By Suzanne Adely
As global NGO regimes strengthen, movement spaces become increasingly de-politicized. In the U.S. one of the most striking examples of de-politicized 'activism' is the almost complete lack of acknowledgment of US Empire and its' political, social and economic manifestations around the globe. To organize today one must regard identity and intersectionality above all else, yet the most valuable elements of those ideas have been distorted. This poem is a response to self identified 'radical' colleagues who use the language of intersectionality to control political discussion, while refusing to see the intersections of Empire. This poem is also inspired by the memories of all that has passed in the Arab world in my lifetime.
I
his name
a relic
its letters tracing
brilliant memories
of time passing
in squares
her name was a thought
a recognition
every pronouncement
a dream
of bright courtyards
and green almonds
All of we,
All of us,
find ourselves
in the outline
hear ourselves
in the echoes
names and their memories
kept alive
in the margins
kept alive
deeper than our core
farther than our borders
II
his forsaken evening
my solitary morning
on the burning screen
he asks, tudkari?
yes habibi I do
la habibi, I don't
the sweetest sour
the brightest dark
her name was a relic
his name a thought
a knowledge
a dream
Haidar
Maryam
Omar & Nerdeen
Ali, Muhannad & Ayoub
treasured names
thrown
shattered
muted syllables
unrecognized
in this brooklyn room
Haidar
Maryam
Omar & Nerdeen
Ali, Muhannad & Ayoub
did you know they pictured their lives in color?
like the deep red earth around them
that they dreamt of their futures in song?
beats, melody and verse
that they held their cousins
with the tenderness of a mother?
as soon as their arms could unfold
vanished
from our arms
over and over and over again
in darkness, at dawn
in spring ,winter and the autumn
in summer
'I never dreamed you'd leave in summer.'
names are hostile memories
III
a brooklyn room
an invitation
forced,
distorted intersections
a token to your well-funded identity
we pronounce their names
and tell the stories
of their well-funded death
the vicious intersections
of their well-funded death
pronounced
without knowledge,
thought or recognition
in hostile silence
names
are muted
shattered
unrecognized
fading to whiteness
in this brooklyn room
Suzanne Adely is a long time Arab-American community organizer from southwest Yonkers. I became a middle school teacher for several years before working for the Arab American Action Network in Chicago. By mid-life, I became a lawyer and global labor organizer. I have been blessed to live and work and witness movements and struggles in NY, Chi-town, MENA region and India. Some of my organizational affiliations are: Al-Awda-NY, US Palestine Community Network , Labor4Palestine, Global Workers Solidarity Network.
