Suheir Hammad

I have been a huge admirer of Hammad's work since I first read her book of poems called Born Palestinian Born Black. Suheir Hammad has given us a collection of poems that have their roots in a land near the edge of the sea.

 Here is the voice of a woman who has not forgotten the plight of her people! Born Palestinian Born Black is about culture, conflict, and culture.

The author preface's says, "I was born a black woman / and now / I am become a Palestinian / against the relentless laughter of evil / there is less and less living room / and where are my loved ones? / It is time to make our way home."

Poet Suhair Hammad was born in Amman, Jordan, to refugee Palestinian parents. She immigrated with her family to Brooklyn, New York, when she was just five years old inspired by poet-performers such as Nikki Giovanni.

Barbara Jane Reyes wrote

"I have been a huge admirer of Hammad’s work since I first read her poem, “Of Woman Torn,” in the anthology The poetry of Arab Women, edited by Nathalie Handal. 

Hammad’s “Of Woman Torn” addresses the so-called “honor killing” of an eloped young woman by her father in Cairo in 1997"

palestine’s daughter

love making can be as dangerous

as curfews broken

guerillas hidden

you join now those who won’t leave

the earth haunt my

sleep who watch my

back whenever i lay

the forced suicides the

dowry deaths and

nora

decapitated by

her father on her forbidden

honeymoon he paraded

her head through

cairo to prove his

manhood this is 1997

and i can only hope

you had a special song a

poem memorized a secret

that made you smile

this is a love

poem cause i love

you now woman

who lived tried to

love in this world of

machetes and sin

i smell your ashes

of zaatar and almonds

under my skin

i carry your bones

According to Jane Reye, Hammad's syntax is broken, her lines are clipped, and her poems are bombardments of images and words, demonstrations of brokennes and piecing togetherof selves, of languages, histories, and geographies.