About Me

My name is Khalifa Muhammad. I am southern on my mothers side is northern on my father’s side is from New York. I enjoy reading non-fiction as well as novels. In particular I enjoy science fiction, historical fiction, and poetry. I have recently finished reading the novel Dune and am currently reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

As I reader, before I read I book I like to ask myself four questions: When was this book written, by whom was it written, for whom was it written, and the historical context of it. Literature is never built in a vacuum. The language use, the allegories, literary devices, and social circumstances all influence a book. A book like 1984 could only be written in the aftermath of facisim. Dune could not exist without the infleunce of oil, Islam or Middle Eastern culture. 

The reader too is not in a vacuum. A woman reader, a black man, and a white man, etc can read the same text but get a different message or experience from it. 

I am familiar with the poet Emily Dickenson, I have read some of her poetry in High School, Waltwhitman, I know him through reading transcendentalists like Thoreau, I am familiar with the name Fitzgerald but have not read any of his works. I am a fan of Harlem Renaissance writers and have reading poetry by Hughes and some of his Proses. I have also read some of the works of James Baldwin (he visited the Masjid I attend in Durham in 1963.)

I am excited to read Harlem Renaissance literature as well as women authors. I will admit, I can count on my hand the number of female authors I have read.