I was examining what religious identity meant in Africa. Along the edge of the Islamic world, what patterns were shaping identity? And the truth is, when I looked at the rise of violent forms of religion, no single identity was prevalent. It's central to note that in Nigeria, that tree is rooted primarily in Christianity. It's not just Islamic militants in the Middle Belt.

News isn't designed to talk about daily life in its nuances, but poetry is.

Poetry isn't as relevant in the Western world as it is in Afghanistan. And not many people make time for something that doesn't feel relevant.

The power of the voice in rap is about the expression of truth, rather than the expression of some kind of artifice.

I think most good poetry is about suffering; I think that's what underlies the love in these landays pieces - suffering and longing.

If we were to see Western landay poems, we'd see them out of disenfranchised populations, maybe out of the legacy of slavery. Spirituals, rap music - that would be the space we'd find American landays in.

We know what war means, and we know what poverty means. We need to develop a better model for reaching out to the world than we have.