Suheir Hammad is in conversation with Gloria Steinem in the latest issue of New York magazine.

New York Magazine

Please join us for the book party/ fundraiser for Hammad’s new book,
Thursday, Oct. 30th 6pm, at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery,
(between Bleecker and Houston) 212-614-0505 for more info.

Founded in 2003, Cypher Books, a New York City-based, independent publisher is proud to present breaking poems, a new collection of poetry from Tony award-winning poet, Suheir Hammad.  Consistent with Cypher’s mission to publish innovative and necessary poetry, Hammad departs from her previous books with a bold and explosive style to do what the best poets have always done: create a new language.  Using “break” as a trigger for every poem, Hammad destructs, constructs, and reconstructs the English language for us to hear the sound of a breath, a woman’s body, a land, a culture, falling apart, broken, and put back together again.

Suheir Hammad’s break introduces English to an Arabic vernacular that startles into being an altogether new language, bridging the archipelago of a Palestine under siege to the diaspora and beyond, breaking through convention, breaking open locks on mind and heart, breaking into a music inspired by the Coltranes, Sun Ra and free jazz, Lee Scratch Perry and Ravi Shankar, a music that is at once a joyous celebration of survival and a poignant cri de Coeur that cannot be ignored and that Mahmoud Darwish should have lived to see.  This is a poetry written for people who have endured the winds of hurricanes and invasions  What wisdom, energy, joy and poignancy Hammad brings to the page-for all of this, and for teaching me a new speaking, I give her my thanks.  – Carolyn Forché

Cypher Books has recently transitioned from being an imprint of Rattapallax Press to a full-fledged press under the sponsorship of Bowery Arts & Sciences.   This celebration will also serve as a fundraiser to benefit future publications and programming. We hope to see you there!