On Tuesday, September 24th, I attended the first lecture in the Audacious Voices WILL*/WGSS Speaker Series, If They Come For Us: An Afternoon with Fatimah Asghar. Fatimah Asghar is a poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer; she is the writer of If They Come for Us, the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, and the co-editor of Halal If You Hear Me. I am a member of the WILL* program and a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, but I also attended this talk to analyze from the leadership studies lens. Fatimah is an extremely influential artist whose creative expression makes statements about her identity as a queer, Muslim woman in the United States. She told a fascinating story that an editor read her poems and said he “loved how her poems about nature didn’t make political statements like many modern-day poets”. Fatimah noted that if people can’t understand that her art expressions were standing for political activism, that epitomizes his political stance right there. Her poetry addresses gender-based issues with bodily autonomy and gender expression as well as being a Pakistani Muslim woman in the United States today. Fatimah’s points reminded me a lot of our class’s initial discussion of what leadership is and what it might not come in the form of public speaking or overt activism, but art forms and literature can make equally profound impacts. If someone or their work has a following (in Fatimah’s case, the readers of her poems and viewers of her screen series) then they can be analyzed from a leader/follower perspective. Fatimah’s emotional, verbal, and written expressions not only make statements about her life as a queer, Muslim woman but also speak to readers in similar minority positions AND privileged positions as a call to action.
I went to a WILL* dinner and discussion with Fatimah following her talk, and she spoke a lot about her life experiences working in theater, education, literature, and as a student. A point I took away from her was her definition of a “good mentor”; she told me that the most impactful mentors she’s had in her life have been the ones who haven’t tried to put her on a specific path that aligns with their values. I found this extremely valuable with regard to smaller-scale leadership roles– such as parenting or mentoring in the community– because followers do not come to action if they feel they are being told what to do. Her interdisciplinary work tied not only into my WGSS education but also what I’m learning about in Leadership and the Humanities because of her incredible work as a mass influencer.
Anna Marston
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