Text Messages: or How I Found Myself Time Traveling

by Yassin Al Salman

Text Messages is the first multi-genre collection by Montreal-based Iraqi hip-hop artist, activist, and professor Yassin "Narcy" Alsalman. Composed entirely on a smartphone during air travel and married to artwork from comrades, Narcy 's writing speaks of the existential crises experienced by diasporic children of war before and during imperialism in the age of the Internet.

Narcy 's verses span the space between hip-hop and manifesto, portraying a crumbling, end-stage capitalist society, visions for a new reality, and exposes the myth of multiculturalism in post-9/11 North America. The wordsmith hollows and transmogrifies the grotesque excess of the West by juxtaposing McLife with images of death, destruction, and trauma in the East.

From the depths of apathetic consumerism arises a voice of spiritual self-realization that explodes the misrepresented, mythical monolith of Islam in the West and with the rubble builds healing through intelligent resistance and radical love.

"Young boys and girls trapped in Walmarts-- our consumer interim camps. A family-friendly, discounted freedom. You don 't see what the Internet can 't. Not our land or home. Not your mans or holmes. Not your towers or domes. Not your power or drones."

Genres: Poetry, Technology, Art

150 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2020

Reviews

[Nmcf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am completely haunted and yet completely soothed. I’m not sure how to describe this book. But it’s from the future — a future we exist in.

[Zeina J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this futuristic piece of art. Many lines in these poems hit home. I was exposed to a new kind of poetry. Thank you to Yassin for writing it and being real. My favorite part was the comic about the future, and the story about Hashim. Thank you for showing the beauty of Iraq.

[n · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the visual art and graphic design of the novel was both intriguing and fresh, the vast majority of the written work in this novel felt redundant and incomplete. There were some verses and lines that truly felt like they were hitting on invigorating topics, but the overall writing of the novel was lackluster.

Also, I wish there had been more tie-in to the 'text message' theme so heavily emphasized in the summary and introduction of the book. The idea of writing poetry and verses within the brevity and casualness of text messages was what led me to pick up the book.

P.S. the early 2000s is not the age of the Internet, but maybe that's just me being a Gen Z asshole.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This got off to a rough start but once it settled into story I appreciated this mixed genre/poetry collection that gives us a unique insight into growing up in both Iraq and the United States.

3.5

[Aya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confession: I only bought this book so I could get free shipping on a nonfiction haul a couple of years ago. I had no expectations, only curiosity about this unassuming book of poetry with a futuristic theme. I didn’t pick it up off my bookshelf until last November. What I’d come to find out is that this is not just a mere anthology — this is very much a multidisciplinary art exhibit in book form! There is poetry, photography, essay, comic art, short stories, visual art, rap bars, historical archiving, and much more. I intentionally took my sweet time reading it and took it with me over many travels over the course of the last several months. I shared pages with friends in person and in ‘text messages’ to reflect on history and process current events. I read it by myself and in community. Several of the pieces brought us to tears, and several others illuminated ideas and inspired us to write and create. If I could describe the experience of this book in one word, it would be “cathartic”. It broke my heart open, allowed me space to feel collective grief, then mended my heart again in knowing that I am not alone in carrying this grief. I am happy to have stumbled upon it and grateful to have been introduced to Narcy’s work.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself a bit disappointed with this book. The visuals are phenomenal. However, the graphic novel insert is intriguing but lacks a clear resolution, many of the poems feel lack they need to undergo an additional round of drafting, and the prose sections are underwhelming. I find Alsalman's work the most poignant when he uses his poetry to make postcolonial critiques about American intervention in the Middle East; however, these poems do not counterbalance the texts I found less engaging. I recommend this for skimming before attempting to read cover-to-cover.

[Christina Bagni · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit hard to rate a book that is very clearly not written “for me,” but regardless—Really what I found myself not liking is how the writing seems to think it is more profound than it really is. Lots of promise but just a little lackluster. A lot of the poems read like song lyrics that didn’t make an album’s final cut. Made it through about 80%… Just couldn’t push myself to finish another extended prose section. Really wanted to like this one, but it missed the mark for me.

[Nick DeFiesta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this was for me. There were some gems here and there, but overall verse like this just doesn't quite click to me. Glad I gave it a shot, though.

[Vanessa Wolosz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic collection of anything remotely literary that somehow managed to fit in criticisms of George W Bush

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A power-house of art, poetry and literature composed completely on the author’s phone while flying around the world. This collection is as bold & elegant as it is haunting and inspiring. A necessary passionate read of all aspects of the modern Muslim world. A hard & hopeful read.

So glad I visited the bookstore in Montreal and got to meet Yassin and his partner!

[Marisa Duarte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Professor Alsalman's collection of rhymes, verses, art, memes, graphic novel and two short stories while on a flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis. He wrote the book mostly on planes. I'm traveling to Minneapolis specifically to meet with Indigenous computer scientists. Netanyahu has just ordered that all Palestinians evacuate the Gaza strip in 24 hours. I've been reaching out to Israeli and Palestinian loved ones, checking in, listening, trying to understand, and processing powerful emotions. Narcy's words are like the echoes of a secret spell or prophecy from the Middle East spinning across ancestral webs into his reality as a father, artist, musician and educator. Here are the confessions and sorrows of an Arab man, of a husband, a father, one who is displaced but spiritually sensate, narrating the emotions we need to make sense of this latest phase of massacre in a centuries-long war. As Narcy writes, its World War Free. The mediation of iPhones, 5G, and promises of a tech-cushy pain-free existence are anything but, distractions to which we risk sacrificing our spirits and political will. Surveillance is the troll in our lives, the one we pay to keep like a bad watchdog. Narcy's verses dance through these and other complicated emotions and experiences, providing the beat to what many of us are now watching in horror and shock reeling on our screens.