Ammar and I got together a couple months back and sat down to discuss what are some ways that he can get his poetry out more without having to travel so much and perform. The thing with entertainment is that a lot of it is pushed by event marketing. If that’s not an option either due to time and/or budget constraints then you have to really focus on content and online social engagement as much as you can.

In Ammar’s case, content doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form spoken word poetry – a great way to start – but it’s it should be the area of presenting who you are and what you care about.

A lot of content can be produced as a means of:

• Engaging people, such as answering each person’s questions and responding to comments in the form of video.
• Talking head videos talking about things that go with your brand – Ammar is the head of student leadership development and training with AlMaghrib Institute. He also takes AlMaghrib seminars, he can make talking head videos addressing topics that are relevant to the AlMaghrib student community or topics of general appeal that also resonate with the AlMaghrib community.

One of the things Ammar is doing is he’s translated poetry by Imam Shafiee from Arabic into English into eBook form. I think this is awesome. Here is a snippet from his Facebook page:

Let the days do as they please
And be optimistic when destiny decrees
Do not despair due to the events of nights past
For the events of this world were not meant to last

- Imam AlShafi’ee

Here’s another one:

I love the righteous though I am not of them
Lest that I receive through them intercession
And I despise those whose transactions are sins
Although we are similar in profession

-AlShafi’ee

If you want the full book free of charge – check out his website: iAmAmmar.com

By the way,

When Ammar and I got together a few months back, he told me that the inspiration for the poem was a video my wife had made several years ago.

Here’s the original video that inspired the poem.