Vox Populi
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Naomi Shihab Nye: Voice of America
The Voice of America got us to Karachi. Damascus. Islamabad. Dhaka. We went everywhere thanks to the Voice of America. Sat in circles on wooden floors, wore white flower garlands on beaches. Spent birthdays beneath mosquito nets. Rode in rickshaws. Stirred curries. Made friends. Loners. Social butterflies. A monkey climbed through a window in south India to lift the lid of a pot. We met photographers, artists, poets, children with blossoms tucked behind their ears, a journalist with a vendetta against the United States till he heard my name and it was the same name as his and then we became friends for years. He wrote different stories. He changed his tune. We made so many friends, all our tunes changed. They became bigger tunes, tie-dyed scarves wrapped as turbans, vines climbing a wall in Lahore, a new friend saying, Americans don’t have to write about the hard things, your lives are easier, but we have to write about the hard things, because it is all we have. Hey there, I am reaching out to you. We have hard things too. We met a man in a wheelchair who flew so high in his lines the whole room cried. Met a diplomat with a kingdom of Barbie dolls in his back closet. I kissed a distinguished elder on his cheek in a country where you don’t do that and the world did not end. And right now I would kiss every one we ever met and dined with and listened to because the Voice of America will no longer connect us, but there are some things you just don’t forget.
Copyright 2025 Naomi Shihab Nye
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Editor’s Note: President Trump signed an executive order March 15 gutting the federal agency that oversees the Voice of America, the news outlet that for more than 80 years broadcast news and information into countries where independent reporting is restricted or censored. Hours after Trump signed an executive order Friday directing the elimination of the US Agency for Global Media, numerous journalists, executives and staff at the organization’s Washington headquarters were notified that they were being placed on paid leave, according to National Public Radio. The White House on Saturday put out a press release titled “The Voice of Radical America,” which cited several claims accusing VOA of displaying “a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media.” [From internet reports]
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As always, Naomi writes with restraint and without anger. Quietly, like this, poetry as truth to power. And the truth in the poetry is its own power. And the voice is one of sanity, compassion and inclusion, all sadly lacking elsewhere. Such voices are indispensable now, more than ever. Thank you, Naomi.
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yes, thank you, Naomi!
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Naomi Shihab Nye is an indispensable voice in our poetry.
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She certainly is. I’ve admired her for many years…
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Funny, Naomi has such an impact–her writing is important and oh so memorable. Just today someone sent me her poem “Gate A-4,” which is about community and connection…check it out if you don’t know it. I’m sharing with with people I know who just need some hope right now now. https://poets.org/poem/gate-4?mc_cid=1275bab535&mc_eid=04db6b5127
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Gate A-4 is a great poem. All about kindness to strangers and compassion across borders.
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This is a gorgeous account of how we connect. Everywhere. Yes, Voice of America was one of the important voices that made the world a more embracing place. That leaves the BBC World Service. I not only loved Naomi’s account itself, but enjoyed tremendously the writing, every line to be savoured. I am a German-born Brit, married to a Peruvian, living in Lima, Peru. Travel was my life, making friends, kissing the elder. Thank you Michael, thank you Naomi Shihab Nye.
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Thanks, Rose Mary. The programs and initiatives that hold us together across borders are being dismantled.
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Naomi Shihab Nye’s memory is so precious. How painful it is to live in a world where we are all facing losses of this kind because our leaders cannot deal with open minds, only power and money. Thank you Naomi.
I send you all love. I know how you feel. I was born in South Africa and I live in Israel. I don’t think I need to add anything.
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Thanks, Noelle. I was born and raised in Texas and now live in Pittsburgh, which seems like an island of sanity.
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I was driving home from a medical appointment when I heard this on NPR which is in danger, too. Divide and conquer. Maybe we will need to learn how to learn shortwave? Every inch of me wants to lie down and give up, but we can’t.
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Absolutely not, Barb. We cannot give up.
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