how
this world needs to change? So it's literally you have
(08:36):
such an intimate relationship with your writings, but you're still
dealing with these very very bigger concepts. You know, someone
that seems so locked in with the kind of synchronization
of themselves, the duality, the multiple identities that you hold.
How do you kind of remain intimate to that but
also addressing these very large issues that are not one sided.
(09:01):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yes. There is this thing that has been floating around
the Internet the last few years called this Social Change
Ecosystem Map. It's by Deepa a year and it has
a kind of outline of ten different roles that people
can inhabit. And the thing I find about these roles
is you can inhabit more than one of them at
the same time, and you can move between them. You know,
(09:24):
everything is fluid, and so I think it really details
the way that each person, every single person, has a
way to contribute to this time. So I am a poet,
I am a writer, so my first and foremost it's
like I am the storyteller, right, but as a storyteller,
you know, in one poem, I am a disruptor, and
another poem I am the healer, and another poem I
(09:47):
am a visionary. And so one thing I think that
poetry and the word has the power to accomplish in
this moment of collective action is like moving people toward action, right, Like,
if people don't have the spark, then there will be
(10:08):
no no movement, no change. And I'm also thinking about
how poetry can exist not only in unconventional ways like
as the storyteller or so forth, but also unconventional places.
So I've read poems and city council meetings try to
sway elected officials to you know, say no to environmental racism,
(10:29):
get rid of this shingle mountain in the black neighborhood.
It didn't work, you know, it didn't take. It wasn't
my poem that moved the mountain. But you know, there
is a reason that across the world and throughout history,
poets and writers of all kinds have been the first
ones to be targeted. Like there is a reason that
(10:51):
journalists and guzza are being targeted right now. It's because
their word their stories are so important, and systems and
power fear that. So they fear That's why there's book
bands right now, right, That's why they're trying to control
what people can put in their mind, because the first
step to changing anything starts right here.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, No, absolutely absolutely, I love that idea though of
just us as people, there's just a role we all
can play. You know, no one role is bigger than others.
We all kind of have to find whatever those gifts
and talents are. I'm curious for you. I mean, how
did you find out that writing and poetry was and
like you said, storytelling. How did that kind of come
(11:35):
across for you where you're like, this is this is
where I'm at? What really was it a moment in
time that something snapped for you or was it just
over time you realize this is what you kept coming
back to what you're being called to?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Mm hmm. I think that I am blessed to have
the mother who I had, and she supported me in
so many ways of me becoming who I am right now.
She read to me every single night on nights, and
she was a nurse and for many spans of my
(12:09):
childhood she was also a single mom, right so, like
I had a babysitter, I had miss Ivy, And on
nights when my mom was working that twelve hour nursing shift,
miss Ivy would just hit play on an old school
tape recorder and I would hear my mother's voice speaking
right where we left off in the story from the
previous night, and whenever I was in middle school, my
(12:30):
mom found this place called Impressions teen magazine, and I
remember seeing, you know, the high schoolers and they were
the editor in chief and I was like, oh, I
want to do that one day, and then one day
I did. You know. I stuck with it until we
left Florida in ninth grade. After ninth grade, and you know,
whenever poetry was introduced in school in fourth grade, that
(12:52):
was it. I was like, Okay, this is my thing.
Here I am. And you know, I just like I
always had a journal as a kid, and to adults
like I have just like shelves of my journals since
high school.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah yeah, I mean, so it's definitely for you. Do
you feel it to It's been a calling throughout your life. Yeah, no, absolutely.
Now kind of speaking of your writings, So I love,
first and foremost your chapbook Everything Good Is Dying. I
love that title, and I want to know where the
inspiration that title came from. The gravity of that is
(13:29):
so it's so big Everything Good Is Dying. But your
chapbooks Everything Good Is Dying and Moon Woman, now you
hold grief and imagination, so colding grief as well as creativity.
I look at it side by side. I mean, how
do you approach writing about loss, which is such a
(13:49):
it's a universal theme, but literally every person experiences grief differently,
you know, but you how you kind of balance that
without letting it eclipse the ideas that you have as
a creator of joy possibility, you know. So let's stop
start off with that. I mean, how do you balance grief,
creativity and joy side by side in your writing?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
M hmm. Yeah. When you ask about the title Everything
Good Is Dying, I had three kind of options for
how to title that chat book, and I spoke them
to a friend. I was like, how do I decide?
What do you think? And that from Miss Dress Starland.
She is an amazing musician in Dallas, an amazing black
woman who plays the harp and can just like transport you,
(14:35):
and she also knows my soul. And when I told
her those options, she's like, everything Good is Dying, that's you, girl,
and here we are now. And so when you ask
about balancing joy and grief through the creative process and
how I don't let lost eclipse joy? I think I
often do. I think they live side by side, and
(14:55):
I think that especially right now, this is a time
of extreme loss. We are living in a time of genocide,
carried out with impunity and supported by the world's most powerful,
and they are doing it with our tax dollars. And
I think the appropriate response for any empathetic being who
sees the reality of our world is to live very
closely to grief and rage. You know, in nineteen sixty
(15:20):
one James Baldwin said, to be a Negro in this
country and to be relatively conscious is to be in
a state of constant rage. And that is not old.
That is the same. And to be anyone with open
eyes is to be full of rage carried out, as
Baldwin said, with the most criminal indifference. And so even
(15:42):
alongside all of this, you know, there is joy. There
is my oldest daughter, using a new word correctly for
the first time. There is the music of the ocean.
And a common experience I have is that in these
moments when I feel the most joy, ninety eight percent
(16:03):
of the time, I am not just in that joy.
I am also in the loss. I am at the
ocean feeling the music of God saying through me. And
I am also thinking about the people in Ghuzza who
cannot go to the ocean because if they step foot
in that water, someone may shoot them down because the
ocean has now off limits to them. You know, I'm
(16:23):
looking in my nine month old daughter's eyes and she's
feeding from my body, and we're just in that oxytocin heaven,
and I'm thinking about the mothers over there who cannot
feed their babies because they are not consuming enough food
to breastfeed. And when international doctors go to deliver baby formula,
hiding them on their person, the Israeli government takes it
(16:46):
from them so that baby formula can't enter. And so
in these moments of extreme joy, I am not ever, ever,
ever blinded or not cognizance of the extreme loss that
we are all living through.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, no, absolutely absolutely tell me. I mean, how does one?
I mean, you know and I do. I feel like
your sentiment is expressed by many people, and I almost
want to say, there's a word for experiencing this duality
of enjoying and loving your life in the same breath.
In the back of your head, do you realize how
(17:21):
destructive the world that you still take place and take
a part in, is what I mean? How do you
then kind of really live solid day today and still
have a clear mind, clear heart, clear path when you're
facing so many painful contradictions twenty four seven as a
human being being alive.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I think, if I'm being completely honest, you know, most days,
a lot of the days are not all the way easy.
You know, like I am, i am a quadruple scorpio
and I'm a poet. So I'm feeling it. But I
think it goes back to something I was saying about,
(18:05):
like accepting the state of this is the appropriate response.
The appropriate response is to have trouble handling everything that's happening.
You know, it's not normal to just go about your
days and know what's happening and just not care and
not let it affect you. You should be deeply affected.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, absolutely, Okay, absolutely, Now moving along a little bit,
so you have a forthcoming collection, Dreams for Earth Now,
Dreams for Earth. You know, kind of going through doing
research feels like it's going to promise vision and kind
of futureness. Right, Can you share a glimpse into what
(18:48):
you know people listening? You know what readers can expect
from this latest piece of work by you, And I
mean what you know honestly, what dreams are you holding
for you know, our planet, Earth, people, your people. What
dreams are you holding within you right now?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
M h, what a beautiful question. What dreams are we
holding with them?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Can I start with the glimpse? Can I share a
poem from the book?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yes, you can, absolutely, Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
This poem is called Solidarity, and it was written in
a workshops for guzza session called feeling the body, writing
through the body, And so I'll share it. Solidarity, Wind
and water know nothing of borders. A cut on your
(19:37):
brow is a cut on my brow. We bleed together.
Our griefs intertwine across time and distance. I don't know
your name, but I feel your eyes. I want to
wrap my arms around your shaking body. I too, am
holding up the cold shell of who you love. I
love them too. I love you them like I love
(20:00):
the ocean. I love you like I love the ocean.
The ocean does not know my name, but feels my heart.
Names can be so colonial anyway, But Linnaeus did he
ever write about knowing the souls of beings? My soul
and your soul share the same cosmic thread. Stardust of
your eye latches forms cartilage of my ear. I try
(20:23):
to imagine your laughter. People near me don't understand my tears.
You are near me. I hold your hand through cancerous
cobalt and bone licking bomb. I try to find us
a beach where waves are clear and clean. The breeze
threads us together. This is telepathy. We are my celium
(20:44):
spores forming rain clouds. We are roots of trees, talking
beneath soil in ways no human can see. When you sigh,
I stir from my sleep. My love for you is
a violence. My tenderness turn me into nightmare. I want
to haunt all those who dare and braid your glory.
(21:06):
Anyone who cuts our brows should be afraid.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Thank you so much, Fatima. That was amazing. That was amazing.
Please remind us again what was the name of that poem?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Solidarity?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Solidarity? All right? Thank you so much, really appreciating that
live reading? Tell us, I mean I want to know
what is you know? I always say, whenever I perform
a poem, I perform it differently each time. There's different
feelings each time. What did you feel right now when
you perform that? M hm? Really?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
When I performed it this time? When I shared it
this time, I think I felt like a calmness like
sometimes you know, I feel like that electricity, or I
feel like the ocean when the waves are just like
crashing in through. And this time I very much felt
like the stillness of the.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
One for sure. Absolutely tell us a bit about then,
I mean, so that is from your latest collection, Dreams
for Earth. Correct, tell us a bit about, you know,
what we can expect more from that collection. You know,
tell us a bit about the writing process and what
that looked like as you as you created this, your
(22:19):
most recent collection of poems.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
M hmm. Yeah, the writing process, you know, changed a
lot throughout the book, because my life changed a lot
throughout the book. I started this book over five years
ago now, and you know I went from living in
Dallas to the start of the pandemic, to living in
an eco village in Oregon with sixty other people sharing
(22:44):
gardens and food and drama, and then moving to this
tiny ocean town, and you know, being in a phase
of parenthood. And I think all of that comes through
in the book. You know, every place where I have
existed physically is in those pages. And also one thing
(23:04):
through all of that, I think I'm holding is like
this dream of solidarity. So you know, through all of
the thats there have been these these touch points that
require collective care. So I'm really inviting people, even before
the final section where this poem lives, I'm really inviting
(23:24):
people to consider a solidarity that is not polite, a
solidarity that will take risk and break fragile relationships and
speak the truth. And a solidarity that welcomes inconvenience and
the patience if it means living with integrity. And you know,
throughout the book, I just want people to consider love
in a way that exists outside of your own homes
(23:46):
and outside of your own borders, and outside of nationalism
and whatever lies Empire is selling. To consider a kind
of collective kinship and just love for everyone, every living being,
not even just people. You know, like when me and
my daughter see someone mowing the grass, she says, why
are they doing that? And I say, I know, why
are they decapitating the grass? Because we want to abolish laws.
(24:10):
We want that driving ecosystem that can feed everybody out there,
you know, So that's what I want for all of us.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, absolutely, tell me a bit about the you know,
the kind of the movement in you to kind of
have that. Tell me, where do you think, where does
that really kind of establish itself from to really want
that solidarity across all lines, you know. I think a
lot of people when they hear that word, they start
maybe thinking allyship, you know, and in the world we
(24:39):
live in, like I said, it's painful contradictions, both good
and bad. A lot of people have been burned for
so many burned bridges, so many burned relationships. When you
think of solidarity, I mean, what has caused you to
kind of really move yourself in the way of seeing
the good the good? And what solidarity do you do
(25:00):
as opposed to where so many people have been greatly disenfranchised?
Maybe through solidarity.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
M hmm. I think the heart of what you're speaking
to is like why why I I love everybody so hard?
And I think that again goes back to my mother
and goes back to all those before me, and my
mother and the way I was brought up really instilled
(25:31):
in me a knowledge that we are not in anything
ever by ourselves. So through whatever I do, I try
to bring in those who I love, even you know,
if I'm even when it's inconvenient right now, it is
not inconvenient to have my mother here with me. She
died in March. But I am. I am wearing a
(25:54):
bracelet that she gave me, and I'm wearing my nana's
my great great my great grand mother's wedding ritten and
I'm wearing a shell from my father when he was
in Saciales. And so I bring everyone I love with
me everywhere, and that's what I'm asking other people to do.
And I'm not just asking them to bring in the
people who they have spoken to with their own mouths.
(26:16):
And can you repeat the last part of your question.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Please, no problem, Just you know, how do you you know?
We live in a world where so many people, maybe
the people they've loved, have done them wrong, you know
what I mean? Living in solidarity is sometimes hard when
people live, you know, slap people across the aisle, slap
people across the face. You know, it's hard to stay
(26:40):
in that mindset of positivity and still bring bring the
best parts of yourself to the table when people haven't
shown you their best parts.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Mm hm oh yes, yes I understand. And that goes
back to collective kinship, right like that goes back to
abolishing this notion that our family is within blood alone.
So your family is everybody, and you know, you don't
have to talk to everybody in your family. I don't
talk to everybody in my family. And it's possible to
(27:11):
still love someone and not have a deep relationship with them,
And it's possible to not love someone who is, you know,
close to you in different kind of ways, and I
think that's totally okay. And so what I'm really hoping
for people to do is, like, despite our personal conflicts
that we may have with specific people, is to really
(27:33):
like widen the circle and think about the larger collective
and how we can serve you know, everyone and our
family in tiny ways, right, Like we don't need to
go to McDonald's most of us, a lot of us.
They have very accessible prices and meals, and you know,
(27:57):
we live in food deserts a lot of us, and
sometimes that's there is McDonald's. And I accept that, and
that is okay, right. But everyone has different circumstances, and
so when your circumstances and your knowledge allow for you
to make particular choices, then to be a person in integrity,
then it is up to you to make different choices.
And if you know that McDonald's gives free meals to
(28:18):
the IDEF while they commit a genocide, then it is
you know, behest of you to not go there if
it is within your financial power that kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Thing, for sure, for sure. Tell me what dreams are
you holding for planet Earth right now?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I am holding a dream of elective awakening. And I
see that happening, and I see so many conversations happening
that I have not seen in the past. I see,
you know, young people are just continuously flooring with their knowledge.
(29:01):
Like I see people who are twenty two and you know,
in their early twenties doing these things, and I'm like,
it was a mess. You know, I was just out
dancing and drinking and having a good old time. If
I was doing what these young people are doing right
now and speaking the truth that they are speaking, It's
like I had a particular political knowledge that did not
(29:23):
translate into my everyday life. And now people of a
younger generation are like, they have the knowledge, and they
have the integrity and the ability to like walk through
their life with a particular knowledge. And I think that's
going to do, you know, wonders for the world that
is being birth right now yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Absolutely. Now moving along here, we I do want to
kind of explore motherhood. Now, motherhood appears often in I
think just in total in our society as as both
art of you know, creation, but also as anchor for
lot of women and people that give birth and challenge. Right,
(30:03):
So motherhood has both just the art but also an
anchers people and challenges people. You know, for you because
you speak so fondly and you know that plays such
a pivotal role, like you said, and you're kind of
you know, your overall, your process, your evolution. I almost
want to say, as a writer, you know, motherhood is
now just another piece of that. You know, how did
(30:25):
being a mother, becoming a mother inflect your creative practice?
And I also want to say, you know, imagining just
new worlds for you as a writer, how did motherhood
really help you create and maybe revolutionize in your mind
new worlds to inhabit, maybe new ways of seeing things.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Mm hmm. Yeah, for me, there is not much of
a line between mothering and creative practice and imagining new worlds.
I think that parenthood is the most create is like
the most creative of imagining new worlds, Like they are
all interlinked it's a lot like gardening, Like when you
(31:07):
plant seeds, you have the future in mind. You're like,
one day, I'm going to eat this garlic. And that's
what all of those things mean to me. So the
way that manifest is now I am a lot more
cognizant of how time moves and what I can fit
into pockets of minutes. I schedule creative time blocks the
(31:29):
same way that I schedule time blocks to schedule doctor appointments,
and like family admin, and I allow for space for
you know, surprise and spontaneity because that is required in
all our practice. The other main point is that my
children are always in close proximity to whatever I'm working on.
(31:50):
So I honestly cannot remember the last poem I wrote
where they were not explicitly mentioned. And even if they
are not explicit mentioned, they're there in the undertones. They're
there as like a whisper in the breeze. I was
a whole person before I was a parent, and so
(32:10):
as a mother, I am not only a mother, but
my identity as a mother is one that is a
kind of umbrella, and so other things fall under that.
And I think as artists, one of our concerns is
to question, and that is true for parenting as well.
(32:30):
So I must teach my children to question, even if
I am not pressuring them to be artists. I want
them to walk through the world with an artist eyes,
because that is the eye that can change things. If
we don't question the world, we can't change the world.
If we don't notice what's wrong, how can we begin
to address it? And similarly, if we don't, you know,
notice the awe and the beautiful at parts, how can
(32:54):
we give thanks and praise and like really just swim
in the joy of that and the blessing. So I
think that creative practice and imagining new worlds and mothering
all require us to question to make something better.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean that that kind of constant curiosity about
everything around you. I mean it's how could you not
constantly have that curiosity? You know, when you have this
whole new being a part of you, vibration in the
world now, living, breathing, and now they're on their own
path as well. So now very very beautifully put moving
(33:30):
along here. So I'm curious about your poems have been
published in spaces like Obsidian and Torch. Now those are
journals specifically dedicated to black voices. I mean, how do
you see the role of those platforms, especially in today's
time where, like you said, a lot of works black
people all across the diaspora we're now questioning, you know,
(33:54):
banned books, the writings, you know, voices, some people's voices
are being really stifled. You know, how do you see
the role of these platforms specifically and what other platforms
you know, how important is this for us to have
platforms to amplify, you know, our marginalized narratives. How important
is that in today's world.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
I think that today's world is not so different from
worlds of yesterday in some ways, and that's why these
spaces are important. I think a lot about affinity spaces
and how much of a bomb they can be in
the midst of our oppressive status quo world. And to me,
such journals offer a place where we can offer ourselves
(34:41):
and our work without a fear of particular misunderstandings. We
don't you know, have to think about the code switching,
the the like history of the editors. We don't have
to like do this deep dive into who runs this
journe and what is their historical experience. Do they have
(35:04):
a history of demonstrating particular understandings about the experiences of
people from marginalized communities. There's just an ease, there's you know,
looseness of the shoulders, there's a knowing that not only
are you welcome to the table, not only is there
a statement that says we welcome writing from everyone, but
(35:25):
there is food on that table specifically made for you.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. Yeah, food specifically made for you, your diet, just
for you, and it's catered just for you.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I love that absolutely, And I look what you said.
It's you know, our world today is not really much
different than the world we've inhabited before. And I think
that's such a strong point that you know, a lot
of the things we see today it's not really different
than what's been happening throughout history, right, it's just kind
of maybe repackaged a little differently different font on the
(35:58):
the you know, the front coverle bit. But no, that's
such a such a such an informed point that I
think a lot of people don't think about, you know
what I mean, like nor that quote, what was that quote?
You know, you can't destroy the master's house or the
master's tools and the cause of actually great great revolution
of the mind, great evolution of the mind, to really see,
(36:20):
there's a different way to do things, there's a different
way for us to leave legacies on this planet. And
has nothing to do with money. There has nothing to
do with what you necessarily create, but maybe with your
character and a crazy concept. But I'm not here to preach,
but our preach, please preach well. You know what I
(36:42):
love about what you do. What I actually really love
is your idea of collaboration. And I love how collaboration
when I look at your work, it seems like it's
a thread in the description of your work, constant collaboration
with the environment, the earth, the people around you, the
people you loved, Like you had said so beautifully, you carry,
(37:05):
you know, whether you're grant Nana's ring, you know earing
from you know, something your dad had when he was
in say Celli's You really carry collaboration with you, not
only in writing, but also in your esthetic. Can you
share an example of maybe a project, a relationship where
collaboration opened up your writing to something that you were
(37:29):
completely blown away by. Maybe just one of those unexpected
collaborations between you and whatever whatever it was, person place
thing where you were taken away by the power of
that relationship and how it affected your writing.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Mm hmmm. One collaboration that that's like at the front
of my mind kind of about my writing, but not
necessarily affected my writing, but was kind of like in
an effect of my writing is that of the art
of my book. And so presses usually have people on
(38:10):
their staff who do the book covers, and for me,
I wanted to be very intentional in every part of
this book coming through. And so you know, I've always
thought that every art has the potential to dance with
different disciplines, and so I didn't just want like an
amazing artist to make an amazing book cover. I wanted
(38:32):
my friends. And so I invited two different friends to
collaborate on the cover and to also collaborate on interior art,
so there's art throughout the book. And for me, it
wasn't just about inviting people who I knew who were artists,
but also people who already knew me very well. So
they know the sound of my wailing, my crying, they
(38:54):
know the sound of my deepest laughter, and so they
read the poems with that knowledge already, and then they
created art versus someone coming to a blank slate and
being like, here's this book, make art about it. They
were able to go a level deeper. And also for me,
it wasn't just you know, about inviting friends, inviting amazing artists.
(39:16):
It was also about people being part of this project
who are walking through the world with the same kind
of political proxis and integrity and how they move with others.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
That means organizing. You know, both Angel Faz and Anna
jack Jackson are writing the same wave of collective kinship.
They are both doing amazing projects outside of their art,
you know, but what is ever outside of our art? Right,
everything is interwoven, and so the unexpected art is that
it could be so flawless and so easy because you know,
(39:53):
I mentioned earlier living in an ego village of sixty
people that was an Oregon and they were built on
this kind of alternative governance model where collaboration was key,
and also it brought about a lot of drama, and
so yeah, this project was so close to my heart
and it was just so wonderful, how free of that
(40:15):
it was, Like I knew that it would be easy
and wonderful because they're my friends. But I just could
not have asked for a more gorgeous what rendering and
experience of that rendering coming.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Through absolutely now that that is such a beautiful, but
I think also very just moving and powerful thing, you
know those kind of yeah, that kind of not even
able to really articulated the power of that type of
relationship and how that can really move you in any
(40:48):
in any and all types of unexpected ways. So thank
you so much for sharing that. All Right, well, Fatima,
I mean you've really dropped a lot of amazing gems today.
But you know, I want for people that are listening,
you know, especially for emerging poets. You know, they're going
to hear what you say. You know, they're going to
really take into account that they themselves are navigating multiple
(41:11):
roles artists, caretakers, parents, community members, siblings, whatever may have you.
I mean, what practices in rituals really have you sustained
to really keep you in your journey? What has really
been you know, practices, you know, daily things, affirmations, whatever
(41:32):
it may be that really has kept you sustained in
your journey.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
M yeah, I think, gosh, so many things. What a
blessed life. But going back to community, you know, I
was part of several residencies, and I feel like at
each residency you like pick up people that you carry
forward through your life. And so you know, and in
(41:58):
surreal life has these these after life calls twice a week,
and those calls are a bomb in my life. Some
I go months sometimes and the only writing that happens
is in my community calls or in my writing dates
with other friends. Because there's something really special about like
(42:20):
working besides someone and having that accountability with someone who
shares your same goals. So that's a big, big, big
part is the collaboration of community. And another part is
just you know, since I was a teenager, I've had
a daily meditation practice and life is life, and you know,
(42:41):
some days it doesn't happen, but most days it does,
and some weeks it doesn't happen, but most weeks it does.
And if I have not meditated and like done my
daily taro reading, then I feel it in my body.
And I think my family also feels it come out
if I miss my meditation. And the same way, you know,
like my husband needs his runs, I need my meditation.
(43:03):
We all have our things also going to the ocean
when we first moved here, I was going about every
other day. And it's funny ending up in this place
where I live because I grew up the early part
of my life was in Florida, where I also lived
in the seaside town Saint Petersburg, and we lived in
a part where you could walk to the seaside from
(43:24):
several different points, you know, and it wasn't like the
touristy beach. It was like your own little spot. And
so I feel like I have that again. And you know,
when when life LIFs and it's hard for me to
get to the ocean for spans of days, then I
literally start having dreams where God is talking to me
and I hear God and God is like, you need
(43:45):
to go to the ocean to be okay. Like I'm
hearing Spirit tell me to go to the water, and
I'm like, okay, I will. I will not do this
other thing I had plants.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
And lastly, just you know, bloisnoutes between friends and spending
time with the people you love.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Absolutely, Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you
so much for sharing that. All right, our last question
of the poet Speaks podcast, we ask every poet that
havs Our show and our space, Fatima. Why do you
need to get your words out?
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Mm hmm, yeah. I think it's one of the reasons
why I'm here. I have been in love with words
since I was a child. I view it in the
same way I view the relationship I have with my partner.
I'm thinking about this episode of How to Survive the
(44:38):
End of the World. It's a podcast hosted by Adrian
Marie Brown and her summer her sister Autumn Brown, and
they had this episode featuring Alexis Pauline Gumbs and with
their partner, and they were talking about ancestral gifts and
how love is an ancestral gift and you need to
(45:00):
honor those gifts and do them right by those who
gave them to you. And that's how I view my writing,
and so I feel like writing is not just for me.
It's larger than me. It's not just for me to
get my feelings out. It's for me to touch people
and reach people and connect with people. And you know,
I am a quadruple scorpio, and I have Scorpio in
(45:24):
my venus, which is the ruler of love. And I
think that love lives alongside rage. So it's also in
my Pluto, which helps you talk about those hard things,
the shadow world that people don't always want to talk about.
And so I feel like also it's in my Mercury,
which is about communication and words and how you get
through to people. And so I really feel like literally
the stars have bestowed upon me this astral chart of
(45:47):
responsibility and these gifts that I have no choice but
to honor and get out and nurture.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, she has no other choice but to get those
words out of nurture and none of them are a right. Fatima,
thank you so much. We really enjoyed you on the
Poll Speaks podcast today. Now before we end and and
wrap up, wrap up, we do want to give you
a space. Please do tell us where folks can find
out all your amazing work, whether it be social media, handles, website,
(46:15):
where can we also check out and buy your latest
collection as well.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
M H. Yes, I am online at Fatima Writing Doula
on Instagram and just all the social medias and you
can also check out my website at Fatima, I am
at Melikahersey dot com and you can get my book.
I hope that if you choose to get my book,
you will please go through workshops for Guzza. They have
a fundraiser right now going for the Samir project, so
(46:41):
you can pre order and order the book there and
that way that will go directly to helping people in
Deza who are in your indigenal side. And I hope
to also see you at a workshop for Guzza that
I am leading called Writing toward Collective Kinship through Shade Songs.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
So absolutely, all right everyone, All Fatima's links will be
down the detailed description box below, no matter where you're
listening to this podcast. Again, her details and all the
description links for where to get those things will be
in the detail box down below, no matter where you're
listening to this podcast. All right, Fatima, a big, big
thank you, Thank you so much for coming today. We
(47:20):
really enjoyed speaking to you.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Thank you so much for having me. This is been wonderful.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Absolutely and again everyone, her details will be down below,
and everyone, this is the Poet Speaks podcast. We'll talk
to you soon. Bye bye everyone
This is the Poet Speaks, a show all about or tradition,
hip hop and cardboard boxes on the bloc, regeton Bandolero
so your heavy metal punk rock and La Junior Hide pop.
And what makes poetry so amazing, so incredible is this
absolute fascination and ability to change our lives, the old tradition,
(00:23):
the reason why we speak.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This is the Poet Speaks. Hello everyone, and welcome back
to the Poet Speaks Podcast. Now, our next guest is
a Black mother who spends time with forests and waters
on unseated lands of a soul keyed nation for work.
(00:48):
Strives to instigate action and service to world building, social
change and collaboration. Her poems live in Obsidian Literature and
Arts in the African Diaspora, may Day Torch Review and
other portals. She's a fellow of the Pink Door Writing Retreat,
the Annapour Arts Writing Residency Inso Real Life, and the
Adobe Virtual Excuse Me a Bode Virtual Summer Retreat. She's
(01:13):
the author of the chat books Everything Good Is Dying
in Moon Woman. Her first full length poultry collection, Dreams
for Earth, is forthcoming from Deep Velum in two and
twenty five. Everyone a big welcome to the Post Speaks podcast.
Fatima Iyan Malika Hersey, Fatima, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Thank you so much for having me. I am so
grateful to be here and starting off my week with
you absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Thank you so much. Now, we're really really excited to
have you here. Now our first and foremost tell us
where you located the world. Where are we speaking to
you out from? Mm hm.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I am currently on Stolen Sulk Lens also known as
Souk on Vancouver Island in Canada.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Nice, nice, very nice? All right? Tell us how was
the How was the weather out there? How's it tream y'all?
I know we're kind of we're in the yello yo
months right now. We're fall end of summer, but we're
still not quite in the fall months. How's that weather
treving out there?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Mm hmm yeah, Fall is definitely rolling in hard. It
is cloudy today, it is missing. My children are about
to go on an adventure and they're putting on their layers.
If you can see the leaves starting to bronze and fall.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Nice, nice, nice, awesome. All right, Well, we're gonna go
ahead dive into it. Like I said before we even began,
I mean I love your work, and I love kind
of how you instigate different identities into what you do
as specifically as a writer. You know you really, I
feel like you really bring your whole self to the table.
Now you describe yourself as a black mother spending time
(02:46):
with forest and water on the unseated lands of the
soaky nation. Now, please do correct me by it, I'm
incorrectly pronouncing that. Now, how does that place both land
and water? How does that shape your poetry and worldview?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Mm hmm. Yeah. Before living here on Celk Lands, I
lived in Dallas, and I lived in the center of
Dallas doing all the busy, busy art things, and I was,
you know, thriving as an artist. But I realized after
the fact, I wasn't really hearing myself. I feel like
I wasn't really getting to the core of who I
(03:24):
am as a person and as an artist because there
were all of these external forces pulling me in so
many different ways. And so living where I do now,
in this tiny, tiny town beside the ocean, being able
to live so close closely to the Earth's rhythms, I
feel like I can really hear myself and your spirit
and hear God and just feel the interconnectedness of all
(03:47):
living things, and that closeness really makes its way through
I think in my poetry and how I move through
the world. And yeah, it's it's a whole kind of
shift and energy.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean that's such a big change though.
I mean from Dallas to to you know that area
in Canada, I mean Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Correct, yes, correct?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean what was kind of the biggest change that
you saw to now? You know, living from there to
where you are now, I mean, what would be the
biggest difference for you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The biggest difference is I am a black woman. I
am a black woman who grew up living amongst people
from so many different walks of life and countries. You know,
if you're at a red light in Dallas, you can
hear music from five different places boomen at one time.
And that is not the case where I live now.
(04:46):
And you know, things are changing. I've been here a
little over two years, going on two and a half years,
and I feel like every week or every month, my
town looks a little bit different. So that is nice.
I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfort. But
you know, for a while, there was a time where
if I saw someone, if I saw myself reflected in someone,
(05:07):
I would stop them on the street and say, hey,
what's your name?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, not many of us.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Let's connect. And I found a few friends like that,
So I'm I'm grateful that. You know. One thing about
living where I do live is that it makes it
really easy for you to find your people because you
can kind of like be in the grocery store and say,
I have not seen this person before and their spirit
is speaking to me. And you know, you don't have
to kind of like wait around and feel lonely. You
(05:33):
can just zoom right in.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah. No, absolutely. How big was the population size? Like
how many people live where you are? Now?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
That is a good question that I cannot actually answer.
It is a municipality, it is not considered a city.
So if that speaks to that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For sure for sure? Okay, wo wow, No, that is
so fascinating. I mean, like, I guess that would have
such a big effect on your worldview. I'd be going
from such a major metropolis of Dallas, Texas to where
you are. You know, like you said, the municipality of supernation, right,
tell me, I mean what is for you at this point?
(06:18):
How many how long has it been since you made
that move.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, we left Dallas. I left Dallas in August of
twenty twenty and actually moved to Oregon. And so I
was in Oregon for about a year and a half
or two years before coming to Canada. So I arrived
here in Canada in May of twenty twenty three. And
I feel like, I, you know, your world really shifts
(06:43):
when you became a parent, when you become a parent,
So I became a parent in Oregon, and it was
also the you know, the waves of the pandemic, the
delta omicron and everyone was inside, and so isolation was
a big thing. And so moving to Canada after the
world had kind of shifted by all means there is
still a pandemic. COVID is still a thing. People are
(07:04):
still dying every day, but the world has kind of
moved on despite And so living in Canada now as
a parent and living in a small town and having
found my community so easily, community means something so different.
Once you become a parent, you rely on people in
different kind of ways and you can offer people in
different kind of ways. I'm not sure if I answered
(07:27):
your question.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's that's absolutely wonderful. I mean, because I think that
that kind of that idea of just land and positionality,
where we are an environment a lot of people maybe
they do want to move, maybe they do want to
make a change in their lives, and they don't realize
it's literally maybe the environment of where they live, maybe countrywise,
city wise, just land municipality. Like you said, wise, it's
(07:51):
such a I think that's such an interesting thing. Now
kind of going into your work, specifically with your writing,
I mean, you know, you really gestured towards I think,
very large concepts like social change, collaboration. So there's such
large concepts, but they're also so minute in the same breath,
you know, and that idea of world building and these
(08:14):
relationships that we have with the things around us. You know,
tell me, how do you kind of balance that closeness
and intimacy of the you know, of the word, of
the spoken word, of the poetry of the writing with
really what is the urgency of collective action of how
this world needs to change? So it's literally you have
(08:36):
such an intimate relationship with your writings, but you're still
dealing with these very very bigger concepts. You know, someone
that seems so locked in with the kind of synchronization
of themselves, the duality, the multiple identities that you hold.
How do you kind of remain intimate to that but
also addressing these very large issues that are not one sided.
(09:01):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yes. There is this thing that has been floating around
the Internet the last few years called this Social Change
Ecosystem Map. It's by Deepa a year and it has
a kind of outline of ten different roles that people
can inhabit. And the thing I find about these roles
is you can inhabit more than one of them at
the same time, and you can move between them. You know,
(09:24):
everything is fluid, and so I think it really details
the way that each person, every single person, has a
way to contribute to this time. So I am a poet,
I am a writer, so my first and foremost it's
like I am the storyteller, right, but as a storyteller,
you know, in one poem, I am a disruptor, and
another poem I am the healer, and another poem I
(09:47):
am a visionary. And so one thing I think that
poetry and the word has the power to accomplish in
this moment of collective action is like moving people toward action, right, Like,
if people don't have the spark, then there will be
(10:08):
no no movement, no change. And I'm also thinking about
how poetry can exist not only in unconventional ways like
as the storyteller or so forth, but also unconventional places.
So I've read poems and city council meetings try to
sway elected officials to you know, say no to environmental racism,
(10:29):
get rid of this shingle mountain in the black neighborhood.
It didn't work, you know, it didn't take. It wasn't
my poem that moved the mountain. But you know, there
is a reason that across the world and throughout history,
poets and writers of all kinds have been the first
ones to be targeted. Like there is a reason that
(10:51):
journalists and guzza are being targeted right now. It's because
their word their stories are so important, and systems and
power fear that. So they fear That's why there's book
bands right now, right, That's why they're trying to control
what people can put in their mind, because the first
step to changing anything starts right here.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, No, absolutely absolutely, I love that idea though of
just us as people, there's just a role we all
can play. You know, no one role is bigger than others.
We all kind of have to find whatever those gifts
and talents are. I'm curious for you. I mean, how
did you find out that writing and poetry was and
like you said, storytelling. How did that kind of come
(11:35):
across for you where you're like, this is this is
where I'm at? What really was it a moment in
time that something snapped for you or was it just
over time you realize this is what you kept coming
back to what you're being called to?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Mm hmm. I think that I am blessed to have
the mother who I had, and she supported me in
so many ways of me becoming who I am right now.
She read to me every single night on nights, and
she was a nurse and for many spans of my
(12:09):
childhood she was also a single mom, right so, like
I had a babysitter, I had miss Ivy, And on
nights when my mom was working that twelve hour nursing shift,
miss Ivy would just hit play on an old school
tape recorder and I would hear my mother's voice speaking
right where we left off in the story from the
previous night, and whenever I was in middle school, my
(12:30):
mom found this place called Impressions teen magazine, and I
remember seeing, you know, the high schoolers and they were
the editor in chief and I was like, oh, I
want to do that one day, and then one day
I did. You know. I stuck with it until we
left Florida in ninth grade. After ninth grade, and you know,
whenever poetry was introduced in school in fourth grade, that
(12:52):
was it. I was like, Okay, this is my thing.
Here I am. And you know, I just like I
always had a journal as a kid, and to adults
like I have just like shelves of my journals since
high school.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah yeah, I mean, so it's definitely for you. Do
you feel it to It's been a calling throughout your life. Yeah, no, absolutely.
Now kind of speaking of your writings, So I love,
first and foremost your chapbook Everything Good Is Dying. I
love that title, and I want to know where the
inspiration that title came from. The gravity of that is
(13:29):
so it's so big Everything Good Is Dying. But your
chapbooks Everything Good Is Dying and Moon Woman, now you
hold grief and imagination, so colding grief as well as creativity.
I look at it side by side. I mean, how
do you approach writing about loss, which is such a
(13:49):
it's a universal theme, but literally every person experiences grief differently,
you know, but you how you kind of balance that
without letting it eclipse the ideas that you have as
a creator of joy possibility, you know. So let's stop
start off with that. I mean, how do you balance grief,
creativity and joy side by side in your writing?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
M hmm. Yeah. When you ask about the title Everything
Good Is Dying, I had three kind of options for
how to title that chat book, and I spoke them
to a friend. I was like, how do I decide?
What do you think? And that from Miss Dress Starland.
She is an amazing musician in Dallas, an amazing black
woman who plays the harp and can just like transport you,
(14:35):
and she also knows my soul. And when I told
her those options, she's like, everything Good is Dying, that's you, girl,
and here we are now. And so when you ask
about balancing joy and grief through the creative process and
how I don't let lost eclipse joy? I think I
often do. I think they live side by side, and
(14:55):
I think that especially right now, this is a time
of extreme loss. We are living in a time of genocide,
carried out with impunity and supported by the world's most powerful,
and they are doing it with our tax dollars. And
I think the appropriate response for any empathetic being who
sees the reality of our world is to live very
closely to grief and rage. You know, in nineteen sixty
(15:20):
one James Baldwin said, to be a Negro in this
country and to be relatively conscious is to be in
a state of constant rage. And that is not old.
That is the same. And to be anyone with open
eyes is to be full of rage carried out, as
Baldwin said, with the most criminal indifference. And so even
(15:42):
alongside all of this, you know, there is joy. There
is my oldest daughter, using a new word correctly for
the first time. There is the music of the ocean.
And a common experience I have is that in these
moments when I feel the most joy, ninety eight percent
(16:03):
of the time, I am not just in that joy.
I am also in the loss. I am at the
ocean feeling the music of God saying through me. And
I am also thinking about the people in Ghuzza who
cannot go to the ocean because if they step foot
in that water, someone may shoot them down because the
ocean has now off limits to them. You know, I'm
(16:23):
looking in my nine month old daughter's eyes and she's
feeding from my body, and we're just in that oxytocin heaven,
and I'm thinking about the mothers over there who cannot
feed their babies because they are not consuming enough food
to breastfeed. And when international doctors go to deliver baby formula,
hiding them on their person, the Israeli government takes it
(16:46):
from them so that baby formula can't enter. And so
in these moments of extreme joy, I am not ever, ever,
ever blinded or not cognizance of the extreme loss that
we are all living through.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, no, absolutely absolutely tell me. I mean, how does one?
I mean, you know and I do. I feel like
your sentiment is expressed by many people, and I almost
want to say, there's a word for experiencing this duality
of enjoying and loving your life in the same breath.
In the back of your head, do you realize how
(17:21):
destructive the world that you still take place and take
a part in, is what I mean? How do you
then kind of really live solid day today and still
have a clear mind, clear heart, clear path when you're
facing so many painful contradictions twenty four seven as a
human being being alive.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I think, if I'm being completely honest, you know, most days,
a lot of the days are not all the way easy.
You know, like I am, i am a quadruple scorpio
and I'm a poet. So I'm feeling it. But I
think it goes back to something I was saying about,
(18:05):
like accepting the state of this is the appropriate response.
The appropriate response is to have trouble handling everything that's happening.
You know, it's not normal to just go about your
days and know what's happening and just not care and
not let it affect you. You should be deeply affected.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, absolutely, Okay, absolutely, Now moving along a little bit,
so you have a forthcoming collection, Dreams for Earth Now,
Dreams for Earth. You know, kind of going through doing
research feels like it's going to promise vision and kind
of futureness. Right, Can you share a glimpse into what
(18:48):
you know people listening? You know what readers can expect
from this latest piece of work by you, And I
mean what you know honestly, what dreams are you holding
for you know, our planet, Earth, people, your people. What
dreams are you holding within you right now?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
M h, what a beautiful question. What dreams are we
holding with them?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Can I start with the glimpse? Can I share a
poem from the book?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yes, you can, absolutely, Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
This poem is called Solidarity, and it was written in
a workshops for guzza session called feeling the body, writing
through the body, And so I'll share it. Solidarity, Wind
and water know nothing of borders. A cut on your
(19:37):
brow is a cut on my brow. We bleed together.
Our griefs intertwine across time and distance. I don't know
your name, but I feel your eyes. I want to
wrap my arms around your shaking body. I too, am
holding up the cold shell of who you love. I
love them too. I love you them like I love
(20:00):
the ocean. I love you like I love the ocean.
The ocean does not know my name, but feels my heart.
Names can be so colonial anyway, But Linnaeus did he
ever write about knowing the souls of beings? My soul
and your soul share the same cosmic thread. Stardust of
your eye latches forms cartilage of my ear. I try
(20:23):
to imagine your laughter. People near me don't understand my tears.
You are near me. I hold your hand through cancerous
cobalt and bone licking bomb. I try to find us
a beach where waves are clear and clean. The breeze
threads us together. This is telepathy. We are my celium
(20:44):
spores forming rain clouds. We are roots of trees, talking
beneath soil in ways no human can see. When you sigh,
I stir from my sleep. My love for you is
a violence. My tenderness turn me into nightmare. I want
to haunt all those who dare and braid your glory.
(21:06):
Anyone who cuts our brows should be afraid.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Thank you so much, Fatima. That was amazing. That was amazing.
Please remind us again what was the name of that poem?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Solidarity?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Solidarity? All right? Thank you so much, really appreciating that
live reading? Tell us, I mean I want to know
what is you know? I always say, whenever I perform
a poem, I perform it differently each time. There's different
feelings each time. What did you feel right now when
you perform that? M hm? Really?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
When I performed it this time? When I shared it
this time, I think I felt like a calmness like
sometimes you know, I feel like that electricity, or I
feel like the ocean when the waves are just like
crashing in through. And this time I very much felt
like the stillness of the.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
One for sure. Absolutely tell us a bit about then,
I mean, so that is from your latest collection, Dreams
for Earth. Correct, tell us a bit about, you know,
what we can expect more from that collection. You know,
tell us a bit about the writing process and what
that looked like as you as you created this, your
(22:19):
most recent collection of poems.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
M hmm. Yeah, the writing process, you know, changed a
lot throughout the book, because my life changed a lot
throughout the book. I started this book over five years
ago now, and you know I went from living in
Dallas to the start of the pandemic, to living in
an eco village in Oregon with sixty other people sharing
(22:44):
gardens and food and drama, and then moving to this
tiny ocean town, and you know, being in a phase
of parenthood. And I think all of that comes through
in the book. You know, every place where I have
existed physically is in those pages. And also one thing
(23:04):
through all of that, I think I'm holding is like
this dream of solidarity. So you know, through all of
the thats there have been these these touch points that
require collective care. So I'm really inviting people, even before
the final section where this poem lives, I'm really inviting
(23:24):
people to consider a solidarity that is not polite, a
solidarity that will take risk and break fragile relationships and
speak the truth. And a solidarity that welcomes inconvenience and
the patience if it means living with integrity. And you know,
throughout the book, I just want people to consider love
in a way that exists outside of your own homes
(23:46):
and outside of your own borders, and outside of nationalism
and whatever lies Empire is selling. To consider a kind
of collective kinship and just love for everyone, every living being,
not even just people. You know, like when me and
my daughter see someone mowing the grass, she says, why
are they doing that? And I say, I know, why
are they decapitating the grass? Because we want to abolish laws.
(24:10):
We want that driving ecosystem that can feed everybody out there,
you know, So that's what I want for all of us.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, absolutely, tell me a bit about the you know,
the kind of the movement in you to kind of
have that. Tell me, where do you think, where does
that really kind of establish itself from to really want
that solidarity across all lines, you know. I think a
lot of people when they hear that word, they start
maybe thinking allyship, you know, and in the world we
(24:39):
live in, like I said, it's painful contradictions, both good
and bad. A lot of people have been burned for
so many burned bridges, so many burned relationships. When you
think of solidarity, I mean, what has caused you to
kind of really move yourself in the way of seeing
the good the good? And what solidarity do you do
(25:00):
as opposed to where so many people have been greatly disenfranchised?
Maybe through solidarity.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
M hmm. I think the heart of what you're speaking
to is like why why I I love everybody so hard?
And I think that again goes back to my mother
and goes back to all those before me, and my
mother and the way I was brought up really instilled
(25:31):
in me a knowledge that we are not in anything
ever by ourselves. So through whatever I do, I try
to bring in those who I love, even you know,
if I'm even when it's inconvenient right now, it is
not inconvenient to have my mother here with me. She
died in March. But I am. I am wearing a
(25:54):
bracelet that she gave me, and I'm wearing my nana's
my great great my great grand mother's wedding ritten and
I'm wearing a shell from my father when he was
in Saciales. And so I bring everyone I love with
me everywhere, and that's what I'm asking other people to do.
And I'm not just asking them to bring in the
people who they have spoken to with their own mouths.
(26:16):
And can you repeat the last part of your question.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Please, no problem, Just you know, how do you you know?
We live in a world where so many people, maybe
the people they've loved, have done them wrong, you know
what I mean? Living in solidarity is sometimes hard when
people live, you know, slap people across the aisle, slap
people across the face. You know, it's hard to stay
(26:40):
in that mindset of positivity and still bring bring the
best parts of yourself to the table when people haven't
shown you their best parts.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Mm hm oh yes, yes I understand. And that goes
back to collective kinship, right like that goes back to
abolishing this notion that our family is within blood alone.
So your family is everybody, and you know, you don't
have to talk to everybody in your family. I don't
talk to everybody in my family. And it's possible to
(27:11):
still love someone and not have a deep relationship with them,
And it's possible to not love someone who is, you know,
close to you in different kind of ways, and I
think that's totally okay. And so what I'm really hoping
for people to do is, like, despite our personal conflicts
that we may have with specific people, is to really
(27:33):
like widen the circle and think about the larger collective
and how we can serve you know, everyone and our
family in tiny ways, right, Like we don't need to
go to McDonald's most of us, a lot of us.
They have very accessible prices and meals, and you know,
(27:57):
we live in food deserts a lot of us, and
sometimes that's there is McDonald's. And I accept that, and
that is okay, right. But everyone has different circumstances, and
so when your circumstances and your knowledge allow for you
to make particular choices, then to be a person in integrity,
then it is up to you to make different choices.
And if you know that McDonald's gives free meals to
(28:18):
the IDEF while they commit a genocide, then it is
you know, behest of you to not go there if
it is within your financial power that kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Thing, for sure, for sure. Tell me what dreams are
you holding for planet Earth right now?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I am holding a dream of elective awakening. And I
see that happening, and I see so many conversations happening
that I have not seen in the past. I see,
you know, young people are just continuously flooring with their knowledge.
(29:01):
Like I see people who are twenty two and you know,
in their early twenties doing these things, and I'm like,
it was a mess. You know, I was just out
dancing and drinking and having a good old time. If
I was doing what these young people are doing right
now and speaking the truth that they are speaking, It's
like I had a particular political knowledge that did not
(29:23):
translate into my everyday life. And now people of a
younger generation are like, they have the knowledge, and they
have the integrity and the ability to like walk through
their life with a particular knowledge. And I think that's
going to do, you know, wonders for the world that
is being birth right now yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Absolutely. Now moving along here, we I do want to
kind of explore motherhood. Now, motherhood appears often in I
think just in total in our society as as both
art of you know, creation, but also as anchor for
lot of women and people that give birth and challenge. Right,
(30:03):
So motherhood has both just the art but also an
anchers people and challenges people. You know, for you because
you speak so fondly and you know that plays such
a pivotal role, like you said, and you're kind of
you know, your overall, your process, your evolution. I almost
want to say, as a writer, you know, motherhood is
now just another piece of that. You know, how did
(30:25):
being a mother, becoming a mother inflect your creative practice?
And I also want to say, you know, imagining just
new worlds for you as a writer, how did motherhood
really help you create and maybe revolutionize in your mind
new worlds to inhabit, maybe new ways of seeing things.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Mm hmm. Yeah, for me, there is not much of
a line between mothering and creative practice and imagining new worlds.
I think that parenthood is the most create is like
the most creative of imagining new worlds, Like they are
all interlinked it's a lot like gardening, Like when you
(31:07):
plant seeds, you have the future in mind. You're like,
one day, I'm going to eat this garlic. And that's
what all of those things mean to me. So the
way that manifest is now I am a lot more
cognizant of how time moves and what I can fit
into pockets of minutes. I schedule creative time blocks the
(31:29):
same way that I schedule time blocks to schedule doctor appointments,
and like family admin, and I allow for space for
you know, surprise and spontaneity because that is required in
all our practice. The other main point is that my
children are always in close proximity to whatever I'm working on.
(31:50):
So I honestly cannot remember the last poem I wrote
where they were not explicitly mentioned. And even if they
are not explicit mentioned, they're there in the undertones. They're
there as like a whisper in the breeze. I was
a whole person before I was a parent, and so
(32:10):
as a mother, I am not only a mother, but
my identity as a mother is one that is a
kind of umbrella, and so other things fall under that.
And I think as artists, one of our concerns is
to question, and that is true for parenting as well.
(32:30):
So I must teach my children to question, even if
I am not pressuring them to be artists. I want
them to walk through the world with an artist eyes,
because that is the eye that can change things. If
we don't question the world, we can't change the world.
If we don't notice what's wrong, how can we begin
to address it? And similarly, if we don't, you know,
notice the awe and the beautiful at parts, how can
(32:54):
we give thanks and praise and like really just swim
in the joy of that and the blessing. So I
think that creative practice and imagining new worlds and mothering
all require us to question to make something better.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean that that kind of constant curiosity about
everything around you. I mean it's how could you not
constantly have that curiosity? You know, when you have this
whole new being a part of you, vibration in the
world now, living, breathing, and now they're on their own
path as well. So now very very beautifully put moving
(33:30):
along here. So I'm curious about your poems have been
published in spaces like Obsidian and Torch. Now those are
journals specifically dedicated to black voices. I mean, how do
you see the role of those platforms, especially in today's
time where, like you said, a lot of works black
people all across the diaspora we're now questioning, you know,
(33:54):
banned books, the writings, you know, voices, some people's voices
are being really stifled. You know, how do you see
the role of these platforms specifically and what other platforms
you know, how important is this for us to have
platforms to amplify, you know, our marginalized narratives. How important
is that in today's world.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
I think that today's world is not so different from
worlds of yesterday in some ways, and that's why these
spaces are important. I think a lot about affinity spaces
and how much of a bomb they can be in
the midst of our oppressive status quo world. And to me,
such journals offer a place where we can offer ourselves
(34:41):
and our work without a fear of particular misunderstandings. We
don't you know, have to think about the code switching,
the the like history of the editors. We don't have
to like do this deep dive into who runs this
journe and what is their historical experience. Do they have
(35:04):
a history of demonstrating particular understandings about the experiences of
people from marginalized communities. There's just an ease, there's you know,
looseness of the shoulders, there's a knowing that not only
are you welcome to the table, not only is there
a statement that says we welcome writing from everyone, but
(35:25):
there is food on that table specifically made for you.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah. Yeah, food specifically made for you, your diet, just
for you, and it's catered just for you.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I love that absolutely, And I look what you said.
It's you know, our world today is not really much
different than the world we've inhabited before. And I think
that's such a strong point that you know, a lot
of the things we see today it's not really different
than what's been happening throughout history, right, it's just kind
of maybe repackaged a little differently different font on the
(35:58):
the you know, the front coverle bit. But no, that's
such a such a such an informed point that I
think a lot of people don't think about, you know
what I mean, like nor that quote, what was that quote?
You know, you can't destroy the master's house or the
master's tools and the cause of actually great great revolution
of the mind, great evolution of the mind, to really see,
(36:20):
there's a different way to do things, there's a different
way for us to leave legacies on this planet. And
has nothing to do with money. There has nothing to
do with what you necessarily create, but maybe with your
character and a crazy concept. But I'm not here to preach,
but our preach, please preach well. You know what I
(36:42):
love about what you do. What I actually really love
is your idea of collaboration. And I love how collaboration
when I look at your work, it seems like it's
a thread in the description of your work, constant collaboration
with the environment, the earth, the people around you, the
people you loved, Like you had said so beautifully, you carry,
(37:05):
you know, whether you're grant Nana's ring, you know earing
from you know, something your dad had when he was
in say Celli's You really carry collaboration with you, not
only in writing, but also in your esthetic. Can you
share an example of maybe a project, a relationship where
collaboration opened up your writing to something that you were
(37:29):
completely blown away by. Maybe just one of those unexpected
collaborations between you and whatever whatever it was, person place
thing where you were taken away by the power of
that relationship and how it affected your writing.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Mm hmmm. One collaboration that that's like at the front
of my mind kind of about my writing, but not
necessarily affected my writing, but was kind of like in
an effect of my writing is that of the art
of my book. And so presses usually have people on
(38:10):
their staff who do the book covers, and for me,
I wanted to be very intentional in every part of
this book coming through. And so you know, I've always
thought that every art has the potential to dance with
different disciplines, and so I didn't just want like an
amazing artist to make an amazing book cover. I wanted
(38:32):
my friends. And so I invited two different friends to
collaborate on the cover and to also collaborate on interior art,
so there's art throughout the book. And for me, it
wasn't just about inviting people who I knew who were artists,
but also people who already knew me very well. So
they know the sound of my wailing, my crying, they
(38:54):
know the sound of my deepest laughter, and so they
read the poems with that knowledge already, and then they
created art versus someone coming to a blank slate and
being like, here's this book, make art about it. They
were able to go a level deeper. And also for me,
it wasn't just you know, about inviting friends, inviting amazing artists.
(39:16):
It was also about people being part of this project
who are walking through the world with the same kind
of political proxis and integrity and how they move with others.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
That means organizing. You know, both Angel Faz and Anna
jack Jackson are writing the same wave of collective kinship.
They are both doing amazing projects outside of their art,
you know, but what is ever outside of our art? Right,
everything is interwoven, and so the unexpected art is that
it could be so flawless and so easy because you know,
(39:53):
I mentioned earlier living in an ego village of sixty
people that was an Oregon and they were built on
this kind of alternative governance model where collaboration was key,
and also it brought about a lot of drama, and
so yeah, this project was so close to my heart
and it was just so wonderful, how free of that
(40:15):
it was, Like I knew that it would be easy
and wonderful because they're my friends. But I just could
not have asked for a more gorgeous what rendering and
experience of that rendering coming.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Through absolutely now that that is such a beautiful, but
I think also very just moving and powerful thing, you
know those kind of yeah, that kind of not even
able to really articulated the power of that type of
relationship and how that can really move you in any
(40:48):
in any and all types of unexpected ways. So thank
you so much for sharing that. All Right, well, Fatima,
I mean you've really dropped a lot of amazing gems today.
But you know, I want for people that are listening,
you know, especially for emerging poets. You know, they're going
to hear what you say. You know, they're going to
really take into account that they themselves are navigating multiple
(41:11):
roles artists, caretakers, parents, community members, siblings, whatever may have you.
I mean, what practices in rituals really have you sustained
to really keep you in your journey? What has really
been you know, practices, you know, daily things, affirmations, whatever
(41:32):
it may be that really has kept you sustained in
your journey.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
M yeah, I think, gosh, so many things. What a
blessed life. But going back to community, you know, I
was part of several residencies, and I feel like at
each residency you like pick up people that you carry
forward through your life. And so you know, and in
(41:58):
surreal life has these these after life calls twice a week,
and those calls are a bomb in my life. Some
I go months sometimes and the only writing that happens
is in my community calls or in my writing dates
with other friends. Because there's something really special about like
(42:20):
working besides someone and having that accountability with someone who
shares your same goals. So that's a big, big, big
part is the collaboration of community. And another part is
just you know, since I was a teenager, I've had
a daily meditation practice and life is life, and you know,
(42:41):
some days it doesn't happen, but most days it does,
and some weeks it doesn't happen, but most weeks it does.
And if I have not meditated and like done my
daily taro reading, then I feel it in my body.
And I think my family also feels it come out
if I miss my meditation. And the same way, you know,
like my husband needs his runs, I need my meditation.
(43:03):
We all have our things also going to the ocean
when we first moved here, I was going about every
other day. And it's funny ending up in this place
where I live because I grew up the early part
of my life was in Florida, where I also lived
in the seaside town Saint Petersburg, and we lived in
a part where you could walk to the seaside from
(43:24):
several different points, you know, and it wasn't like the
touristy beach. It was like your own little spot. And
so I feel like I have that again. And you know,
when when life LIFs and it's hard for me to
get to the ocean for spans of days, then I
literally start having dreams where God is talking to me
and I hear God and God is like, you need
(43:45):
to go to the ocean to be okay. Like I'm
hearing Spirit tell me to go to the water, and
I'm like, okay, I will. I will not do this
other thing I had plants.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
And lastly, just you know, bloisnoutes between friends and spending
time with the people you love.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Absolutely, Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you
so much for sharing that. All right, our last question
of the poet Speaks podcast, we ask every poet that
havs Our show and our space, Fatima. Why do you
need to get your words out?
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Mm hmm, yeah. I think it's one of the reasons
why I'm here. I have been in love with words
since I was a child. I view it in the
same way I view the relationship I have with my partner.
I'm thinking about this episode of How to Survive the
(44:38):
End of the World. It's a podcast hosted by Adrian
Marie Brown and her summer her sister Autumn Brown, and
they had this episode featuring Alexis Pauline Gumbs and with
their partner, and they were talking about ancestral gifts and
how love is an ancestral gift and you need to
(45:00):
honor those gifts and do them right by those who
gave them to you. And that's how I view my writing,
and so I feel like writing is not just for me.
It's larger than me. It's not just for me to
get my feelings out. It's for me to touch people
and reach people and connect with people. And you know,
I am a quadruple scorpio, and I have Scorpio in
(45:24):
my venus, which is the ruler of love. And I
think that love lives alongside rage. So it's also in
my Pluto, which helps you talk about those hard things,
the shadow world that people don't always want to talk about.
And so I feel like also it's in my Mercury,
which is about communication and words and how you get
through to people. And so I really feel like literally
the stars have bestowed upon me this astral chart of
(45:47):
responsibility and these gifts that I have no choice but
to honor and get out and nurture.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, she has no other choice but to get those
words out of nurture and none of them are a right. Fatima,
thank you so much. We really enjoyed you on the
Poll Speaks podcast today. Now before we end and and
wrap up, wrap up, we do want to give you
a space. Please do tell us where folks can find
out all your amazing work, whether it be social media, handles, website,
(46:15):
where can we also check out and buy your latest
collection as well.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
M H. Yes, I am online at Fatima Writing Doula
on Instagram and just all the social medias and you
can also check out my website at Fatima, I am
at Melikahersey dot com and you can get my book.
I hope that if you choose to get my book,
you will please go through workshops for Guzza. They have
a fundraiser right now going for the Samir project, so
(46:41):
you can pre order and order the book there and
that way that will go directly to helping people in
Deza who are in your indigenal side. And I hope
to also see you at a workshop for Guzza that
I am leading called Writing toward Collective Kinship through Shade Songs.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
So absolutely, all right everyone, All Fatima's links will be
down the detailed description box below, no matter where you're
listening to this podcast. Again, her details and all the
description links for where to get those things will be
in the detail box down below, no matter where you're
listening to this podcast. All right, Fatima, a big, big
thank you, Thank you so much for coming today. We
(47:20):
really enjoyed speaking to you.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Thank you so much for having me. This is been wonderful.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Absolutely and again everyone, her details will be down below,
and everyone, this is the Poet Speaks podcast. We'll talk
to you soon. Bye bye everyone
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