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Anjail RASHIDA Ahmad
Award Winning Poet, Educator and Activist
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"Luminous is the first word I think of when I think of my friend Anjail Rashida Ahmad. And I have heard many other people here in Greensboro say that something happens to you when you are in Anjail's presence. It's as if her inner light fills up the space around you. And with that light there is also a comforting warmth. It is not surprising, then, that light and fire are metaphors that often show up in her award-winning poetry.
Not long after Dr. Ahmad arrived in Greensboro to be the director of the Creative Writing Program at North Carolina A&T State University, she came to visit me in my office at the Central Library to talk about how we could collaborate to promote poetry throughout the city. When she first sat down, folded up her cane and began to talk, I was immediately filled with awe and with several unspoken questions: You are blind, but you read and write poetry. How? And how do you teach classes and grade papers? How do you navigate this new city? But those questions were quickly overshadowed by the excitement that I felt about collaborating with her as a fellow evangelist for poetry.
And then, that night, I spent an hour or two reading her first book, necessary kindling, published by LSU Press. Filled with images and stories of family, with musical lines and engaging metaphors, necessary kindling is unforgettable. Publishers Weekly called it "a dignified, searing homage to African American women, and the speaker's family specifically."
Anjail's poems have appeared in numerous publications including Midlands, African American Review, Black Scholar and Ark/Angel Review. She has received the College Language Association's Margaret Walker Alexander Award and the Janet Preston Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
The collaboration and the friendship that was born in my office two years ago have both blossomed. She has conducted numerous readings and workshops in branch libraries throughout the city. She was the catalyst who led NC A&T to be the primary sponsor of our Poetry-Greensboro festival last year and she continues to inspire me to find new ways to promote the love of poetry in this city. This past April I could not have been happier when I stood on the stage of the Carolina Theater in front of more than 1,000 people and heard Anjail Ahmad read her poem "in late august before sputnik orbits its great metallic eye over the earth." And then she said, "And now it is my pleasure to introduce former U. S. poet laureate Rita Dove." It was quite a night for poetry in Greensboro.
Invite Anjail to your town to read. And enjoy her luminous spirit."
Steve Sumerford is assistant director of the Greensboro Public Library, where among other things he organizes the annual April literary celebration,
Poetry GSO.
Contact Information:
Anjail Rashida Ahmad, PhD
Director and Associate Professor,
The Creative Writing Program at A&T
North Carolina A&T State University
Greensboro, NC 27411
Tel: 336.334.7771, ext. 2370
E-mail: arahmad@anjailahmad.com; arahmad@ncat.edu
Copyright (c) 2010. Anjail Rashida Ahmad. All rights reserved.
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