by Sagirah Shahid

M. Florine Démosthène, Moving Forward, 2011, Ink, charcoal and pigment stick on mylar, 9 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist. — M. Florine Démosthène, *Moving Forward*, 2011, Ink, charcoal and pigment stick on mylar, 9 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

“NAFSI! NAFSI!”

Sagirah Shahid / Sept 2020 / Issue 1

In remembrance of George Floyd

Minneapolis,

I am learning there is no intercession

from flames or any ash bound cinder celebrating the mural before the man,

a rain-soaked teddy bear wilts into a barrage of dying

chrysanthemums, azaleas, sunflower sprouts flung into sawed down

milk cartons & water bottles, cardboard poems & unlit candles

these the names of beings still within the reach of my melanated hands.

We were cornered by this city’s hatred for us

as if the default pandemic weren’t already inflaming our Blackness,

in Minnesota white people stare too hard, expect you to graciously gift

each tear shucking down your face as they record

and peacock-tail their solidarities and sympathies and I sincerely hope you remember his name

remember our names

and these parks our siblings lived in,

tent cities police bulldozed

while woke white folks built condos

and Hell’s Angels revved up their bikes

in the backdrop, white Salvation Army men

with their khaki shorts and center parts, hand us

guitar slung words of scripted freedom,

biblical burgers.

No one wanted

to ask us why, our chosen names

kept trying to outlive ~~specters~~ spectators.

Sagirah Shahid is an African American Muslim poet and arts educator from Minneapolis, MN. She is a recipient of a mentor series award in poetry from the Loft Literary Center, a Minnesota Center for Book Arts mentorship award, and Twin Cities Media Alliance’s Our Space is Spoken For, a collaborative public art and performance fellowship for Black, Indigenous and artists of color. In 2019 she was a writer-in-residence for Wisdom Ways, Unrestricted Interest, and 826 MSP. Sagirah’s poetry and prose are published in Mizna, Winter Tangerine, The Drinking Gourd, Puerto Del Sol, the American Muslim Futures virtual exhibit, and A Moment of Silence an online anthology of 50+ Black Minnesotan voices during a historical moment of transformation. Sagirah’s debut collection of poetry “Surveillance of Joy” is forthcoming from Half Mystic Press in 2021.

M. Florine Démosthène was born in the United States and raised between Port-au-Prince, Haiti and New York. Florine earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design (New York) and MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York. She has exhibited extensively in group and solo exhibitions in the USA, Caribbean, UK, Europe and Africa. She is the recipient of a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Arts Moves Africa Grant, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. She has participated in residencies in the USA, UK, Slovakia, Ghana, and Tanzania. Her work can be seen at the University of South Africa (UNISA), Lowe Museum of Art, PFF Collection of African American Art, and in various private collections worldwide.