Hope Wabuke

Reclaim Your Story

Dear Hope,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and poetry with us.

What piece of writing have you read lately that best captures how you feel now?

I just read some spectacular poems by Layli Long Soldier and Cameron Awkward-Rich; the new books by Kwame Dawes and Safia Elhillo are fantastic.

What is the most helpful advice you have received about making it as a writer?

When speaking about the importance of courage in writing what must be said, my former teacher poet Ruth Forman told me “know that when you liberate yourself from your own fear, at some time, in some place, you liberate others from theirs’.”

What do you tell your students who envision a life of freedom and fulfillment as writers or artists?

I tell them to be strong in themselves and in their work. To make a constant, consistent practice of reading and writing; it is helpful to have a circle of trusted readers to share work with regularly.

How do you encourage your son to believe in himself and the power of his imagination?

We make up stories and read a lot of books together; I have been reading to him since the day he was born. Now that he is four, he is beginning to read by himself and is quite proud of himself about that. I have always encouraged him to be creative; he draws pictures and makes ups stories about them, he enacts stories with his stuffed animals and toys. He dances and sings and makes up songs. When I am writing poems he sits beside me and creates his own poems. I think encouragement and freedom to follow their own creative interests are two things that help children revel in their imaginations.

Do you have a saying you live by or remind yourself of in times of darkness?

Yes. Many—drawn from my faith.

Slow Dance, With Bullet

for Mike Brown

This is when you become
      political:
this unarmed black boy shot
this white killer cop not
      charged but given three months paid
      vacation plus one million
      dollars in thanks for
this job well done.

This happened yesterday, too,
      the day before that. They used to say
this:
      Dance, nigger dance and empty their guns
      laughing-
this was their theory:
      if you could rise fast enough the bullets
      would not hit your feet.
This, the weight
      of five centuries that did not break your back.
This, you were scared of then.
This, you stiffened silent
      and bore.
This will happen again
      tomorrow. Different city, different dead
      black boy body. But now
this straw needle.

Oh, how your baby boy loves to dance. His legs, though,
are little. He could never jump, high enough.

Who are the authors whose work you read constantly and love?

Some of the authors I reread constantly and love are Sharon Olds, Jane Hirschfield, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Terrance Hayes, Anne Carson, Toni Morrison, Natalie Diaz, Joan Didion, and Ama Ata Aidoo.

What publications do you subscribe to?

Poetry, The New Yorker, Creative Nonfiction, Prairie Schooner, and alternating journals like the Missouri Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.

What other art forms do you enjoy and follow?

I was trained as a photographer and a musician, so I enjoy those immensely. I usually write to music: Bach, Satie, and Chopin are favorites. Painting, architecture, and dance also inspire me; my second book of poetry is inspired, to a great deal, by Monet’s waterlilies; I would go to the MOMA and look at them while I wrote.

As a writer, what are the most pressing issues you cannot ignore and respond to in your writing?

A lot of my writing revolves around issues of social injustice. As a young black woman growing up in America, I was first motivated to write to give voice to instances of racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression and violence.

Where do you turn to for hope and inspiration?

My family. Everywhere. If you keep your eyes open as you go through the world, inspiration is endless.

Are you working on any writing projects you plan to share with your readers soon?

I am working on my full-length collection The Body Family, which explores my family’s escape from Idi Amin’s Ugandan genocide in 1976 and the aftermath of healing in America. In it, I reclaim my culture, womanhood, and spirituality from a legacy of violence.

Hope Wabuke is the author of the chapbooks The Leaving and Movement No.1: Trains. Her work has also been published in The Guardian, Guernica, The North American Review, Salamander Literary Journal, Ruminate Literary Journal and others. She has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Times Foundation, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women Writers, the Awesome Foundation, and the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) Arts Foundation. She is a contributing editor for The Root and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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