Cherita Harrell interviews Sham-e-Ali Nayeem for Quilting Water

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, musician and recovering social justice lawyer with Hyderabadi Muslim roots. She is the author of the poetry collection, City of Pearls (Upset Press, 2019), and has released two musical albums; City of Pearls (2019) and Moti Ka Sheher (2023) featuring self composed musical interpretations from her book.
Her work explores grief and loss, ancestral transmissions, international solidarities and space to imagine. Sham-e-Ali is the recipient of the 2022 Leeway Transformation Award, the 2016 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship, and the 1997 echoing green fellowship.