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Quote by Fady Joudah

“I push back against a deeply-entrenched tendency in American culture to label quickly and no longer even examine the labels that were initially stamped on a person. I don't have a problem with any of my "hyphenated" biography - I don't have any problem with that at all. The world would be a better place if our thread of hyphenation were truly embraced beyond mere naming and category.”

Quote by Fady Joudah

Author

Fady Joudah is a Lebanese-born poet known for his translations and original works of Arabic poetry. His poetry blends personal experiences, cultural background, and profound social commentary. more

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“I have a problem with the fact that when it's brought up, it's not really discussed. It's all that's brought up. So-and-so is an Arab American or a Palestinian or Muslim or a doctor with or without borders and there's really no meaningful entry into those hyphenations.”

Facts Problem Doctors Meaningful Borders Palestinian Entry

Author:Fady Joudah

“We fall into the old stuff of textuality, and almost everything becomes safe because nobody wants to talk about what is not safe in poetry. We fall back on the psychologic, the ethnic, the quota, and serve the perpetuation of the machine.”

Want Fall Stuff Safe Machines Fall Back Quota Old Stuff

Author:Fady Joudah

“What I'm trying to say is: it gets boring when nothing meaningful is discussed about it. It's the same thing when a woman poet writes about suffering - it's a "woman's tendency to depression and grief." It's not a human, universal tackling of something that exists in all of us. It's suddenly a "woman issue."”

Writing Trying Humans Suffering Grief Issues Poet Universal Boring Meaningful Tendencies Tackling

Author:Fady Joudah

“One can say that the disaffection is still a lingering naiveté about, not the place of poetry in the world, but - how to say this - the moral and intellectual presence of poets in the world. And while this may seem an old conversation to many poets who roll their eyes and say, "Here we go again about the function of poetry," I think that conversation, about poetry as an engaged art in a world that is full of regression or still lacking in progress, is still really not well-developed. It's almost an avoided conversation.”

Thinking World Wells May Art Stills Seems Eye Moral Progress Poet Conversation Intellectual Function Engaged Lacking Avoided Lingering Regression Here We Go Again

Author:Fady Joudah

“For me, poetry is a form of activism. And that word enables the labelers, and also gives them a rash.”

Giving Form Activism Poetry Is

Author:Fady Joudah

“Poetry at large in America is naturally a reflection of the American system and culture. That's my possibly narrow view of it, or reductive view. But I think for as many portals for critical consciousness in the poetry world and in the American spirit that exist, there's also an over-arching, dominant mirroring, in poetry, of the corporate structure, the capitalist enterprise.”

Thinking World America Spirit Culture Views Consciousness Reflection Structure Critical Corporate Enterprise Capitalist Dominant Portal Mirroring American Spirit

Author:Fady Joudah

“Since so much of the poetry machine is consumed in and with the mirroring and the reproduction of what is already preexistent, I don't understand why such paranoiac conservatism is dedicated to labels. It's a way of controlling the "other," to label them.”

Way Machines Labels Dedicated Conservatism Consumed Reproduction Mirroring

Author:Fady Joudah

“We all exist in similar systems that mirror and reproduce the same American culture for the most part. What Oscar Wilde said about the lucky author who has a non-literary day job no longer holds, if it ever did. Artists seek validation as much as they seek money. The creation and invention of culture and canon is where most of the trouble lies.”

Ifs Said Jobs Lying Artist Culture Trouble Creation Lucky Mirrors Invention Oscars American Culture Validation Canon Day Jobs Wilde

Author:Fady Joudah

“Having financial independence does not increase one's chances of independent, artistic creation whatsoever. Our conditioned behavior toward mimicry for the sake of market forces is an amazing syndrome. The watchtowers guide us well.”

Wells Doe Force Chance Creation Behavior Increase Independent Independence Sake Financial Guides Artistic Syndromes Financial Independence Mimicry Artistic Creation

Author:Fady Joudah

“The more money you make, the more the culture already attracts you to serve it, with an aura of glitter and power, to reproduce it in even stronger ways. And you have to resist that so much if any meaningful artistic integrity is to be had.”

Ifs Way Culture Integrity Stronger Meaningful Artistic More Money Glitter Auras Artistic Integrity

Author:Fady Joudah