MashaAllah Lil Man is Blessed
Mustafa Ahmed wears sneakers, jeans and T-shirts. He has close-cropped hair and a gap-toothed grin. He is 12. People tend to give him standing ovations.
He writes poems about poverty in Africa, where his family is from, and poverty in Regent Park, where he has lived his entire life. He writes poems about the value of education and the importance of trust. He writes poems that make white adults cry – this is what happened at the Hot Docs film festival – and other black students jump to their feet and clap.
That is what happened at a Nelson Mandela Park Public School assembly in the fall. Mustafa, who specializes in spoken word, performed "A Single Rose," a pleading poem about life in Canada's largest housing project. Students stood and cheered. Teachers gaped.
By himself? He wrote that?
Yes, insisted his Grade 7 language teacher, Marjorie Malcolm. By himself.
But then, back in class, she decided she had to make sure. "I didn't want to look like an idiot," she would explain later.
"She just said, 'Are you sure you wrote it? Are you sure?' " Mustafa says. "I said, 'I'll write one right now.' And I wrote one during the period. It was called 'Sick and Tired.' I remember the beginning. It was:
I'm sick and tired
'Too fat,' 'too skinny'
Look into the TV, and
That's the definition of beauty?"
Malcolm had no further questions.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/646872
