Emtithal Mahmoud

Emtithal "Emi" Mahmoud (Arabic: إمتثال "إيمي" محمود‎; born 1992 or 1993) is a Sudanese poet and activist who won the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam championship.[2] In 2018, she became an UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

Emtithal Mahmoud
Born1992/1993 (age 26–27)[1]
Darfur, Sudan
Alma materYale University
AwardsIndividual World Poetry Slam championship winner (2015) and Women of the World Poetry Slam co-champion (2016)

Early life

Mahmoud was born in Darfur, Sudan, and moved, with her family, to Yemen when she was a toddler. She then moved to the United States in 1998.[3] When she was seven, she returned to Sudan; where her parents took part in a protest after the government stopped paying teachers. She and friends hid under the bed with fear. She says that the experience impressed on her the value of education.[4] Mahmoud attended Julia R. Masterman High School in Philadelphia and won Leonore Annenberg's scholarship, a prize covering all costs for four years at any college in the United States.[5]

She went to Yale University where she studied Anthropology and Molecular Biology.[6] She graduated in 2016.[7]

Poetry

Mahmoud first encountered spoken word poetry as an undergraduate at Yale University. She joined ¡Oyé!, a spoken-word group affiliated with the Latino Cultural Center on campus, then the Yale Slam Team.[8] In 2013 she played the role of a poem reader in a short film called Haleema.[9]

Mahmoud's 2015 winning poem was called Mama.[10] The piece was a tribute to Mahmoud's mother, who was unable to be in the audience that day; she was in Sudan attending the funeral of Mahmoud's grandmother who had died on the first day of the competition.[11]

She also dedicated a poem to Alan Kurdi called Boy in the Sand.

In 2018 she published a book of poems called Sisters' Entrance.[12]

Activism

Since high school, Mahmoud has also been an activist advocating for attention to the continuing violence in Darfur.[13] She was on the BBC's 100 Women list of "the most inspirational women across the world in 2015,"[14][1] and she was invited to a 2016 roundtable with President Obama when he visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore.[15]

In 2017, Mahmoud took part in the How to Do Good speaker tour, performing poetry and discussing her advocacy work in Oslo, Stockholm, The Hague, Brussels, Paris, London, New York, and York in 2018.[16]

Since 2014, Mahmoud has also been advocating for the rights of sickle cell disease patients in Nepal.[17]

She gave a talk at TEDMED in 2016 and was opening speaker at a TEDxTalk in Kakuma refugee camp in 2018.[18] In 2016 she recited a poem in front of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.[18] Also in 2016, she launched a campaign at the 'Laureates and Leaders Summit' in New Delhi.[19]

References
  1. "BBC 100 Women 2015: From all corners of the world". BBC News. November 18, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  2. Hardman, Ray (October 28, 2015). "Yale Student Wins International Poetry Slam Competition". WNPR News. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  3. Flood, Alison (4 November 2015). "Darfur poet triumphs in international poetry slam". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  4. "Emtithal Mahmoud and the poetry of resilience". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  5. Clark, Vernon (May 2, 2011). "Philly high school standout, a child of Darfur, wins prestigious scholarship". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  6. "Emtithal "Emi" Mahmoud". TEDMED.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-06-30. Retrieved 2018-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Evans, Dayna (30 October 2015). "Today's Inspiration Comes From This Young Sudanese-American Slam Poet". The Cut (New York Magazine). Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  9. "Haleema" – via www.imdb.com.
  10. Castellanos-Monfil, Román (October 26, 2015). "Yale senior wins the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship". Yale News. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  11. "Writer wins World Poetry Slam with moving tribute to her mother". CBC Radio As It Happens. November 6, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  12. "Sisters' Entrance". publishing.andrewsmcmeel.com.
  13. Sharp, Jeb (30 October 2015). "Emtithal Mahmoud and the poetry of resilience". PRI's The World. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  14. "Slam poet's piece for BBC 100 Women". BBC News. December 2, 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  15. Khan, Saliqa (February 4, 2016). "President Barack Obama visits mosque in Baltimore County". WBAL. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  16. "How to Do Good tour arrives in York". www.stpetersyork.org.uk.
  17. "Life with sickle cell". Nepali Times. 20 June 2014.
  18. Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Emtithal Mahmoud".
  19. Mahmoud, Emtithal. "Emtithal Mahmoud - Speaker - TED".
  • Short Film Haleema by Boris Schaarschmidt with Emtithal Mahmoud reading her poem What would you do?.
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