Momtaza Mehri and Zoé Samudzi: March 13, 2021

The Poetry Center, in conjunction with the Tripwire Cross-Cultural Poetics Series, presents two of the more outstanding younger Black writers and intellectuals at work in the US and UK, in this remote-access program. Momtaza Mehri, appearing from North Africa, reads from her poetry, and Zoé Samudzi, appearing from the Central U.S., reads a selection of others' poetry and prose, prior to the two writers joining in conversation. Mehri and Samudzi are introduced and accompanied by alex cruse, emcee, with David Buuck speaking briefly regarding the Tripwire Cross-Cultural Poetics Series and its collaboration with The Poetry Center, and of Tripwire journal and the Tripwire Pamphlet Series.

Samudzi, writing earlier on Mehri's poetry, provides something of the keynote for their ongoing conversation: “We [Afro-]diasporans joke often about the genre of poetry and prose born out of a longing for a motherland animated only by hungry verses. There’s a cowardice to this: nostalgic memory, a narrativized nostalgia for memories and experiences and beauty that never belonged to you, is easy. But situating oneself in the wake and afterlife of those traumas and beautiful/beautified struggles is far harder still.” (Zoé Samudzi on Momtaza Mehri, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Summer 2020). 

 

Publisher
DocFilm Institute
Location
The Poetry Center (Remote Access Event)
Date
2021-03-13
Event Run Time
01:23:37
Contributors
alex cruse
David Buuck
Rights

©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu.

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Momtaza Mehri (00:20:53)

Zoé Samudzi (00:15:56)

Conversation (00:39:21)

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