Warsan Shire: An inspiration

London-based Somali poet, Warsan Shire, has a way of using her words to stir up familiar, hidden emotions. I have fallen in love with her poetry and her readings are very moving. One reviewer has said: “Her poetry carries the energy of multiple women, the depth of many generations, and the weight of many lives lived.”  

Warsan Shire is a poet, writer, editor and educator who reads her work extensively all over Britain and internationally – including recent readings in South Africa, Italy, Germany, Canada, America and Kenya. In early 2012, the soft-faced and wide-eyed 23-year old poet published her first book of poetry, “Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth” where raw and unsheltered words meet the warmth and tenderness of her spirit.

“I meet someone and pick up on something they have said, or I am taken by the way they laugh and a poem drags itself from that moment. I have seen couples argue in the street and written as if I have followed them home. Imagination is important, but the people are real people. Also, I suppose, anyone you can imagine already exists.”

I would suggest checking out her “warsan versus melancholy (the seven stages of being lonely)” series. It’s absolutely beautiful:

http://warsanshire.bandcamp.com/

Below I have attached two of my favourite poems from this series, but they are perfect expressions of what it is like to be a young woman balancing love and life. Finding yourself should be a priority over finding someone to love. Loving yourself is a clique, because it’s true. It’s not an easy claim to stick to, but it should be something we think about on our quest for meaning. For me the poem is about remembering your worth and not settling for anything less.   

questions for the woman i was last night (the honest conversation)

(https://soundcloud.com/chrstn/questions-for-the-woman-i-was)

how far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps?

how often have you bartered with bone, only to sell yourself short?

why do you find the unavailable so alluring? where did it begin? what went wrong? and who made you feel so worthless?

if they wanted you, wouldn’t they have chosen you?

all this time, you were begging for love silently, thinking they couldn’t hear you, but they smelt it on you,

you must have known that they could taste the desperate on your skin?

and what about the others that would do anything for you, why did you make them love you until you could not stand it?

how are you both of these women, both flighty and needful?

where did you learn this, to want what does not want you?

where did you learn this, to leave those that want to stay?

for women who are difficult to love (the affirmation)

(http://vimeo.com/36289832)

you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.

Musicals! (Part 1)

I’ve always loved musicals, but last year for my Drama exam I’ve had to study The American Musical and I was suddenly reminded about why I loved them so much. Musicals involve high energy performances by very skilled and talented performers who can act, sing and dance. Most musicals contain some kind of moral message and end on an uplifting or inspirational note. And most of them just encourage you to sing along. 

Here is a list of some of my favourite musical moments:

Oklahoma!

In high school a preformed in a Showtime variety show, in which we did numerous songs from different famous musicals. One of the more memorable ones was the main song of the American staple musical Oklahoma! A song about strong values in a time of strife. Despite it's quite clumsy race and gender relations this musical started the musical trend of the 1950s by being the first musical of its kind that involved music and a story. A perfect example of show tune cheesy-ness:

Moulin Rouge!

Almost every Theatre kid that I know is completely obsessed with Moulin Rouge. How can you not be?! The Can-Can, the costumes, the love story. (Ewan McGregor!) In High School my friends did a re-enactment of some of the movie’s best scenes for our Theatre class. I fell in love with the Tango because of this scene:

 

Cell Block Tango for Chicago

Another fixture of all Musical buffs. The women in prison discuss the various way in which they murdered their lovers. Even if you haven't seen this movie, you've heard this song: 

Rent

Even if you haven’t watched this play, this song is a huge part of everyone’s musical repertoire:

Funny girl

I’ve never seen Funny Girl, but one cannot delve into the world of musicals without stumbling on Barbra Striesand’s stunning performance of “Funny Girl” and “Don’t Rain on my Parade.”

Lea Michelle's Glee version was also very powerful:

 

Look out for Part 2

Rhodes Confessions:

Despite all the pretentious blogs written about this topic I think that the Rhodes Confession page has spurred on a lot of debate. Last year one of my friends, an exchange student from Boston, told us about Boston Collage Confessions.  For the last three years Boston students have been making anonymous confessions about student life. Recently Rhodes got themselves a confessions pages too; following UCT’s example- who fairly beat us to it. There was a lot of drama with the original page- which I’m not going to get into- but to make a long, ugly story short the page was shut down and a few unnecessary harsh words were said to innocent parties. Two other Rhodes Confession pages were created in its absence, but they didn’t live up to the 6000 follower infamy of the original.

I’m not going to lie. Some stupid things have come out of this Confession pages. People take the opportunity to confess to absolutely crazy things, which may or may not even be true. A lot of the confessions disgusted me, but there were a number of ones that stood out. For me the confessions’ page has been a very interesting insight into the lives of the people that live around me. Imperfect, flawed humans who for the first felt that they could be honest about the completely human things that they do. Often I was even able to make out who made a certain confession.  Rhodes Confessions united Rhodents and it gave many of us a sense of patriotic pride in our status as Rhodents. And that, in itself, can outshine the negative aspects. 

“I’m not a bitch”

I’m not a bitch for not wanting to hook up with you. I’m not a bitch for taking my drunk friend home instead of letting her go home with that guy. I’m not a bitch for confronting you about trying to grope me and my friends at the bar. I’m not a bitch for asking you to be professional instead of inappropriate at work. I’m not a bithc for asking you not to be vulgar towards me when I don’t know you. I’m not a bitch for asking you to leave me alone repeatedly. So don’t called me a bitch for standing up for myself. 

I decided to reactivate my blog with a post about harassment. It’s distressing to think that domestic violence, gender-based violence and sexual assault are a great part of the socio-political landscape of our society. The scary part of this kind of harassment is that many women get used to it. I started writing this post before the Yes All Women hashtag came out and it is even more relevant to me in light of that.

Every sphere of a women’s life she is told by society that she has to be cautious of the advances of men. This plays into the larger ideologies surrounding gender and women’s safety within order society. Women are taught to be fearful, thus perpetuating the notion that women are vunerable and weak. I was talking to a girl in a bar the one night and a male friend of mine (whom she didn’t know) approached our table. She immediately tensed up and when he left she told me that a man had harassed her as she was walking in and she was still took shaken up to be around me. I had a similar experience when a man much older than me shoved me, because I refused to kiss him. (He was clearly much older- older even than my own father.) These are small moments and in a way I’m blessed that nothing worse has happened to me. Even that thought plans into greater ideology of rape culture. We are encouraged to think of ourselves as victims.

I recently found a very great quote on Twitter from a male journalist who summed up this problem very clearly:

“Not all men menace, but all women have been menaced by men.”

My own #YesAllWomen Tweets (based on real experiences):

#YesAllWomen because I shouldn't be called a "bitch" for not responding to vulgar and disrespectful comments about my appearance.

#YesAllWomen because, in order to feel safe, I need to run through certain sections of my home town if I'm walking alone.

#YesAllWomen because a man much older than me shouldn't shove my friends and I when we wouldn't respond to his inappropriate comments.

Recently a man was very respectful towards me and my choices and I want to live in a world where I'm not surprised about this.