Emtithal Mahmoud

Emtithal "Emi" Mahmoud is a poet who won the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam championship.[1]

Early life

Mahmoud was born in Darfur, Sudan, and moved with her family to Yemen when she was a toddler, then to the United States in 1998.[2] She attended Julia R. Masterman High School in Philadelphia and won the Leonore Annenberg Scholarship, a prize covering all costs for four years at any college in the United States.[3]

Poetry

Mahmoud first encountered spoken word poetry as an undergraduate at Yale University. She joined a ¡Oyé!, a spoken-word group affiliated with the Latino Cultural Center on campus, then the Yale Slam Team.[4]

Mahmoud's 2015 winning poem was called Mama.[5] The piece was a tribute to Mahmoud's mother, who was unable to be in the audience that day; she was in Sudan attending the funeral of Mahmoud's grandmother who had died on the first day of the competition.[6]

Activism

Since high school, Mahmoud has also been an activist advocating for attention to the continuing violence in Darfur.[7] She was on the BBC's 100 Women[8] list of "the most inspirational women across the world in 2015,"[9] and invited to a 2016 roundtable with President Obama when he visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Hardman, Ray (October 28, 2015). "Yale Student Wins International Poetry Slam Competition". WNPR News. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Flood, Alison (4 November 2015). "Darfur poet triumphs in international poetry slam". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Clark, Vernon (May 2, 2011). "Philly high school standout, a child of Darfur, wins prestigious scholarship". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  4. ↑ Evans, Dayna (30 October 2015). "Today's Inspiration Comes From This Young Sudanese-American Slam Poet". The Cut (New York Magazine). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  5. ↑ Castellanos-Monfil, Román (October 26, 2015). "Yale senior wins the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship". Yale News. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Writer wins World Poetry Slam with moving tribute to her mother". CBC Radio As It Happens. November 6, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Sharp, Jeb (30 October 2015). "Emtithal Mahmoud and the poetry of resilience". PRI's The World. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "Slam poet's piece for BBC 100 Women". BBC News. December 2, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "BBC 100 Women 2015: From all corners of the world". BBC News. November 18, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  10. ↑ Khan, Saliqa (February 4, 2016). "President Barack Obama visits mosque in Baltimore County". WBAL. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
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