Feature Poet: Suheir Hammad (by Sonia Pereira)

Suheir Hammad, the child of Palestinian refugees, immigrated with her parents to Brooklyn, New York City when she was just 5 years old. She was heavily influenced by the vibrant hip-hop scene and the stories she learned of family’s experience in the 1948 Palestinian exodus. For Suheir Hammad and the rest of the country, life was altered after the September 11th terrorist attacks. In response, she drafted a piece titled, “First Writing Since” which detailed her reactions to the attacks. She emailed it to a few friends and the poem took on a life of its own, traveling across the country and ending up on several websites until it reached the casting scouts for HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam”. Suheir Hammad, a Brooklyn-reared Palestinian American, read her piece “First Writing Since” in the 2001 premiere of “Def Poetry Jam”. Since that moment, she has gone on to perform original works on tour, had a role in the Palestinian film Salt of this Sea (2008), and published various works. Her perspectives as an immigrant, a Muslim and a Palestinian, and as a woman are weaved to form the narrative styles that stimulate her poetry.

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