To be Back, Not to be Black:A Cross-Cultural Ecofeminist Reading of Select Poems of Suheir Hammad

As the existing incessant predicaments of the exiled Palestinian Muslims suffering the consequences of occupation, homelessness and racialism issues, the current study tended to select a poet who portray and reflect such crucial issues in her/his poetry. Therefore, A Palestinian-American poet named “Suheir Hammad” was painstakingly selected. Accordingly, this article is intended to analyze some of Hammad’s select poems through the lens of ecofeminism across the boundaries of culture. The select poems are classified into two main phases in the light of their content, context and purpose, namely, 'To be back' poems and ' Not to be black' poems. The discussion is carried out in the two phases and it shows genuine manifestations of two crucial semiospheres which are bridged by the poet to form her collective ecofeminist tunnel across the boundaries of culture. She presents herself like a pendulum that swings between the two extremes of the dual semiosphere of the homeland and the host land of current living. Fixing herself at its center, she is totally engaged from a distance, at one extreme, with the ecology of the homeland she left behind and reveals a distinctive sense of consciousness for her Palestinianness, family's Muslim beliefs & Qur'anic teachings, ecological rootedness, cultural and social commitments along with a zeal to come back. At the other extreme, she is thoroughly recalcitrant and restless due to the current active social pandemic of blackness and the racial discrimination faced in the society of Brooklyn she lives in. Overall, Suheir Hammad presents the voice of the displaced black Muslim Palestinian females in Brooklyn society that they have their rights to live regardless their color, race, gender and religious background. Discussing Hammad's message as presented in her work, the present study contributes to increase awareness of women rights especially those of the displaced and the black in the critical racial society as well as provide some insights into reading of humans' connection to land and culture.

Keywords:

Racialism , Culture , Ecofeminism , Poetry , Suheir Hammad