Poetiska homeplaces: Reflektioner och samtal om muslimsk subjektivitet inom spoken word och poesi

Abstract

The last decade saw a renaissance of the artform called spoken word poetry through several spoken word projects in the suburbs of Swedish cities. A group of women who have been prominent in using these platforms as a way to highlight their voices and stories are young Muslim women from primarily from socioeconomically disadvantaged suburbs. This article focuses on a few of these voices. Based on a multimodal methodology including interviews with poets and readings of their work, this article sets out to understand how the young women use their poetry to formulate their subjectivity and issues that that matter to them. The poets and spoken word artists can be seen as knotworkers who use various platforms and tools in order to share their stories and reflections. The study shows how spoken word platforms have played an important role in creating a space where young poets find creative homeplaces and craft their own positions as poets and the kind of poetry they want to engage in. Through personal experiences and stories, the poets bind together several societal issues such as antiblack racism, antimuslim racism, classism, and patriarchy. Muslim subjectivity is articulated through the use of language and certain religious definitions such as references to prayers. Poetry is also used as a way to create feminist archives of missing stories. This study also highlights how double consciousness is at work where the poets reflect on certain difficult topics and how they chose to engage with them through their writing.