“Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.” So begins world-renowned Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s seminal poem “Kindness.” This Friday, Oct. 27, Nye will visit Houghton College to share her insights on the art of poetry writing and her experience as a child of many cultures.
Though Nye makes her current home in San Antonio, Texas, she has frequently described herself as “the wandering poet.” And for good reason. The child of a Palestinian refugee father and a German-Swiss American mother, she spent her early years in San Antonio and Ferguson, Missouri, playing with African- and Mexican-American children. When her father’s mother became ill, he brought their family back in the West Bank, to a house on the tumultuous road that stretched between Jerusalem and Ramallah. It was at the age of six that she wrote her first poems, which focused on everyday subjects like friends and animals. Since then, her writing and speaking has carried her through Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
This perennial fascination with heritage and obsession with the ordinary unfolds itself in Nye’s poetry. In her writing, Nye frequently lends a freshly surprising perspective to the humdrum, powerfully evoking the emotions and nostalgia that accompany familiar people, comfortable places, and household objects. “I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole,” she writes, “not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do.”
Embracing a diversity of subjects—from the cultural functions of storytelling to the role of the writer in a fragmented contemporary society—Nye’s poetry is known for its unornamented language and striking imagery.
In an interview with The Observer in 2014, Nye reminisced on her connection to Ferguson and the West Bank, two epicenters of social and racial conflict. “I felt like if I didn’t say something, what kind of writer am I?” she said. “Maybe the connection is slight, but I think the connection of domination and injustice is strong.” By focusing on the similarities between Jew and Palestinian, white and black, she aims to spark conversations about the loves we share.
Naomi Shihab Nye’s books of poetry include Poems of the Middle East, Red Suitcase, You & Yours, and Words Under the Words. She has also published several essay collections, including Never In A Hurry and Are You Okay? More recently, she has begun to move into children’s literature with her children’s novels Habibi and Going Going, and her picture books Baby Radar and Famous. In all, she has authored or edited thirty volumes of poetry and fiction, and is currently working on a collection called Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners.
Over the years, Shihab Nye has been honored by many prominent arts organizations. She is Guggenheim Fellow, a Lannan Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (through the Library of Congress); and the recipient of four Pushcart Prizes and a Lavan Award. She was recently named a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Nye has also made a name for herself as an educator, traveling around the world to lead lectures and workshops on the craft of poetry-writing and the nuances of cross-cultural communication.
“Nye’s ethic of care and compassion never ceases to inspire and challenge,” Houghton professor of writing Dr. Laurie Dashnau said. “I need to help others, my students especially, to experience ‘the tender gravity of kindness.’”
Students, faculty, and staff are invited to enjoy lunch with Shihab Nye at 12-12:45 p.m. in the Lennox Dining Room, immediately followed by a question and answer session in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall. A select group of English and writing students will also participate in a poetry workshop led by Nye later in the afternoon.