Name: Zainab Mahdi
Year: 1B
Program: Heath Studies
How long have you been writing poetry?
I’ve started off writing raps during high school when I was in my “thug” phase (everyone has a thug phase right??) and one day I came across slam/performance poetry and immediately fell in love. Although I wrote here and there during high school, it was only last year during the summer of 2014 that I began to take my writing and performances seriously.
What is one of your accomplishments so far?
Among my biggest accomplishments has been my performance at the Annual RIS conference in Toronto where I had the opportunity to perform a piece in front of nearly 20 thousand people. It’s probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But by far my favorite performance happened during welcome week here at UW where I had the chance to open a show for Comedian Aamer Rahman with a set of poems. I didn’t really know anything or anyone at the University as it was my 1A term and through that experience I got to meet and form friendships with some of the most amazing people at this school!
Before you ended the year 2014, what was your aspirations for 2015. What did you enjoy most from the year 2014?
I guess 2014 really taught me that I had potential in spoken word poetry and that my work was appreciated by those who listened (which is one of the best feelings any artist could hope for). It took me years to get to a point where I felt comfortable standing in front of an audience and sharing with them a piece of my passion- which is essentially like sharing a piece of myself. Since this realization I decided that I wanted to take Spoken Word Poetry one step further and broaden my horizons. I really just want to entertain, educate, and inspire people with my poetry and see where my words take me in the year to come!
How did you get involved with spoken work, what made you so interested?
The thing that I loved so much about spoken word is how real and raw it is. I remember watching some of my favorite poets and thinking of how brave and inspirational they are, and I wanted to be able to influence the lives of others the same way those poets influenced me during my really impressionable high school years. Not to mention that I wasn’t tough enough to be a thug, so rap wasn’t really an option for me after a while lol.
What do you hope to achieve with your spoken word?
I feel like spoken word poetry is becoming somewhat of a fad in pop culture nowadays, which in my opinion has its pro’s and con’s. Due to the fact that it’s becoming so popular among such a large variety of people gives me hope that I can use this form of verbal storytelling to tell the stories of those that are not fortunate enough to speak on their own. I want to address things that I’m passionate about whether its justice, equality, my love for Nutella… I just want my work to matter, you know, maybe even change the world.
What would you like to do after you graduate?
I’m currently a health student so my biggest goal after I graduate is to work in international Aid. Having lived in a third world country myself for a number of years, I want to lift this stereotype that people have about countries and continents most of them have never really lived in. I still want to keep performing, and if the opportunity arises that I can pursue poetry professionally, I don’t think I would turn it down. But my biggest goal is to start by own NGO in the future, or work for an international health organization like the World Health Organization. Maybe even become the WHO’s poet in residence… that would be awesome.Name: Zainab Mahdi