Kiini
Ibura
Salaam
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Kiini Ibura Salaam is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. The middle child of five, she grew up in a hardscrabble neighborhood with oak and fig trees, locusts and mosquitoes, cousins and neighbors. Kiini's work delves into spheres of human liberation, human connection, and evolution. She employs speculative fiction, erotica, and creative nonfiction to take readers through mind-bending journeys into the transcendent, the sensual, the mystical, and the fantastic.
KIS.list
BlogKIS.listbeing open // Clarion West // coincidences // Colonize This! // community // giving and receiving // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // magazine writing // Ms. magazine // putting yourself out there // rape // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // seduction // self presentation // serendipity // sharing wisdom // taking a chance // volunteering // writing life
Vol. 10, The Universe’s Ripple Effects
Posted on 2 November 2001
A Ms. Magazine Intern’s Apartment New York, NY My parents brought me and my siblings up with a reverence for ancestors and a thankfulness for life, but with no real religious structure. They never set out to define God for us, nor did they even suggest to us that there was a God. Religion just… »
BlogKIS.listassualt // catcalling // fight // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // male aggression // personal // Prepare/Impact // protection // publication // rape culture // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // safety // self defense // Sexism // sexual harassment // testimonial // threats // verbal skills // women
Vol. 9, Self-Defense
Posted on 28 October 2001
Prepare/Impact Self Defense Training Center New York, NY Eight years ago, while studying in the Dominican Republic, I was assaulted at gunpoint. This came at the tail end of a trip that was marred by serious sexual harassment, most of it physical. I had my body and hair touched by strangers more times than I… »
BlogKIS.listarticle // catcalling // editing // editorial process // editors // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // magazine writing // polished writing // rape culture // revising // revision // rough drafts // sexual harrassment // traumatic // writing life // writing struggles
Vol. 8, Editors and Writers
Posted on 8 October 2001
Phone Call from an Editor Brooklyn to Manhattan, NY A friend of mine asked me to write a short bit of catalogue copy on catcalling. His organization is doing an exhibition attempting to stimulate the experience of walking down the street and having men yell at you. Men will have the opportunity to walk through… »
BlogKIS.listasemic // Clarion West // communication // creativity // Dominican Republic // experimental fiction // freewriting // inspiration // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // language // Nalo Hopkinson // Red Clay // rejection // techniques // word play // Writer // writer's block // writing // writing life // zine
Vol. 7, Freewriting and Asemic Writing
Posted on 27 September 2001
A few months ago Tim Gaze, a zine editor interested in experimental fiction asked me to write a piece for his zine. He had read the first speculative short story I had ever written, “Of Wings, Nectar, and Ancestors,” in the literary journal Anansi and wanted to read more similar work. In “Of Wings, Nectar,… »
BlogKIS.listafghanistan // Brooklyn Bridge // community // compassion // confusion // fear // international warfare // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // love // middle east // retaliation // revenge // September 11 // terrorism // World Trade Center
Vol. 6, Destruction and Transformation
Posted on 19 September 2001
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 Destruction of the World Trade Center New York, NY I have nothing to say. There are statements I could make, political accusations, speculations on cause and involvement, blame, but all of it has been said already—over and over again. I assume that each of you is receiving opinions and information through… »
BlogKIS.listCaribbean // carnival // Culture // Eastern Parkway // j'ouvert // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // Labor Day // Manhattan Beach // Sheepshead Bay // soca // travel
Vol. 5, The Science of Carnival
Posted on 10 September 2001
Carnival/Labor Day Celebrations Brooklyn, NY My girlfriend Vanessa Richards and I have done Carnival together in three countries: Notting Hill Carnival in London, Brooklyn’s Labor Day festivities and, of course, Trinidad’s Carnival. What amazes me about Carnival, besides the freedom and lawlessness of it, is the Science of it. There’s so many elements to the… »
BlogKIS.listappearances // audience // Clarion West // embarrassment // erotica // fear // hiding out // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // listeners // nerves // performance // practice // Promotion // pushing your career // Radio // reading // representing yourself // responsibility // Self-promotion // strippers // WBAI // writing // writing struggles
Vol. 4, A Conversation about Self Promotion
Posted on 2 September 2001
The Living Room of a Writer’s Apartment Brooklyn, NY I’ve been writing and publishing stories and essays since 1990. In the beginning I never read my work at all. When people were looking for writers to read at events, I’d refuse; when pushed, I’d be noncommittal. When I did promise to read, I would leave… »
BlogKIS.listbaby steps // Cave Canem // Clarion West // Growing as a writer // Jack Womack // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // Nalo Hopkinson // novel structure // novel writing // poetry challenge // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // the artist life // writer's groups // writing // writing advice // writing organization // writing struggles // writing trips
Vol. 3, Novel Writing
Posted on 22 August 2001
Femail Circle Cyberspace I’m on a cyber-circle with a group of women from college. We’re almost all writers. We talk about life and work and encourage each other to go beyond our comfort zones in lots of ways. Last summer, one member, upon return from Cave Canem challenged us all to write a poem a… »
BlogKIS.listauthor appearances // Clarion West // Cuba // Dark Matter // Hour of the Wolf // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // Promotion // Radio // Sci fi // Self-promotion // Speculative fiction // WBAI // Writer
Vol. 2, Radio and Readings
Posted on 11 August 2001
WBAI Radio Station Wall Street, Manhattan Before I went to Clarion (a six-week speculative fiction writing workshop), the New York Review of Science Fiction had a small crisis. Scott Westerfield had guest-edited a sci fi issue of Nerve magazine (a magazine about sex) and the NY Review of Science Fiction was hosting a reading from… »
BlogKIS.listA Small Place // documentary // economics // farmers // Free Zones // IMF // inequality // international // Jamaica // Jamaica Kincaid // Kiini Ibura Salaam // KIS.list // Life and Debt // racism // tourism // Zona Libre
Vol. 1, Life and Debt
Posted on 8 August 2001
The Screening Room Downtown Manhattan I don’t read newspapers, watch the news or read books about various forms of oppression. I choose instead to grapple with the issues I confront daily on the street or in my travels, which are enough to occupy my mind, attention and compassion for extremely long stretches of time…. »