Poet Amir Sulaiman performs at IMU during weekend

The Indiana Memorial Union proved to be the perfect venue for slam poet Amir Sulaiman’s intimate Friday night performance.\nChairs were arranged in a crescent around the stage and the lights dimmed for the event. Before the show, freshman Sloane Trugman was excited to “immerse herself in the diversity of the campus.”\nSulaiman took the stage and performed myriad spoken-word poems that tackled issues ranging from faith and love to war and revolution.\nSulaiman said he wanted the atmosphere of the show to be more of a conversation than a presentation, so he encouraged the crowd to ask questions and give him comments. Between poems, the audience and Sulaiman dialogued about “The Boondocks” and Don Imus.\n“It was good to hear the ideas and the frustration expressed so elegantly,” graduate student Leeanne Bowen Atkins said.\nSulaiman has performed the poem “Danger” on HBO’s “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.”\n“Number one, it is a poem of desperation,” Sulaiman said. “Number two, it is to remind those who would like to be reminded. Number three, to remind those that not like to be reminded. And number four, to inform those that don’t know.”\nSulaiman then blasted into the poem with a purposeful fury.\n“I am not angry; I am anger,” he declared.\nAs the poem continued, Sulaiman lost himself in the words and it began to feel as if the poem were delivering itself.\n“It’s not mine; it’s divine,” the devout Muslim said after the show.\nNot long ago, Sulaiman was a high school teacher. After “Def Poetry” aired, he said, the FBI began interviewing his students, trying to build a case that Sulaiman and his poetry were un-American. Nothing came of the inquisitions, he said. And Sulaiman joked that if the FBI wanted to investigate him, all they needed to do was buy his CD, not interview his students.\nTen-year-old Quoran Wimbley had never seen a poetry slam until Friday night, but he had studied it in school. He said he liked the performance because it was like hip-hop and wished Sulaiman was his teacher.\nAfter the performance, Sulaiman hung around to autograph copies of his CD, “Dead Man Walking.” The album, which contains both spoken word and hip-hop, was sold for $10, and all the proceeds went to combat homelessness.\nThe Muslim Student Union brought Sulaiman to campus. Senior Khizar Ali, the group’s vice president, said the show was a success. Ali said he is proud Sulaiman is a positive image of Muslims in the arts and entertainment industry.\n“It’s nice to see Amir is going towards the same goals that we are trying to accomplish on campus,” Ali said. “He is someone that is paving the way.”