By: Margot Dragos
Brooklyn College (BC) Women’s Center and The Muslim Women’s Leadership Development Project hosted “Words of Becoming: A Poetry Reading and Book Launch” on Sept. 24. The event featured author Maha Hashwi and her book “The Pomegranate is a Grenade.” This is the first college visit by Hashwi, and the first in a series of book events hosted by the organizations.
Hashwi is a Lebanese-American poet whose work explores the complexity of her identity as an Arab-American and Muslim woman. “The Pomegranate is a Grenade” is her debut poetry book, and its title comes from her poem “The Pomergranate,” which discusses the resemblance between the fruit and a grenade. The word “grenade” was derived from the French translation of pomegranate due to its seeds resembling grenade shrapnel. It is also a sacred fruit in the Muslim religion and is mentioned in the Quran as an example of God’s creation.
“I felt like this would be a good title because it’s bold, it’s kind of confusing, you don’t really understand it,” Hashwi told the audience. “But it’s also like the two lives that I’m living as being Arab and being American.”
The talk featured Hashwi in conversation with Hanan Yafai, Program Coordinator of The Muslim Women’s Leadership Development Project. The project relaunched this year and is “dedicated to empowering women, and Muslim women specifically, by centering their rich and diverse experiences,” according to Yafai.
The two discussed Hashwi’s poetry in depth, touching on how Hashwi found the confidence to write as well as how she came into her identity as a Muslim woman.
“For me, when I’m on stage, when I’m able to share my poetry with people, it’s also sharing my religion and sharing my culture and my faith,” said Hashwi. “I feel like because I’ve written this and put it out, it gives people an opportunity to read it and get a glimpse into what my world is.”
Hashwi read a selection of her poems aloud, such as “I Speak to God in Public” and “If You’re Muslim, Why Don’t You Wear That Thing On Your Head?”
The latter addressed a question she’d answer from her peers before she made the decision to wear a hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women as a sign of modesty and religious devotion.
“I feel like it wasn’t until I went to college and started meeting other Muslims at NYU and in New York that I felt comfortable enough to actually wear [the hijab],” Hashwi said.
“I actually changed the ending of this poem. It used to say ‘To me, the Muslim women who wear it are queens and I’m still a princess,’ and so it was like me just saying ‘I’m not ready yet,’” Hashwi explained. “And then I remember reading it back and feeling like ‘Oh no, I think I actually am ready for it,’ and I changed the ending to what it is now.”
Hashwi encouraged attendees to find their voice through writing just as she had.
“If you have any interest in writing, you just have to write. That’s the only answer,” Hashwi told the audience. “And so that means [write] whenever, when you’re on the subway, when you’re at home, anytime you feel like inspiration is coming.”
“I want to be a writer, and I think it’s really important to listen to how other writers get to where they are and why they also write,” Angela Zapata, a BC junior majoring in creative writing, told The Vanguard. “It gives a lot of encouragement for me and my own work.”
Hashwi and Yanafi emphasized the importance of being confident in your identity and being unapologetic about where you’re from.
“My hope for [the event] and the mission of our program is to empower students to self-express, to be confident visibly, and to just take up the space that they think they’re worthy of and not to be afraid of being in those spaces,” Yafai told The Vanguard.
Hashwi spoke to attendees individually after the talk, answering questions from students and writing personalized notes while signing books. She even invited students to write a note to her in a guest book she provided.
“I felt like it was so important for me to come to a college campus, in New York specifically, and speak to the Muslim women there,” Hashwi told The Vanguard. “I was a Muslim woman at a college campus, and I felt like it would have been so amazing to have another writer come speak to us.”
“It means a lot to me to be in this space and be able to support these women and hopefully inspire them to do what they want to do.”
For more information regarding Hashwi and her work, visit @mahappinessiskey on Instagram. For more information about BC’s Women’s Center or The Muslim Women Leadership Development Project, visit their respective Instagram accounts @womenscenterbc and @mwldpbc.