Name: Poems of war, peace, women, power
Uploaded: 2011-02-04T16:06:00Z
Duration: 5 min 36 s
Description: Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: "What I Will" and "break (clustered)" -- meditations on war and peace, on women and power. Wait for the astonishing line: "Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded."

Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: "What I Will" and "break (clustered)" -- meditations on war and peace, on women and power. Wait for the astonishing line: "Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded."

Poems of war, peace, women, power

The poems call out the pressure to conform and participate in cycles of violence, insisting on the right to resist and create new rhythms of solidarity. Vivid images, like a heartbeat louder than death and a warning to fear the unexploded, evoke both the trauma of conflict and the power of personal agency. Women’s stories of loss, survival, and defiance stand at the center, challenging the ways society mourns and remembers. Through poetry, the call is to craft one's own meaning, even amid devastation.