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Feminists Around the World: Warsan Shire · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stephone
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never told you a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome back to another edition of Feminists Around the World.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: All the segments are running together. My titles are not
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: working out well in my head. Apparently, Annie, I was
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: sad that you missed the last Feminist Around the World
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: because we actually talked about an ecologist who saved Amazonian monkeys,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: and I was like, I feel like this is something
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  Speaker 2: Annie would have loved. Yeah, and we would have had
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  Speaker 2: a long conversation about, which is why I ended up
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: being very short. Oh. Annie would have loved this moment.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I'll find another one. It's fine, it's fine. You know,
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  Speaker 2: there's so many activists out there that save so many
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: different types of creatures, including humans. So we'll be talking
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: more and more. But we have another one today that
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  Speaker 2: is also very fun because we have talked about our
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  Speaker 2: love for poetry, yes, and today we're talking about an
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  Speaker 2: already well known and accomplished poet. But she has already
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  Speaker 2: published her amazing works. I think she started publishing in
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  Speaker 2: like twenty twelve, if not earlier, and she was already
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  Speaker 2: named Young Poet laureat of London, the youngest to ever
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  Speaker 2: be named. It has been featured on numerous Beyonce projects,
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, we wanted to take some time and praise
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  Speaker 2: her works and advocacy as well. And we are talking
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  Speaker 2: about Warsonshire and again she's pretty well known. She is
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  Speaker 2: a Kenyan born Somali British poet who has been pushing
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  Speaker 2: boundaries with her beautiful works. Again again with the Beyonce
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, cool, but we did want to talk
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  Speaker 2: about her on our segment because she is obviously someone
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  Speaker 2: who's doing some amazing stuff and you know how we
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  Speaker 2: feel about giving flower to those who are still here
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  Speaker 2: with us. That's what we're going to do. Rand Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So shai I was born in Kenya to her Somali parents.
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  Speaker 2: She and her family moved to London when she was
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  Speaker 2: one year old. From there, Shire would go on to
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  Speaker 2: get her Bachelors of Arts and Creative Writing and today's
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  Speaker 2: now one of the biggest poets in our modern history.
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  Speaker 2: She gave an interview to Vogue in twenty twenty two
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  Speaker 2: talking about her process and her works, and the interview
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  Speaker 2: talked about the beginning of her poetry career and her influences,
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  Speaker 2: including Jacob sam Morose, who was a famous poet, writer
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  Speaker 2: and educator from London as well. She says in Vogue.
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  Speaker 2: As a teenager, I lived in Northwest London with my
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  Speaker 2: family and ended up joining a local youth club nearby.
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  Speaker 2: It had zero funding, but an older Jamaican gentleman ran
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  Speaker 2: it and he always kept us in the loop about
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  Speaker 2: any free events. He invited me to a workshop one day,
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  Speaker 2: and that's when I met Jacob. He absolutely changed my life.
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  Speaker 2: There's no way I would be speaking to you right
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  Speaker 2: now if I had never met him. At that point
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  Speaker 2: I had thought about writing, but only in terms of novels.
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  Speaker 2: Poetry just felt totally inaccessible. But Jacob had us write
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  Speaker 2: a poem about experiences of gentrification in London. Right at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the workshop. He told me to get
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  Speaker 2: in touch if I had any other pieces for him
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  Speaker 2: to read. So I did. I bombarded him with emails
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  Speaker 2: with all sorts of crap I had written. That led
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  Speaker 2: to me joining his Barbican Young Poet Scheme, where I
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  Speaker 2: met Nei Parks, who published my first works through Flip Dye.
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  Speaker 2: I owe him so much.
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  Speaker 1: And she goes on talking about her writing as a
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  Speaker 1: young teenage poet, I turned out all sorts of rubbish,
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  Speaker 1: though I remember it being like, here's my emotions on paper.
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  Speaker 1: I did write every day, but it felt less like
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  Speaker 1: discipline more like a lifetime for me. It became sort
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  Speaker 1: of therapeutic. You write what you know, and as a
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  Speaker 1: teenager that meant my family and other somalies in our
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  Speaker 1: community still reckoning with the war.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like, though we did not have that experience
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  Speaker 2: of war, you and I talked many times about as teenagers,
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  Speaker 2: we sure did write a lot of woes and oh yes,
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  Speaker 2: it was a lot of teenage inks. So this made
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  Speaker 2: me feel a little better. Even though I'm sure her
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  Speaker 2: poetry was way beyond our he's still was like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I understand that. Yeah, if you ever dabbled any poetry
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  Speaker 2: as a teen you know that you know this feeling. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I was like, oh, this in there.
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  Speaker 2: And her work has been recognized as a powerful look
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  Speaker 2: into society, community, refugees, race and gender, and in an
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  Speaker 2: interview for the Guardian, Shire spoke with award winning author
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  Speaker 2: Bernardine Everisto for her book. In it, she talked about
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  Speaker 2: her family and their influences in her writing, Shire says,
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  Speaker 2: my mom has always been this natural feminist, even though
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  Speaker 2: she spent her life as a housewife and didn't really
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  Speaker 2: get to go to school, she always relished seeing me
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  Speaker 2: be free. My family is a Muslim family, so at
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  Speaker 2: times when I would be told, hey, you need to
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  Speaker 2: wear her job, it would be my mom who'd be like,
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  Speaker 2: She'll do what she wants to. So that just made
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  Speaker 2: me feel formidable. My dad's a writer and he was
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  Speaker 2: the reason why we had to leave Somalia. He was
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  Speaker 2: writing this book about the corruption in the Somali government.
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  Speaker 2: There were threats and intimidation and ultimately we had to
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  Speaker 2: leave just before the war out. He was the first
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  Speaker 2: person that introduced me to the idea of being afrocentric,
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  Speaker 2: pan Africanism and the history of Somalia. He made me
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  Speaker 2: feel really proud to be black from a very young age,
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  Speaker 2: and he also put in me the importance of writing
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  Speaker 2: and sharing your stories. So that mixed with growing up
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  Speaker 2: with a backtop of a civil war and constantly looking
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  Speaker 2: after and meeting traumaki'sed family that had just come from war,
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  Speaker 2: all of that came together to create in me this
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  Speaker 2: urgency to write.
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  Speaker 1: Right and her work has been an influence for so many,
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  Speaker 1: including Beyonce. In twenty sixteen, Beyonce collaborated with Schier for
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  Speaker 1: her record breaking album Lemonade. Though she had already made
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a name for herself with her works and words, her
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  Speaker 1: works for the album only continued to expand her popularity.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Here's what she had to say to Everiso about being
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  Speaker 1: contacted by Beyonce. So the Beyonce thing happened very randomly. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: I opened up my email and there who was one
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  Speaker 1: from Parkwood, which is Beyonce's company. I thought somebody was
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  Speaker 1: pranking me, but it turned out to be actually them.
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  Speaker 1: They thought I was in London, and I said, actually, coincidentally,
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  Speaker 1: I happened to be in la right now. So it
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  Speaker 1: all happened very quickly. I woke up that morning and
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  Speaker 1: that afternoon I was sitting with Beyonce listening to the
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  Speaker 1: album Lemonade. I grew up listening to Destiny's Child and Beyonce,
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  Speaker 1: so it was very surreal. I was very starstruck. I thought,
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  Speaker 1: finally the mental health issue that my mama has always
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  Speaker 1: talked about on my dad's side of the family had
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  Speaker 1: kicked in, And what a beautiful psychosis. This is of
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  Speaker 1: all the ways to lose my mind, this is a
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  Speaker 1: great one. And then it turned out to be real.
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  Speaker 1: It was a really beautiful experience in that she made
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  Speaker 1: me feel just safe and special. She was very very
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  Speaker 1: kind to me, and she's really sweet. She sent me
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  Speaker 1: flowers after the bursts of both of my children. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: then I just went back to writing. I don't really
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  Speaker 1: think about it much. That's amazing. After working with Beyonce,
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  Speaker 1: Shires stepped out of the limelight and just continued her
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  Speaker 1: as she said. In twenty twenty two, she released her
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  Speaker 1: latest book of poems, Blessed the Daughter Raised by a
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  Speaker 1: Voice in her Head poems.
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  Speaker 2: Right, she actually, yeah, she kind of stepped out. No
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  Speaker 2: one really heard from her. She didn't publish much, which
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  Speaker 2: is amazing. Most people would have been like, boom, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to cash in again. She was already well known
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  Speaker 2: and noted for her work, so a maybe she was
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  Speaker 2: used to it be a lot of people, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people who worked with or talk about her being
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  Speaker 2: really gracious and understanding in it and not allowing things
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  Speaker 2: like this to go to her head. And yeah, she
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  Speaker 2: kind of kind of lived that in that she really
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  Speaker 2: did not necessarily care to be a note for hers
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  Speaker 2: and like she didn't ride that way. She's just like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that happened next yeah, while most of us would be
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  Speaker 2: like I like I would make a T shirt probably,
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  Speaker 2: you know. And of course, with all of her incredible works,
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  Speaker 2: she has earned many awards and acolades, including the Young
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  Speaker 2: Poet Laureate of London, which we mentioned before, but also
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  Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen she earned a Brunell's University's first African
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  Speaker 2: Poetry Prize, was a Poet in Residence of Queensland, Australia,
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  Speaker 2: was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in
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  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. And then her books, which I think she's
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  Speaker 2: published about three or four, have been on different lists,
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  Speaker 2: the short lists for fellows and of recognition for her
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  Speaker 2: amazing work. And with that, we're going to leave you
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  Speaker 2: with a bit of her works, and there's many. You
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  Speaker 2: should definitely go look at her books. I think she
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: actually did a whole audio book of our works and
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: think I believe she's the one that's recording it, which
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: we love to hear. But here's a little piece of
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  Speaker 2: our work, The Year of letting Go, of understanding loss,
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  Speaker 2: grace of the word no, and also being able to
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  Speaker 2: say you are not kind. The year of humanity humility,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: when the whole world couldn't get out of bed. Everyone
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I've met this year says the same thing. Are easy
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  Speaker 2: to be around? How do you do that? The year
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I broke open and dug out all the rot with
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: own hands. The year I learned small talk and how
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: to smile as strangers. The year I understood that I
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: am my best when I reach out and ask, do
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: you want to be my friend? The year of sugar everywhere, softness, sweetness, honey, honey.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: The year of being alone and learning how much I
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: like it. The year of hugging people I don't know
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: because I want to know them. The year I made
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: peace and love right here.
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  Speaker 1: That's so good, that's beautiful, and I relate. I'm like, yeah, yes,
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  Speaker 1: it is unbelatable, it really is. Oh. We do love
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  Speaker 1: poetry over here on spinty, so it's always a delight
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  Speaker 1: when we get to read some, even though it's not
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  Speaker 1: our expertise. Our teenage sells perhaps were not meant to
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  Speaker 1: be poets.
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  Speaker 2: Well we were not. No, I leave those won.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I feel like I say this every time.
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  Speaker 1: But next time I go home, I am going to
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  Speaker 1: find my book poetry and I will read one on
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  Speaker 1: here and it will be hilarious for everyone involved.
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  Speaker 2: Oh goodness.
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  Speaker 1: But the problem is you won't see all the butterflies
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  Speaker 1: on the side.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't draw. I knew better, I knew my.
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  Speaker 1: I'm smart, you knew your limits. Oh well, all right, Well,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, we will be obviously as always, watching
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to see what happens next in this story. I'm sure
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: we'll have an update. But in the meantime, if there's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: anything we missed, or if there's anyone you think we
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: should talk about in this segment, you can contact us.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: You can email as a Stepanie Momstuff at heeartmedia dot com.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom step podcast,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff. I've never told you.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: We have a tea public store and we have a book.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: There's no poetry in it, I don't think, but.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Hey, you can get it racking my brain now.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Nevertheless us Stuff you should read books dot com or
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: wherever you get your books or audio books. Thanks as
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: always to our super producer, Christina, our executive producer Maya
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: for listening. Stefan never told you the production of by
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio, you
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: can check out the heart radio app, Apple Podcast wherever
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,