“Black and Brown People on Shark Tank”: Eight Questions for Angbeen Saleem
As one of the few Pakistani Muslims in my community, I often find myself looking for connections to my culture in the world around me. Whether it’s new places I see passing by during a long drive, a television show I happened to stumble upon, or just in casual conversation, I search for small reflections of my identity-small moments that could link my experiences to those of others. I found this in Angbeen Saleem’s “Black and Brown People on Shark Tank,” which resonated with me because it represented people of different backgrounds navigating new and challenging spaces. Growing up in a combination of two cultures, Saleem highlights her experiences and demonstrates how it has shaped her identity, not only through her writing, but also through her other passions. Born in Alabama, she currently lives in Brooklyn as a filmmaker, artist, poet, and a graphic designer using her work to spread awareness on topics such as social justice and community collaboration. She has worked with Pride Foundation, North Star Fund, Donors of Color Network, and many other organizations aligning with her passions. Using various tools of photoshop and other platforms, Saleem integrates her knowledge of different aspects of art, including this into the meaningfully crafted lines that come together to form a piece. These pieces have appeared in Best American Poetry 2021, Blood Orange Review, Pigeon Pages, and in other collections. Additionally, she explores representing her poetry in interactive physical forms installed in various locations, allowing readers not only read and hear the language, but to feel and encounter it as well. Overall, Angbeen Saleem embodies two different cultures, lifestyles, and many different talents, ultimately drawing readers to her work.
I noticed that along with poetry, you have also completed projects using graphic design and visual arts. Have you ever incorporated aspects of graphic design into the language that you use in your poetry? If so, where and how?
Yes, I love incorporating all kinds of mediums into my poetry. I’m not sure if I’ve used graphic design language per se but I used my design skills to create several poems such as “Aunty Jalebi” and “Poem Mad Lib for the Apocalypse.” Also in 2021, I created an instillation for my poem “Black and Brown People on Shark Tank.” I worked with a fabricator to get this made but gave them all the specs. I also love using collage as a jumping off point for a poem or to create a full poem. Sometimes it’s easier to work with images and words you’re given rather than make up your own.
In Best American Poetry 2011, I chose to focus on your poem “black and brown people in shark tank.” In the poem, you state, “I’ve never been exclusive. I have never been excluded.” What made you use this repetition, and how did you come about that decision?
I wouldn’t say it was a totally conscious decision. I wrote the whole poem in one class with Angel Nafis and it kind of just spilled out of me. I edited the bunch after that class but most of the structure remained intact so I’m not sure when I added this piece. However I will say in my editing, I tried to exaggerate the elements I already had and the repetition was already there. And if you’ve watched Shark Tank the TV show (as I have many times haha) you know that repetition is also a part of many of the pitches. I also know that repetition can be a fun and easy way to inject humor and surprise because the reader begins to expect certain things and you can change it up on them. So perhaps subconsciously, all of this knowledge was seeping in.
In the same poem, I am curious as to why you included the line, “graduated from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton with a BA, MBA, PhD from all three.” What tone did you intend to convey with this and what emotion did you want this to stir in the audience?
Again, when I watched the show I noticed people emphasizing their bona fides, whether they went to Ivy League schools or had several degrees. It was part of creating this trust with the “sharks” or the investors. I wanted to play with this and just create a persona who was the most qualified person ever (and reading it again, I think I could have exaggerated even more!).
I observed your use of the word “niche” within the poem, which can mean a specific group of people with particular interests. However, I further researched this word and found that it can also mean a comfortable or suitable position in your lifestyle. Did you choose this word purposely to have two meanings? Could you take me inside your decision when writing this line of the poem?
A lot of my language for the poem came from watching the show obsessively. I had seen every episode of the first ten seasons of the show, some of them multiple times (I basically stopped watching the show after writing the poem– I guess I had gotten what I needed out of it!). There was something fascinating to me to see capitalism on the screen like this and especially the ways people of color had to sell themselves in addition to my product. So all of the language and the twists of the poem comes from things I had heard on the show, even if I reinterpreted in my own voice. Niches were a big topic on the show because the sharks wanted to know if the products could sell — if there was a market for them, enough special interest. But then if the niche was too small, that would also be a problem because then the sharks thought you wouldn’t be able to sell. So I would say the lines in the poem specifically refer to the definition that goes “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.”
I see that you are a Pakistani Muslim (as am I!). Have your experiences and culture influenced your writing and work? If yes, how so? How do you incorporate this into your poetry?
Of course! I’m not sure how they could not. In addition to being Pakistani Muslim, I grew up in a working class household. I was very aware that we didn’t have a lot of money and my parents never hid that from me, which I’m grateful for because it gave me a real sense into class disparities and the value of money from a young age even if I didn’t have the language for it yet. I also grew up going to school that didn’t have a lot of other South Asians — maybe 2-3 other kids in my grade. So I developed a real sense of my outsider perspective while also cultivating some solidarity with the African American kids in my class because of some sense of shared experience as outsiders. I think all of these experiences shaped my understanding of the world because it made me interested in racial justice, economic justice and the real human effects of the systems we have in place on marginalized communities and made me want to learn and understand more about all of it.
In class, we have discussed different perspectives on modern American poetry versus poetry of the past. What is your take on the state of American poetry today? Are there advantages or disadvantages and do they impact your writing?
I think American poetry is in quite an exciting place. I mean all poetry is. I think in some ways, poets are having a moment. For a while, poetry was relegated to the esoteric, for those in the know. I think more and more people are realizing how poetry is not just for and about the past but is really about the present and the future. I guess I’ve never written in any other time but this one, but I’ve found it exciting and approachable, even as someone who did not study poetry formally in a college setting.
In “Black and Brown People on Shark Tank,” you mix cultural identity and capitalism in the same tank. If your poem had to pitch itself to the Sharks, what would it be selling, and which Shark do you think would invest?
Haha, I’m not sure that my poem would garner an investment since it’s a critique of how racism and capitalism operates.
Ultimately, your poem speaks to identities and how they impact real-world scenarios. How do you see poetry and art shaping the way Black and Brown communities express their own narratives and shape the perspectives of others?
I guess, I hope that creating art that connects to the deepest part of ourselves, the self that has often been scrubbed out, will help us connect with each other in a way that reminds us of all of our humanities. In that recognition, I hope we find comfort, love, nourishment, joy. I do not think that poetry or art can stop war or racism or capitalism or any other ism but I also know that we need beauty and art and humor and poetry to keep fighting for a better world. I believe art provides us with the fuel, the hope that encourages us to keep going, keep fighting, keep living, keep loving.