{"id":53,"date":"2016-04-28T02:26:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T02:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/?p=53"},"modified":"2016-05-09T19:54:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T19:54:05","slug":"review-warsan-shire-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/2016\/04\/28\/review-warsan-shire-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlighting: Warsan Shire, Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

She haunts us. And we like it.<\/p>\n

A lot.<\/p>\n

She’s a cherub-faced Somalian-born poet who breaches and invades and caresses every dark vulnerable place life has to offer – from love, to deceit, to war and redemption. And she does so with such fearless and aching beauty. In her poem about refugees fleeing war-torn countries entitled ‘Home’ she writes:<\/p>\n

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
\nsaying-
\nleave<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

the words are more tender
\nthan fourteen men between
\nyour legs
\nor the insults are easier
\nto swallow
\nthan rubble
\nthan bone
\nthan your child’s body
\nin pieces.
\ni want to go home,
\nbut home is the mouth of a shark<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Kenyan-born Somalian, she migrated to the United Kingdom at the age of one. She received a B.A in Creative Writing and has won numerous awards. In 2011, she released “Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth” and most recently was formally introduced to those who know not better on Beyonce’s “Lemonade” album where one could argue- she stole the show.<\/p>\n

I mean, seriously. The girl’s got talent. She has the ability to capture so much in so little space, like when she writes<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my mother\u2019s mouth and my father\u2019s eyes; on my face they are
\nstill together.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

or<\/p>\n

and you tried to change didn’t you?
\nclosed your mouth more
\ntried to be softer
\nprettier
\nless volatile, less awake
\nbut even when sleeping you could feel
\nhim traveling away from you in his dreams
\nso what did you want to do love?
\nsplit his head open?
\nyou can’t make homes out of human beings
\nsomeone should have already told you that
\nand if he wants to leave
\nthen let him leave
\nyou are terrifying
\nand strange and beautiful
\nsomething not everyone knows how to love<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(silence)<\/p>\n

She makes you want to run, but you can’t. You must stay. You are paralyzed and breathless and open. She has you, and now you belong to her. And she will not release.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t already, make sure you check this sista out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She haunts us. And we like it. A lot. She’s a cherub-faced Somalian-born poet who breaches and invades and caresses every dark vulnerable place life has to offer – from love, to deceit, to war and redemption. And she does so with such fearless and aching beauty. In her poem about refugees fleeing war-torn countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20,19,17,16,18],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-female","tag-highlight","tag-literature","tag-poetry","tag-review"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/warsan-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekemetfoundation.org\/beta-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}