The big interview Egyptian poet whose tackling culture and heritage...
Anja Saleh is a German-Egyptian with many skills, she runs TAVI Studio, and she or he at present has a poetry guide out there on pre-order known as “Quickly, The Way forward for Reminiscence”.
She can also be an educator, and runs a artistic academy known as “Datteltäter Academy” remotely in Germany which is a fellowship that helps younger BIPOC content material creators within the video and artwork realm contributing to social discourse.
Egyptian Streets spoke with Saleh about her Egyptian and German identities in addition to her artistic aspirations.
Egyptian Streets: Inform us about your self and what you do.
Anja Saleh: I’m Anja Saleh. I’m a author, designer, and entrepreneur. My background is in social and political science, however proper now I’m truly specializing in a artistic academy that I’m managing, in addition to writing and designing.
ES: When did you begin moving into poetry?
Saleh: I can’t pin it right down to a selected yr or time. I do know that in some unspecified time in the future, I began writing as an outlet, and particularly in English, as a result of no one may learn English in my household on the time. I believe that is how I sort of discovered my manner from writing, into studying novels, to studying poetry, and to beginning to write poetry myself. However it was very imprecise, I believe round 14 or 15.
ES: What sort of subjects does your poetry revolve round lately?
Saleh: I at all times name it a eulogy concerning the previous, current, future, reminiscence tradition, reminiscence politics, and the way they’re truly taking over plenty of area in our daily with out us actually being conscious of it. It’s additionally loads about love, however when individuals hear love, we routinely take into consideration that tacky Hollywood romance stuff, and that is in all probability the furthest away from the love that I write about. I’m unsure if you’re accustomed to the guide All About Love by Bell Hooks, however that is extra the path I’m going after I discuss love; a few extra wholesome connection to ourselves, regardless of reminiscence tradition and reminiscence politics generally being fairly deceiving. This manifests in the way in which we find out about historical past and the way in which we’re made to view ourselves. I believe additionally it is essential to say that I’m Egyptian however I grew up in Germany, due to the context – though I additionally know that reminiscence tradition inside an Egyptian context shouldn’t be essentially one which makes Egyptians embrace or love their historical past, or learn about all of the nuances of the historical past.
ES: Are you able to inform us extra about what you particularly imply by reminiscence tradition and reminiscence politics?
Saleh: I believe in poetry, it’s extra of how is Germany seen in German historical past? And the way a lot are we not being instructed of our historical past, however individuals know as a result of it’s a part of their direct historical past and direct oppression or privileges. It’s at all times this very linear show of achievements and growth inside a sure context. So that you by no means have historical past of unhealthy issues aside from one thing just like the Holocaust that you simply can’t overlook. It’s very selective. It’s about what’s going to make a nation look good, and I believe in a German context, it’s labored extraordinarily nicely internationally as a result of individuals are largely unaware of the racism, the oppression, the police brutality, all this stuff which are nonetheless happening as we speak, however we’re recognized for good high quality and effectivity and punctuality. Even the stereotypes now we have as we speak play a component on this as a result of 30, 40, 100 years from now, what now we have as we speak goes to be a part of reminiscence tradition. That is the place the title of my guide “Quickly, The Way forward for Reminiscence” comes from, as nicely.