Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Tala KhanmalekAdded: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 / Used with permission.after Bernard Ferguson
“who are we / and how shall we defend / ourselves as members of what / family?” -June Jordan1
here, in this place,
we do not describe each other as family,
or even, as chosen
family. here, in this place,
we reckon with the ongoing past.on what foundation is the present family, the biological family, based? on captivity, on flesh.2
we understand that the normative concept of family, despite many variations, is always toxic.
we understand that the normative concept of family is nuclear. as in bomb. the right to kill.
a tie that binds us, not to the people we love, but to the hegemony
of whiteness and civilization. to patriarchy and capitalism. to the symbolic order
of cis-het binaries, contracts, and taxonomies.
to the supremacy of blood.here, “we are a conspiracy”3 in excess
of the state, of time. the river
and its return. tributaries with
no calculus but that which escapes the capture
of Man: the wildness
of our fantastic confluence.
we are back to water,
unmoored.________
1 From June Jordan’s poem, “Famine.”
2 Based on a passage from the Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx: “On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain.”
3 From Assata Shakur’s poem, “Love.”
Listen as Tala Khanmalek reads alternate universe in which family is abolished.
Tala Khanmalek is a writer, scholar, and activist. She is the recipient of a 2023 Creative Capital Award, among other honors. For more information, visit Tala's website.
Image Description: Tala Khanmalek looks directly into the camera with a cream-colored wall in the background. She is wearing a mustard-colored sweater, rosey lipstick, and eyeglasses. Long dark brown curls frame her face and cascade on the right.