Saleem Hue Penny (him/friend) is a Black, disabled poet expanding the pastoral tradition of the Southern Black Belt using a "rural hip-hop blues" aesthetic. Drum loops, field sounds, gouache, and birch bark commonly punctuate his poetry; these hybrid audio/mixed media pieces are released under the moniker h.u.e (hope – uplifts – everything).
Saleem is the 2021 Poetry Coalition Fellow at Zoeglossia, an Assistant Poetry Editor at Bellevue Literary Review, a member of Obsidianâs Inaugural âO|Sessions Black Listeningâ 2022 cohort, and a proud Cave Canem Fellow. Across poetic mediums, he explores how young people of color traverse wild spaces and define freedom on their own terms.
A mutual aid advocate and disability justice activist, he practices cultivating "Ecosystems of Care" centering
"Melanistic Wonderment". Saleem regularly collaborates on community engagement activities, particularly for teen parent-headed families, long-term pediatric patients, and families affected by incarceration.
He is compiling his first full-length poetry collection and pursuing archival research for âThe Happy Land Linimentâ Project: an oral history, digital field guide, and chapbook-length lyric essay set in Reconstruction-era âAffrilachiaâ.
