Allow me to introduce myself:
Mona Haydar.
I am the daughter of Syrian immigrants,
A rapper— experiencing cognitive dissonance?
Maybe because we’ve been socialized to believe
That I’m oppressed and in need
Of saving from a savior
By hetero normative delusions of grandeur
Instead of a woman of intellect and agency
Who has made spitting rhymes her specialty
Colonization has made it its project
To project an archetypal image
A limp tepid one that I resist
Because my rhymes spill truth
Like their bombs spill blood
But somehow my people are the barbaric ones
I’m the mother of two beautiful boys,
And yes I been in the news makin noise
Because I’m a poet and emcee
An activist and masters student of theology in this city
But I have a question for you all just out of curiosity
What if our foreign policy was generosity
What if pregnant mamas negotiated homeland security
What if we loved the earth as much as we loved netflix
What if we instated the gift economy and got the money out of politics
What if we sought the wisdom of children in moments of uncertainty
Like when I was in labor with my second and my first told me
Just breathe mommy just breathe. It’s going to be okay.
Or like when he announced very quietly and at random one day
I am a secret.
Yes you are my sweet child of the multiverse.
The norm – not the exception
What if we loved all the babies fiercely
Loving the ones above and below certain globally southern borders equally
Giving them access to the same opportunities
Because we’ve done away with the models of scarcity
Because we know the truth of love’s infinite possibilities
Do you know which baby it will be who will finally find the cure?
Do you know which baby it will be who will finally end world hunger?
Do you know which baby it will be who will put a stop to climate change?
Do you know which baby it will be who will eradicate war with finality?
What if we loved all the babies fiercely?
Would we still have problems with police brutality?
Would we still have people saying that they don’t see color?
Because I see color and it floods my heart with joy joy joy
What if we did away with the projects and gave everyone a proper house
What if instead of dropping bombs we dropped poems
Instead of sending over soldiers we sent over poets.
The potency of poetry takes a nobody and turns them into nobility and not in a nuanced way but noticeably and notably
What if world leaders finger painted until decisions were made
And doodles became laws and songs agreements of trade
What if we bartered for what we needed
What if we all worked until this vision succeeded
I believe this world is possible.
I see it with the eye of my heart
I write from that place when I create my art
The place where we’d no longer need diplomacy
Or politicians who are conscious socially because we’d all be
I’ve been to the future
It lives in the arms of my mother
I’ve returned to share this better way
And it sounds a lot like Bob Marley’s reggae
It feels like Billie Holiday
And I’m so happy to tell you that it’s underway
Because I’ve come with these heart technologies
I come with a whole new cosmology
Replacing all whack theology
With gyn ecology
Yaa gynecology
Loving mother earth like how a woman who knows herself loves herself
Gyn ecology
I went to college see
They taught me
Break it down
Deconstruct the mythology then reconstruct
That’s how you decode the possibility
I’m the archetype of a prophetess
In the incarnation of a poetess
Who prostrates herself to the oneness
The interconnectedness
This is my clinic
Let me administer this shot of
Heart healing modalities
Trauma treating medicines
No payment necessary
No batteries required
Insurance not mandated
In fact insurance is outdated
Instead of bombs blood and dead babies
We want bodies holding bodies in bliss
Class and castes dismissed
The world where love reigns supreme
Like Coltrane and Rumi
Yaaa I’m a groupie
I’m loopy some say naive
But i truly believe in this more beautiful world
And I will dedicate every moment of my life to building it
Because what else have we got to do?
Let’s build that world together.
You down?
Love, Always
