Skinwalker
Modesty Will Save Me
Artist Statement
A necessary precursor to my voice as a writer and how I built a relationship with speech and storytelling is that I am a Black Muslim Woman. My work is the reimagining of stories we’ve heard time and time again. From the creation of Adam and Eve to the curse of lycanthropy, I write the chapters in between those myths; anecdotes of Adam flirting with Eve and men who dress like sheep to lure wolves. I sate my curiosities by layering the myths with my modern desires and questions, obsessing over these old stories, reimagining my personal versions of them within ghazals and tercets. I’m obsessed with the idea of voices; the parts of my personality that have now formed their own bodies, what become sentient beings. They each take turns with the page, writing poems about their needs and imagined futures; what feels complicated, feels possible for them. Because these voices are inside of me I give them the body to exist.
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Isha Camara is a Gambian-American poet and visual artist from South Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters at Randolph College in Creative Writing. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Southeast Review, MUZZLE Magazine, Mahalat, and Lumiere Review. She has performed for the Madison Public Library, Walker Art Center, and American Composers Forum.