Wes Naman
Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional poetry slam champion and Albuquerque’s poet laureate. He is known for participating in mulch-disciplinary activist happenings, including the upcoming Creative Celebration of Real Food event—a night of creative exploration in support of community food sustainability.
What drew you to the Celebration of Real Food event?
It’s actually one part of a nationwide project. Across the country, students are organizing to change their universities’ spending policies and priorities regarding food. The typical deal with a large company means that the food—from the cafeteria to the vending machine—is made to last a long time and is nutritionally deficient. The goal is to have UNM shift 20 percent of their food budget to local and sustainable food by 2020.
I have worked with the organizers before and I like that students are taking things into their own hands; that’s how most successful movements go. Of course it’s about healthier options, so people feel better and live longer, but it also supports the local economy. I’ll be sharing a poem, then holding a workshop so other people can create work on that theme.
Can we get a teaser line from your poem?
This is the movement we’ve been hungry for
every revolution began with guts
at the lunch counter or college cafeteria
and students are always at the front…
We are growing boys and girls… and demand a food ecosystem that will help us keep up
Because a change is a-coming and we are going to need every morsel of strength
So eat up.
