I remember waiting for my final interviewer in the lobby of Shatha Tower in Dubai’s Media City. The interviewer was to arrive in a few minutes, so I ordered some coffee at the Caribou Coffee there as I waited. A gentleman with salt and pepper hair speaks out to me from behind, ‘You’re the poet!’. His colleague says, ‘You know her?’. First gentleman says, ‘Yes, she read poetry at the celebration event the other day. It was great!’ And so the conversation ensued. Now, this gave me the biggest and highest kick ever and I think I was a bit too sassy in my interview.
I got the job. Three weeks before this, I was commissioned by the global management consultancy, McKinsey & Co. to write a poem for two of their female employees who had just been promoted as Sr. Partners within the organization. This was a first time, and this meant their work would influence governmental policies around the world. They wanted this to be a special event, and a poem written and performed be a woman for a woman would be the most appropriate.
I interviewed their colleagues and families, researched their profiles and watched videos of them to be influenced by and conclude my poems. The women were moved by the experience and were surprised. They took home framed copies of their poems.
The following is a clip from the event where I performed the poems.