Jewish ‘Mamita’ shares life as poet living in NYC
Vanessa Hidary, also known as the Hebrew Mamita, did not grow up dreaming of becoming a spoken word poet.
Once an aspiring actress, Hidary said she started writing her own monologues for auditions because she was not relating to the material she was given to recite.
Hidary performed spoken word poetry yesterday about her identity, relationships and love gone wrong, among other topics.
Kate Thomas, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, introduced Hidary by saying Hidary grew up on the diverse Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Hidary’s program, sponsored by the Jewish Artist and Activist Community of Rutgers Hillel, the Center for Latino Arts and Culture, Rutgers’ Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes, Reform on Campus — Sponsored by the Men of Reform Judaism and the Associate Dean of Douglass campus, took place last night in the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus.
Hidary calls herself the Hebrew Mamita because though she is a Sephardic, or Spanish, Jew herself, she also grew up in a Latino community.
“When I started writing, I really wanted to put something together that was showing my pride in being Jewish, but also showing the pride and respect I have for other cultures,” she said.
She said one of the first poems she wrote was a prayer for the Upper West Side. Attending public school in her neighborhood ended up guiding her career writing about different cultures coming together.
Hidary performed her signature piece, “Hebrew Mamita,” which talked about a guy who once told her how she did not “act Jewish” in a complementary tone, and she did not reply.
“I’m the Hebrew Mamita, long lost daughter of Abraham and Sarah, the sexy oy-vey matzah-eating, chutzpah-having … hip-hop-listening, Torah-scroll-reading, all-people-loving, pride-filled Jewish girl,” she recited.
The poem ended with her saying how it feels to be told that one does not look or act like their people.
“You just tell them they don’t look, period,” she said.
Hidary also performed a poem entitled “PHD in Him,” in which she discusses a relationship she became overly invested in.
“By now, I could have had a Ph.D. in philosophy, internal medicine, Middle Eastern studies, stem cell research, but no, I have a Ph.D. in him,” she said. “Funny how he brings me no income, no pension, no future, no future.”
The poem goes on to say how the man in the poem consumed her life, becoming her career, her daily ambition, her goals, her homework and her to-do list.
“So don’t ask me what I did this year, I didn’t write any plays or any books, I didn’t do some responsible s--- like pursue a backup career, I was fully employed in the fury of him,” she said.
Hidary said she finds inspiration walking around New York City and generally walking around in life.
The last poem Hidary performed was entitled “What If.”
“What if I was a different kind of girl — quiet, tame, knew my place, shut the f--- up, didn’t let my tongue get loose after whiskey, didn’t say pussy on stage,” Hidary read. “What if I believed I was beautiful, focused on the four guys who wanted me and not on the one who clearly doesn’t?”
“What if I was one of those white girls who only hung out with other white girls and did white girl things in white girl land?” she continued.
Hidary said people just want to hear other people’s truths.
“If you’re just real and honest, even if it’s someone getting up and talking about [being] a trust fund baby, if it was an amazing poem and it was honest, people are willing to hear that,” she said.
Hidary is writing monologues and just did a one-woman show called “Ten Days” in New York City, which she said was based largely on her late father.
While she does put a lot of her personal life into her poetry and short stories, Hidary said she does keep some secrets, and she would not put anything out there if she felt unready to deal with comments about it.
“There are times I’ve gone home crying,” she said. “I think it’s part of it, but what you get back from the people makes it worth it.
Saskia Agustin, the assistant director of the Center for Latino Arts and Culture, said CLAC was interested in co-sponsoring this event because of their interest in the importance of Sephardic Jewish communities in Latin America.
The center, which has been serving the Rutgers Latino community since 1992, was also interested in the shared social and cultural exchanges between Latinos of diverse backgrounds in New York City, she said in an email.
