Text Messages: or How I Found Myself Time Traveling

(Paperback)

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Pioneering Iraqi-Canadian rapper Yassin 'Narcy' Alsalman is a founding member of WeAreTheMedium, an international multi-media artist collective of Arab, African, and Indigenous artists and creators. 'Text Messages' is his survival guide, a multi-media collection about finding one's self in the anxious intersections of a post-9/11 world, through a combination of poetry, rap verse, short stories and comic book illustrations. Text Messages is multi-form written exploration of the imminent crisis in technology, the pressures of self-awareness, and the meaning of Judgement Day.

Reviews

Passion, pain, anger, hope, and swagger. Yassin is a man from the future. Narcy beautifully captures the chaotic multitudes of being a brown diaspora kid living through the war on terror in the technology age. Text Messages is an ambitious and bold time capsule capturing the insane times we're living through. Poems, barbs, and bars take a bow, Yassin, you've made a classic. Hasan Minhaj Yassin Narcy Alsalman is a one-of-a-kind artist. He is transcendental, he is pop, he is the Muslim, he is the poet. Through his questioning of the tides of time, and the world's disregard of the Arab, he writes lyrics as anthem, providing a source material for a part of the world that is so often misunderstood and forgotten. This book is exciting in its futurity. It is punchy in its enthusiasm. I am grateful for this book's aliveness. Fariha Risn, author,How To Cure a Ghost Yassin Alsalman's writing weaves through the epic struggles of people to get free, enduring and resisting brutality, dictatorship, war, and occupation. As a hip-hop artist, he was forged in the rubble of 9/11 and the ensuing war against Muslims, emerging as one of the most creative and sharp artists chronicling the crimes of the powerful and giving voice to peoples uprisings.Text Messagesis a potent book rooted in the poetry and art of Alsalmans Iraqi ancestors, translated in a global language for the urgency of the times in which we now live. Jeremy Scahill, co-founder ofThe Interceptand author ofBlackwaterandDirty Wars Narcys voice cuts through the rubble piled high in the wake of Amerikkkas War on Terror, a true testament to hip-hops intersectional revolutionary power and an unapologetic representation of the Muslim world in the 21st centurys most ubiquitous art form. Vic Mensa Yassin Narcy Alsalman inText Messages: or How I found Myself Time Travelingreveals the fertile space of the in-between. This book is neither prose nor poetryrather it is a constant speculative unflowering. The poet novas from the between space: that time of physical journey, writing on plane rides, sketches a life forged by that very consciousness rooted to both heaven and body. Where does the brown, migrant Muslim belong The skies take form as the speaker sails through experiments with genre and form to tell the story of multiple definitions, of how the speaker endures in a world obsessed with his destruction. From poem to prose, from image to graphic narrative, this urgent, necessary book will streak your heart with its resistance. Kindness and living are political acts. Reader, you will find yourself haunted by the question the poet asks himself while he looks past your eyes and into your own depths,What is life withoutifin it Rajiv Mohabir,author ofThe Cowherds SonandThe Taxidermists Cut Yassin Alsalman possesses one of the most important voices in the world, andText Messagescould not be more timely or more necessary of a read. On paper, this Muslim teacher who raps should not be a success, but because of the beauty of his words and the pureness of his heart, he wins despite the massive odds against him. Narcy makes me feel heard, he gives me life. I am proud to be his friend and his peer. Talib Kweli

Author Bio

Real name Yassin Alsalman, Narcy is a musician, director, professor, writer, and actor. He teaches a hip-hop production class and a cultural study of rap and politics at Concordia University. He is the cofounder of WeAreTheMedium, a culture point for publishing, media, and the arts. He currently resides in Montreal, has his heart in the Arab world, and is grounded on planet Earth. Most importantly, he is a father of two.