“I push and I pull, I watch and I wait, I tire of being the one who wants, I don’t have the courage to speak up and take it, I don’t have the wisdom to know it’s not mine, but I know this much that what’s over isn’t a failure.”
Abeer Y Hoque wears many hats and inhabits many worlds. She is a photographer, poet and writer. She was born in Nigeria, is of Bangladeshi-origin and currently lives in the United States. Her 2015 book The Lovers and the Leavers brings together her disparate interests. Using poetry, prose and photos, Hoque’s second book takes place in South Asia and is inspired by the time the writer spent in India and Bangladesh.
Following the book’s release, Hoque partnered with filmmaker Josh Steinbauer and psychedelic drone artists Dragon Turtle to create a series of supporting poetry films that visualise the mood and feel of the novel.
Love letter, one of the excerpts from the book, is set at an airport (video above). The black-and-white photography is used to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and regret, themes which the poem in the voiceover also speak about.
“I have borrowed and bought, sorrowed and sought” says the narrator in the second excerpt I have stolen everything. Shot at dusk, on an empty winding road the short reflects on the lengths the writer has gone to accumulate what she has today.
Garden, the most recent of the short films returns to New York City and has the most intimate location – the home.
“What would I do for a kiss, reckless, racing, I make my escape, your flowers spilling from my lips.”
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