- Isha Camara: And how can I forget
Miss Lord promised?
This is not an act of self-indulgence.
This is an act of political warfare.
This is an act of self-preservation.
Which means, I-- sorry. [laughing joyfully]
Okay.
I completely was like, "What's the poem?"
Okay, okay, sorry.
[humming]
I often write poems, like,
in reaction to like certain events that are happening.
When they said college was going to be hard, quite frankly,
that was an understatement.
There were times grief held me like an ill-fitted suit...
Or, like, more high-intense emotions
like irritation and anger,
which, I think all of my emotions are valid.
*
My name is Isha Camara.
I use she/her pronouns.
I'm an Aries.
That's really important to me. [laughs]
*
I think, like, on campus, I'm often known as,
like, "Isha, the First Waver"
or, like, "Isha, the Makeup Girl"
and, like, I love that.
I would absolutely love to always be identified
by my make up.
Hi, just wanted to show off my outfit.
Okay, get into the face.
[tape rewinding sound effect]
And I have my matching mask.
I'm going to go write poetry with a friend now, okay, bye. [button clicks]
[traffic sounds]
Poetry is kind of like second nature.
Like, I could be walking down from the grocery store
and like get a thought in my head
and put it in my notes just so I won't forget it.
[hip-hop music]
I'm in the eleventh cohort
of First Wave's Hip-Hop and Urban Arts Program,
representing my god, my mama, and Southside Minneapolis.
I was home for Ramadan, too.
Ramadan happened April to May.
Eid was May 25th,
and then George Floyd was killed,
and I was already doing art in Minneapolis, raising money.
And then, I came back to Madison to focus on my summer classes.
And then, I was asked by
the Overture Center slash the City of Madison
to do the mural.
* Don't need no caption No, we livin' lavish *
* Drip, drip, drop I know you see the fashion *
* I know you see the fashion (I know you see the fashion)
* I know you see the fashion
* It's that sauce you never could imagine *
* Whoo
The poem is called,
"Have you ever watched the slow bloom of a flower
and called it revolutionary?"
I think it's something
that I don't talk about as often in my poems,
which is just about like healing.
Healing is not often depicted as emotion, but more as an action,
and I'm like, you know, for me,
healing is kind of, like, an event, right?
It's like a process.
Like, you're doing so many nitpicky things,
and I think those are the things
that I like talk about in my poems, and, like,
that's what I wanted my mural to like engage with, right?
Are we saying,
"Healing is just as important as this revolution,
as this protest?"
[honking horn]
Whoever watched the slow bloom of a flower
and said, "Revolutionary."
The camera flickers low
when I call myself off the streets from my porch.
Watch the sky sizzle into smoke and blue water
as I latch the door close and check it twice.
I'm this Black Muslim woman
who got to have her own little space in the city.
That's, like, a lot for me, and that's, like, enough for me.
So I think that's like all of the things
that I was thinking about, like, when I was making this mural.
[poignant piano music]