About Me

Hassen Saker is a poet and interdisciplinary creator, working in texts, audio, photography, film, NFTs, performance, and actions.

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Her written works have been published in magazines and small presses. Chapbooks include Salem (Belladona*), Crabapples (Furniture Press), Sky Journal from Land, Sky Journal from Sea, Sky Journal from Sky. Her first poetry collection, the triptych Sky Journal, was published in a single volume from Dusie Press in 2014. Her book of microsnark poems, Consolation Snacks, was published with Furniture Press in 2017. Saker’s art film installations have been featured online, in public art spaces & art shows, & she has performed in numerous venues. 

In 2009 she founded the experimental organization, Center for Sublime Arts with its regular arts salon, and its sister social media/channel, VolkLibre, a community of artist-activists. For this, she directed & produced Heroes, a series of short video interviews with sustainability role models. Saker served for four years on Executive Committee for the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association. In 2011, she conceived, produced, directed & edited a feature-length private documentary & is currently in production of two more essay/documentary films with Dog Feed Dog Productions. 

She has collaborated with other creators like poet Deborah Poe and artist/engineer/scientist/educator  Natalie Jeremijenko at the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at NYU. 

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Additionally, Saker has been a green business owner for several years, starting in 2006 when she founded her B Corp, Organic Home, in the Philadelphia area and then the L3C art gallery and salon, Bureau of Aesthetic Enrichment, in Grand Rapids, Mi. Committed to the values of sustainable business, she was a director of the Board for the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and for several years wrote the eco-advice blog, Dear Hippie. 

In 2017 Saker moved to Michigan to care for ailing family. She currently lives in Grand Rapids with her Partner, Lauren Cavote, occasionally consulting at their real estate venture, Refined Realty Partners. 

***above photo by Samuel Hassen

Usually I find that my favorite works of art are those that allow the artist herself growth as much as they might inspire an audience toward internal examination. This is likely the primary aspiration with my work. However, as a creative, I am most often overtaken with compulsion & sheer gratification of the process.

My writing projects often span years as I research & develop in various forms while producing texts. Some are more text-focused but most are interdisciplinary as I work through aspects of a concept. I often get the feeling that I'm a simple dog sniffing out existing works in the ether. 

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Gestures throughout all of my work are rooted in the deeply feminine – that is, the intuitive, nurturing, formidable (protective), nature-centric utility & beauty in interconnected embodiment. I care about presence with transcendence, iconoclasm with innovation, dilations, hilarity, nuance, the funk, the sublime, the lush, the cinematic.

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Thematically, I gravitate toward delectable sciences and la condition humaine, often with a nod to absurdist theatre but also scratching [at] some meaningful truth, &, being mammalian, at intimacy. Playing with syntax & familiar imagery, my conscious effort addresses mood. It also attempts a fresh[ening] language, not to alienate but to invite an audience to perhaps re/approach an idea.

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Ultimately, I hope my readers/viewers find my output stuffs fun, especially in a more cosmic sense.

***above photo by Francesca Constanzo

Primarily, I write experimental fiction and poetry, developing conceptual projects that might span many years & various media/platforms (text, art film/video, music, photography, games, performance, art). I also make documentary films. 

For instance, my poetry  triptych book, Sky Journal (2014 Dusie Press), took me over ten years to write. During that time, I took photos & videos as a way to further  meditate, explore, & express what was happening thematically (major psychological transformation in this case). I see all of these pieces as contributing to one collective work of art, like 'variations on a  theme' in paintings or music, but the variations are in disparate creative forms. For the book launch, I shot, directed, scored, & edited a short film, to which I read/narrated poetry excerpts live & collaborated with dancers for the performance. Since, I’ve featured the film in art installations & have exhibited the photographic prints in gallery shows. 

Overlapping that span of time, I began another poetry project - a new poetic form I coined 'crabapples' - that made their way into a snarky chapbook, then eventually into a full-length poetry book called Consolation Snacks, published in 2017 by Furniture Press. I had also begun a documentary film, composed a couple songs, shot portraits of friends & video interviews of family, & made unrelated video shorts during that period. This is the sort of thing I do with various projects – & they usually all take a lot of time & consideration to come together.

Making documentary films gives me a sense of social agency with issues I care deeply about & keeps me engaged with the world outside of myself. With these, I like to feature innovative, no-bullshit people with insightful thoughts or helpful real-world practices to share. 

Currently, I have about eight creative irons in the fire in addition to my 'day job' selling art.

***above film still is self-portrait