Shailja Patel 1. Did you move into writing poetry gradually, or did any one thing push you over the edge? Poetry chose me, when I was very young. I've been making up poems since before I learned how to write. ----- 2. Please tell us about Migritude . Is it a play? A poem? A monologue? Migritude is an epic journey, in four movements. I coined the word Migritude as a play on Negritude and Migrant Attitude . It asserts the dignity of outsider status. Migritude celebrates and revalorizes immigrant/diasporic culture. It captures the unique political and cultural space occupied by migrants who refuse to choose between identities of origin and identities of assimilation, who channel difference as a source of power rather than conceal or erase it. The four works that make up the Migritude Cycle draw on my Hindu spiritual heritage. They reference the earliest religious teaching imparted to Hindu children: that of the First Four Gods. The Hindu child is taught that her first god is her Mothe...
