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sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Article Title

Poems by Noor Smadi

Abstract

To have grown up with limited to relatively zero representation in pop culture was a challenge. I felt invalid and invisible in my struggle. I had voices in my head telling me that I’m the other of the other of the other but no one to relate my experience to. However, I still found power, solidarity, and strength in all things intersectional. The joys and tears that we share because we all are familiar with the pain is what pushed me to write and share my story. I found my savior to be Audre Lorde who stood strong and proud in her skin. I found my savior to be my own grandmother who taught me what I know about my Arabness, my womanhood, and my resilience. My goal in writing “the time the falaha made me cry” and "Resistance/Survival” is to show the world that Arab Brown women are multifaceted, complex, and a plethora of rich and colorful identities that we picked up along our journey. I reflect the paradox of complex identities and how often they are surprisingly mutually exclusive to describe the wholeness of being. I capture moments of wholeness as they truly reflect what it means to simply “be” or exist in a society that constantly needs you to justify, explain, and defend yourself. I write in order to create a safe space of acceptance, abundance, and simply existing.

Publication Date

9-2020

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