“If I’m not writing poetry everyday, I’m journaling everyday. It’s been my go-to when I’m trying to work something out, work an emotion out, work a problem out… I think it feels real natural for me. It’s almost like another limb for me, like an extension of my body.” Husam expresses himself through both poetry and prose, focusing on the artist’s journey and the human condition. 

Here’s a poem of his, “Returning Here”:

A portal opens,

and you wander through

dissolving

Into

something

greater.

A familiar face

is new and perfect.

Another’s hurt

becomes your own.

What was

pushing and pulling

is now flowing.

The waves

do not ask the sea

“where are we going?”

The sea does not ask

“who are you?”

What started as an exploration of what enlightenment may be like turned into the poem above. Husam incorporates what I call, a ‘characterization framework’ to enable fresh perspectives while writing. Imagining he was ‘enlightened’, Husam enabled fundamental thinking that superseded the ‘I’ and went to something beyond himself.

This fundamental thinking also appears in his business practices. He currently leads With Pulp, a digital product studio based in NYC with team members located around the world. When asked about working on things that resonate with him, he said, “I think it absolutely drives us further to do better work. When we started the non-profit work… the code that we were pushing felt like it had actual value that we resonated with in the real world. The non-profit’s aim was to take children off the streets and put them in shelters. It felt like our code was contributing to that and we felt good about that. It drove us to show up and be extra focused in our daily efforts.” 

Husam and team continue to choose the clients they want to work with, something very different from his time working at a corporate ad agency, just four years ago. “I felt like we could do this, we could pick the clients we wanted to work with… we could still do the work that we love and make a living off of it. Thankfully right now it’s working to be the case, and hopefully we continue to be able to do that.”

His love for product design led him to become a Product Design lecturer at City University in New York. “The funny thing is, I actually applied and a couple hours later I was like wait, I could do a much better cover letter so I applied twice and they actually really liked that. I thought that was going to be a bad thing and they said ‘we appreciate you applying twice’. Hey, it worked out well!”

Husam recognizes that while the things he focuses on can benefit others, it also contributes greatly to himself. Through his poetry he finds a means of expressing himself, his work as a means of earning money and contributing to others, and his teaching as an education in being concise, empathetic, and a good listener. He says that all of this is, “rewarding for how good it feels to actually do it”.

What is something that you have gone towards that makes you feel good?

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