The Unwritten Letter from my Immigrant Parent
Muna Abdulahi is a Somali-American and the daughter of a refugee. Many of her poems explore the differences between her mother’s life and her own, including the spoken word poem below, The Unwritten Letter from an Immigrant Parent. This video is available via Button Poetry.
Reflection Questions
Spoken word poetry is meant to be performed. As you listen to the words, watch her body language and listen to her voice. What do notice?
What do you see? What are you feeling? What are you thinking? What are you wondering?
Imagine how the child of an immigrant might respond to this unwritten letter? What might they want their parent to know and understand?
The letter is written from a specific immigrant experience, what do we know about the author of the letter from the poem?
Why do you think Muna wrote about an unwritten letter? Step in the perspective of the letter writer and consider why she might not have actually written the letter?
