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Barghouti.com
Voice of Palestinian Folklore -- Palestinian folklore, poetry, music, and more...more..
Boycott Israeli Campaign - Innovative Minds
A lively British site full of graphics, poetry, protest and practical boycott information...more..
Hanini
The Home of Mike Odetalla (Hanini) in Cyberspace - The site is the home for my Poems, Essays, Personal Stories, Narrative, and all things that I consider important and relevant to...more..
The Irish Handstand
The anarchic online journal for authors of political enquiry, poetry, philosophy and art...more..
List of Palestinian Book Reviews
A Lake beyond the wind / Palestinian Embroidery of the Society of In''ash El Usra, El Bireh / Embroidering a Life: Palestinian Women and Embroidery / Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians...more..
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Poetic Injustice
The underground voice in politics -- Massachusetts-based site by brothers Ramzi and Remi Kanazi featuring articles, poems, and news about Palestine, the Middle East and more...more..
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A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and Chicken McNuggets. By As''ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC...more..
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Palestinian
poet Mahmud Darwish -- "..shows the power of beauty in difficult times."
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Darwish
wins top Dutch prize
Middle East Online, December 2, 2004
Palestinian poet
wins Prince Claus prize for impressive body of work, lifelong achievement.
THE HAGUE - Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish has been awarded
the Dutch Prince Claus prize in recognition of an "impressive body of work"
written while in exile, the royal foundation said on Wednesday.
"In
his work, he manages to highlight the consequences of forced migration and also
shows the power of beauty in difficult times," the Prince Claus Foundation
said in a statement.
Darwish, 62, is one of the best known contemporary Arab poets.
Born in Palestine in 1942, he fled along with his family following the creation
of Israel in 1948.
He returned briefly to Israel but was forced to leave in 1970
because of his political views, spending 26 years in Lebanon and Russia before
finally settling in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The foundation said that its choice of laureate for the
100,000-euro (135,000-dollar) award, was part of an effort to "highlight
the positive effects of migration and asylum policy."
more..
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I
Speak of Palestine
By Robert L. Green, VTJP, 2006
I speak of your insistence
on believing what you’re told
to be so blind:
you must have learned
what not to know
to be so cold that you can say
“These people do belong
inside this tomb.”
They cannot move
or live
or eat
And, yes,
I speak of Palestine.
You cannot hold
its fate is just
and not be part
of grinding up
their bones and blood
to mix with desert earth
and olive oil
to build your state, your jail;
a wall surrounds
their place, like this:
a torture room
a starving field
a stolen home
a human shield
a bullet for a child
and poison gas on village streets
their food, their food!
Their food is gone
you cleanse
and push
and punish
taking what you want
to have for you alone.
We know it’s rape,
and though the world records
your names and deeds,
the future courts and trials
will not revive
the dead, displaced and missing.
And yes, I speak of Palestine.
more..
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Al-Khader 3-day Festival of arts and culture begins
Ma’an News Agency 5/5/2008
Bethlehem - Maan - The Al-Khader festival of arts and culture began in the village’s sports stadium, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Sunday. The three-day festival includes cultural and heritage presentations from Palestine, including singing, poetry recitation and performances by dance troupes. Al-Khader municipal council, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism, organized the event to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, as well as the celebrations of Saint George’s memorial (Al-Khader in Arabic), where Christians and Muslim pilgrims visit Saint George’s Monastery. The celebration started with formal speeches and folk dances. Dr. Kholoud Daibes, the Palestinian Minister of Tourism, passed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ greetings to the audience. The mayor of Al-Khadir, Ramzi Salah, explained that the municipal council of Al-Khadir. . . more.. e-mail
Bearing witness to past bombs through poetry and music
Laura Wilkinson, Daily Star 3/25/2008
Review - Theatre Monnot hosts a Good Friday of ’Les Poetes Temoignent - BEIRUT: Good Friday offered a reminder that Beirut also has a calmer face. In some city neighborhoods, dusk unveiled processions of families making their way through the streets sharing the burden of a cross, waving palms and carrying lanterns while candle-lit churches filled quietly. Away from the comforting Easter celebrations, though, in Theatre Monnot, "Les Poetes Temoignent" ("Poets Bearing Witness") offered an evening of performed poetry focusing on war and suffering, with the destruction inflicted on Lebanon during the summer war of 2006 receiving particular attention. "Poets Bearing Witness" provided a stark contrast to the Easter scene outside - which may have accounted for the event’s relatively low turnout - and offered a different kind of solace: one to be found within Lebanon’s fiery and resilient poetry circles. more.. e-mail
Israeli writer wins $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship
Rika Lichtman, Globes Online 9/25/2007
Peter Cole, who works in Jerusalem, has become known for publishing English translations of medieval Hebrew and Arabic poets, as well as for his own poetry. Peter Cole, a writer who works in Jerusalem, is among the 24 winners of this year’s MacArthur Fellowships. The fellowships are worth $500,000 each over a three year period. "I received a surprise phone call a week ago, and I didn’t believe it. So that I would believe it, they sent a follow-up letter," Cole told "Globes" this morning. He was educated in the US, and came to Israel ("I don’t like the term aliya) in 1981 with his wife, the author Adina Hoffman. The citation from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation reads, "Peter Cole is a translator, publisher, and poet who brings the often overlooked works of medieval Spain and the modern Middle East to English-speaking audiences. more..
Palestinian poet Tamim Barghouthi gives recital in Bethlehem
Ma’an News Agency 9/23/2007
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Prominent Palestinian poet Tamim Barghouthi gave a recital to a packed audience at Al-Finiq hall in Diheisha refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem Saturday evening. Hundreds stood outside the hall, listening through the doors. Barghouthi won fifth place in an Arabic poetry competition organized by an Abu Dhabi television station earlier this month. Among the attendants were PLC members Muhammad Lahham and Isa Qaraqi’, UN office director Mustafa Subani as well as a number of poets and academics. "The phenomenon of Tamim Barghouthi came just in time. The audience is eager to listen to poetry, to hear about Jerusalem, and to reject the ongoing inter-Palestinian dispute. Tamim seems to be a prominent, highly educated poet, and most importantly self-confident, and for... more..
Girl’s got verbs
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Daily Star 9/21/2007
Review - BEIRUT: Hind Shoufani celebrated the publication of her first poetry collection with a raucous launch party earlier this month at Art Lounge, a fashionably disheveled gallery that doubles as bar and boutique in the industrial district of Karantina. DJs, artists, musicians and performers all contributed their time, talent and energy to creating a vibe outrageous enough to match that of Shoufani’s work. "More Light Than Death Could Bear" is a loud book - a ranting, raving, stomping, flailing, wild-curls-everywhere and two-middle-fingers-to-the-world kind of book. Shoufani takes more than 40 poems and sifts them into three sections - "Of Palestine and Other Shrapnel," "The Scent of Yasmine" and "Sleeping Alone in Beirut." Throughout the collection she cranks the emotional volume demonstrably high. more..
Return of the ’modest poet’
Dalia Karpel, Ha’aretz 7/12/2007
How thrilled is he really about his coming visit to Haifa? What was the impact on him of a report that 1,200 tickets (out of a total of 1,450) for his poetry-reading appearance this Sunday in an auditorium on Mount Carmel had been snatched up in one day? Does this embrace move Mahmoud Darwish, known as the Palestinian national poet, who in recent years has lived in Amman and occasionally in Ramallah?" When I passed the age of 50, I learned how to control my emotions," Darwish says, during a conversation that takes place in Ramallah. "I am going to Haifa without any expectations. I have a barrier on my heart. Maybe at the moment of the encounter with the audience a few tears will fall in my heart. I anticipate a warm embrace, but I am also apprehensive that the audience will be disappointed, because I do not intend to read many old poems. more..
Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish set to return to Haifa for first time since 1971
Yoav Stern, Ha’aretz 7/3/2007
Palestinian national poet and writer Mahmoud Darwish is expected to take part in a literary event in Haifa, for the first time since leaving Israel more than 35 years ago. Hadash Secretary Iman Ouda told Haaretz yesterday that the Defense Ministry has permitted Darwish to attend the event at Mt. Carmel Auditorium on July 15. Hadash said the event, held jointly with Masharaf magazine, will focus on the poet and his work. Darwish worked and wrote in Haifa for many years. Darwish was born in 1941 in the village of Al-Birwah, which was destroyed in 1948. His family stayed in Lebanon briefly as refugees and then returned to the village of Jedida in the Galilee. Darwish lived in Israel until 1971, when he left for Moscow to take a course given by the Communist Party. more..
Over 1,000 Palestinian figures sign petition denouncing Hamas takeover of Gaza Strip
Ma’an News Agency 6/27/2007
Ramallah – Ma’an – Over a thousand Palestinian politicians, intellectuals, economists and civic dignitaries on Wednesday signed a document denouncing "the bloody military mutiny which Hamas conducted in the Gaza Strip." Heading the petition was the signature of veteran Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. The document was entitled "Let’s protect and defend the Palestinian national project." The petition read: "What has been accomplished over 40 years at a very high price was shocked and has almost collapsed. The Palestinian legal political representation was threatened, as well as the right to establish an independent national entity." Signatories to the document also affirmed that the legitimacy of the PLO "is the higher Palestinian national legitimacy". more..
June Amazed them
The Economist - Editorial, MIFTAH 6/27/2007
IT IS a sullen parade of short, bitter stanzas, equal parts sadness, bewilderment, shame and rage. In a poem that Palestinians have been posting on blogs, circulating by e-mail and handing out in offices, Mahmoud Darwish, their unofficial poet laureate, lashes out at the internecine fighting that culminated, during one blood-soaked week, in what some fear could be a fatal schism in their putative state. Gaza, where the Islamists of Hamas now hold sway, and the West Bank, where secular Fatah retains control, have been driven asunder almost exactly 40 years after Israel occupied them. Mr Darwish laments: June amazed us on its fortieth anniversary: if we do not find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hands so as not to forget! Many see an opportunity in the debacle. more..
Palestinian poet threatens that Arab-Israelis will demonstrate against Gazan fighters
Ma’an News Agency 5/19/2007
Tulkarem – Ma’an – If the inter-Palestinian fighting in the Gaza Strip does not come to an end, Arab crowds from within Israel will demonstrate against Gazans in all pre-1948 Palestinian towns, said the Palestinian poet and writer, Ahmad Qiwan. Qiwan is from the town of Um Al-Fahim on the Israeli side of the Green Line. He said, "The fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip are extremely dangerous and the rivals are robbing the Palestinian dream of repatriation, freedom and dignity." He called on all the Palestinian citizens inside Israel to "say what they have to say and never remain hand-cuffed with regards to the escalation in Gaza." He called on Arab-Israelis to "organize rallies condemning the fight and those who fuel it." These statements were made during the poet’s participation in a Palestinian national... more..
Lebanese poet publishes collections celebrating locality and liberation
By Maria Mancilla Garcia, Daily Star 1/25/2007
Interview -- BEIRUT: "Some of my poems are born in French, others in Arabic," says Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad. "I can’t translate my own words. I feel like a different woman in each language I write in." Haddad, who divides her time between her poetry and her position as culture editor of the newspaper An-Nahar, is fluent in English and Spanish as well as in French and Arabic (the total number of languages she has command of is seven). Two of her books have just been published in Spanish. The first book, "Alli Donde el Rio se Incendia" ("There Where the River Burns"), is an anthology of modern Lebanese poems she selected and translated from Arabic. Published in Spain, it includes works by 38 poets, including Yussef Khal, Nada al-Hage, Abbas Beydoun, Abdo Wazen, Bilal Khbeiz, Yussef Bazzi, Samer Abu Hawash and more. more..
Prince of Poets’ Jawdat Haidar passes away at 102
Daily Star 12/7/2006
BEIRUT: Jawdat Haidar, the Arab League’s "Prince of Poets," passed away earlier this week at the age of 102. Haidar was born an Ottoman subject to a large Baalbek family of wealthy landlords, Arab nationalists and intellectuals. Their Arabist leanings got Haidar’s immediate family deported to Anatolia in the years before World War I. After graduating from Beirut’s International College, Haidar traveled to France and America for a university education. He graduated from North Texas State University with a degree in Education and returned to Lebanon in 1928. Over the next 50 years he worked in the oil industry, trade and agriculture and dabbled in Lebanese politics. He wrote poetry too, emulating poets like Gibran Khalil Gibran, Amin Rihani and Mikhail Naimy who composed in English. more..
Palestinian university students take part in a 13-day study tour in the USA
Ma’an News 10/27/2006
Eight Palestinian university students have completed a 13-day study tour to the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UMD) in USA that ends a two-year collaborative project with Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, “Connecting Jerusalem and Dearborn: Developing Arab American and American Studies Curriculum in the U.S. and the Arab World." Eight Palestinian and eight American students of American and Arab-American studies interacted with senior scholars, mentors, community leaders and grassroots activists, artists, poets, writers, and students in the San Francisco Bay area and the Detroit metropolitan region over the 13 days. At the start of the tour, the students attended a lecture and book-signing by the renowned Palestinian academic, Professor Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at New York’s Columbia University. more..
''The ruin on our tongues'': Anthology inspired by war proposes words where silence fails
The Daily Star 9/29/2006
With contributions from an international stable of authors, ''Lebanon, Lebanon'' flourishes while being rooted in conflict -- Review - BEIRUT: "No poet has written on Dahiyeh," writes poet and critic Abbas Beydoun, in the English translation of "A Possible Poem for Dahiyeh," one of 50 contributions to the just-published anthology "Lebanon, Lebanon," from Saqi Books. "Can a poet say anything about ruined spaces that need topographers, astronomers, city-planners, cineastes, computers more than they need poets? The place consists of heaps upon heaps; of plains of ruined heaps. Can we be deviant and speak about beauty here? Or is the real ruin on our tongues?" Beydoun''s possible poem could be read as a possible counterpoint to an older, oft-quoted line from Theodor Adorno. more..
War in Lebanon, a defeat for Israeli intelligentsia
Ma''an News 8/15/2006
Bethlehem -- Nasir Al-Lahham- It seems that the war in Lebanon has defeated the Israeli intelligentsia before its politicians and military men, which is the most dangerous type of defeat to a society. This was the situation of the Arab intelligentsia after the 1967 defeat. Writers, journalists, poets, caricaturists and political analysts were all describing the defeat as they experienced it. Some of them blamed the world, others blamed Israeli leadership and a third part blamed the Palestinians for decreasing the Israeli army''s fitness. However, all of them neglected the fact that a defeat is a defeat whose taste no chocolate can change. Despite the generous financial compensation that the Israeli government gave to its citizens, they insisted on a fact-finding committee. more..
Images of real women highlight real inequality
The Daily Star 7/8/2006
Interview -- BYBLOS: It could be any balmy Saturday evening in the summer. Beirut''s well-toned, well-coiffed set is milling around one of Lebanon''s poshest beach clubs, Edde Sands, munching on finger sandwiches and chatting about art. But interspersed among the usual suspects is a smattering of scantily clad and, shall we say, zaftig (i. e. fleshy) women. One curls up seductively on a sofa to read the poetry of Omar Khayyam. Another bares her bulging tummy in a traditional belly-dancing outfit. Another savors a narghileh. All of them are relishing these private, pleasurable moments, oblivious to the collective gaze of those milling around the surrounding cocktail party. The occasion is the opening of Lebanese artist Mona Trad''s latest exhibition, and these Rubens-esque women are her painterly creations. more..
''101 Selected Poems'' from a poet of 102
By Jim Quilty, The Daily Star 5/20/2006
BEIRUT: "My years waxed old and my shoulders began / To sway like a sparrow hawk in the air / That''s the natural destiny of man / Who wears out in the waste of Time un''ware. "These are the whimsical opening lines of "Old Age," one of Jawdat Haidar''s "101 Selected Poems" (2006). They are all the more poignant for the fact that the poet is himself 102 years old. Haidar belongs to a long tradition of Lebanese poets who compose in English. The line extends back to the early 20th century and includes the mahjar writers Gibran Khalil Gibran, Amin Rihani and Mikhail Naimy. Haidar was himself inspired by the mahjar and this collection includes poems dedicated to Gibran and Naimy. more..
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Palestinian Folklore at UN in New York on International Day of Solidarity
11/28/2005
NEW YORK, November 28, 2005, (WAFA)- Palestinian traditional dance, and other arts, would be presented tomorrow, at the UN HQ, in New York, on November 29 to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Al-Funoun, Palestine''s premiere dance troupe, will perform they will also perform in Washington DC, Dearborn and Detroit. The program will include its most acclaimed dances as well as several dances from its latest production, "Haifa, Beirut & Beyond," a contemporary Palestinian dance saga of love, exile and resistance, inspired by the poignant poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. more..
Arab-American comics combat ignorance with caustic humor
11/22/2005
Asked to go on a religious mission, Kader replied: ''The thing is, for an Arab, a mission''s a whole different deal. We don''t usually come back'' -- NEW YORK: Suicide bombings and comedy make an uneasy alliance, but in the hands of a small group of Arab-American comics the mixture can be an effective tool for shattering stereotyped views of their community. "I''m Palestinian. Do not be alarmed! That ticking is just my biological clock," Suheir Hammad, a poet and artist from Brooklyn, told an audience at the third annual Arab-American Comedy festival in New York last week. more..
El-Funoun: "Dancing Tragedies and Dreams" in USA
11/11/2005
NY CITY, November 11, 2005 (WAFA) - El-Funoun, Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe, will perform in New York, Washington, DC and Detroit on 3, December, 2005. The troupe said in a press release that the program will include their most acclaimed repertoire as well as several dances from their latest production, "Haifa, Beirut & Beyond," a contemporary Palestinian dance saga of love, exile and resistance, inspired by the poignant poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. more..
Free-Verse in Classical Hall in Gaza
WAFA 10/5/2005
GAZA, October 5, 2005, (WAFA)- Lanterns and old-fashioned lamps dangled from the woody ceiling over hundreds of citizens gathered in the eve of Ramadan (the month of fast for Moslems) to attend night of poetry recitation for young poets. The 4 young poets were in a semi competition to win more applause from the women, men, official and ordinary audiences who were so enthusiastic to spend unique time far from politics. "There is a Room for Happiness" is the title of the night of poetry recitation organized by "Rahala Association". Such title was enough to reveal the message of the association through its initiative. more..
Palestinian Poet Lashes Out at Militants
Yahoo! News 7/13/2005
RAMALLAH, West Bank - It''s been a hot summer on the Palestinian arts scene: gunmen broke up the concert of a popularWest Bank singer after he refused to limit his repertoire to political songs, and a Hamas-run town banned a music festival to prevent mingling of the sexes. Now, Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish is striking back, saying fanatics have no right to deprive Palestinians of beauty in their lives. "There are Taliban-type elements in our society, and this is a very dangerous sign," Darwish told a gathering of artists and intellectuals this week. It''s not just an argument over artistic freedom, but over whether a future Palestinian state will be a theocracy or a pluralistic democracy. more..
New translations do justice to a poet ''of the human universe''
By Sholeh Wolpe, Daily Star 7/6/2005
"Without an Alphabet, Without a Face" samples from 42 years of Youssef''s composition -- BOOK REVIEW: LOS ANGELES: A bad translation can kill even the best of poems. A brilliant melodic poem rendered into another language could become a bad poem with interesting philosophy or insights. Fortunately, Iraqi Saadi Youssef''s "Without an Alphabet, Without a Face" meets no such fate. Published by Graywolf Press and selected and translated by Khaled Mattawa, it is the work of a master Iraqi poet translated by a master translator. When recited out loud, the true test of a good translation, the poems sound softly from one''s throat, smooth as warm milk and honey. They are melodic and not forced. In reading these poems one forgets they are translations and not the poems in their original language. more..
Against the odds, the prophet of Hassakeh gets his due
Daily Star 4/30/2005
New monograph celebrates the art of 33-year-old Syrian painter Sabhan Adam -- BEIRUT: "Sabhan Adam demolishes the conventions of representation," writes the venerable poet and literary critic Adonis in a new monograph dedicated to Adam''s art. "Each time we see one of his paintings, we can imagine a catastrophe about to happen. " Adonis''s text - laid out in French and English across 60 pages and interspersed with vivid color reproductions of Adam''s paintings - makes a crucial contribution to the critical reception of the young artist''s work... Adonis argues that Adam''s work carves out a space for questioning man and his relationship to the world, hitting art, origins, culture, and religion along the way. The artist, he says, "is like an explosion in the bowels that form the history of Arabic [Islamic] art. He is its distinctive dimension and the interpreter of its orality. " more..
New London play fetes U.S. activist killed trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza
Daily Star 4/21/2005
Political theater is enjoying a resurgence in popularity -- LONDON: A new play tracing the journey of Rachel Corrie from comfortable American home to death in a Gaza refugee camp paints the young peace activist as neither a traitor nor a saint. The 23-year-old campaigner was killed in 2003 trying to stop an Israeli Army bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home in the Rafah camp in the Gaza strip. A personal testimony, the show makes no pretence of impartiality. Corrie''s death made her a hero of the four-year-old Palestinian uprising, while critics attacked her as naive, an idiot and a traitor. But far from being a political rant, "My Name is Rachel Corrie," directed by British actor Alan Rickman, paints a personal portrait, using Corrie''s emails and diaries to reveal a poetic writer brimming with ideas, energy and quirky humor. more..
Cultural exchange: a relationship with life and history
Daily Star 2/16/2005
Dialogue between East and West needs nurturing -- BEIRUT: Lebanese poet and cultural editor of Arabic daily As-Safir, Abbas Beydoun compares Berlin to the heart attack he had a couple of years ago - life changing. German writer Michael Kleeberg says Beirut put all his senses on edge - as if the city gave him a few more eyes and ears and a finer nose. The pair were speaking in front of an attentive audience at the Lebanese American University at the beginning of February when Beydoun read poems from his book "A Season in Berlin" in Arabic and Kleeberg from his travelogue of Lebanon "The Crying Animal" in German. more..
Darwish wins top Dutch prize
Middle East Online 12/7/2004
Palestinian poet wins Prince Claus prize for impressive body of work, lifelong achievement. -- THE HAGUE - Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish has been awarded the Dutch Prince Claus prize in recognition of an "impressive body of work" written while in exile, the royal foundation said on Wednesday. "In his work, he manages to highlight the consequences of forced migration and also shows the power of beauty in difficult times," the Prince Claus Foundation said in a statement. Darwish, 62, is one of the best known contemporary Arab poets. Born in Palestine in 1942, he fled along with his family following the creation of Israel in 1948. more..
Poetry contest gives artists free reign to comment on conflict
Daily Star 11/24/2004
Palestinian-American wins recognition in competition for her literary description of war in Palestine -- BEIRUT: It is hardly surprising that in today''s world of global conflict, visual and written art rises up en masse to comment upon events. Be it in the form of Weblogs, personal diaries, photography, fiction or indeed poetry, art criticizing or commenting upon war is par for the course in the modern age. But with conflicts raging from Iraq to Palestine and Sudan to Colombia and the relatively new form of "terrorist war," the unique features of 21st century warfare clearly need a literary voice all their own. more..
Taalab: In the shade of a rock… in the shade of poetry
Middle East Online 11/17/2004
Poems of Aziz Taalab conatin large doses of anger, emotions, feelings of revolt and fear for the future. -- When crises are all around us, and watching eyes of guards lying in wait in dark corners start to emerge, poetry is our only haven, with its words and letters, offering shelter. A haven that bears the weight of our anger and emotions, often replacing death. more..
An Activist Shares a Poem on Palestine
International Solidarity Movement 9/25/2004
Hedy Epstein, holocaust survivor and activist, shares a a poem she wrote recently. The last time she''d written poetry was when she was a teen-ager living in England in the 1940s. -- When I see the word PALESTINE, I see checkpoints, roadblocks, the Wall, and tortured civilians on the streets. When I hear the word PALESTINE, I hear piercing gunshots, soundbombs, silent screams from a tortured people, and their cries for freedom, justice and peace.... more..
Palestinian, Israeli poets meet for first time during Berlin festival
Ha''aretz 7/2/2004
Last Saturday the Israeli poet Agi Mishol and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish stood on a stage in Berlin and recited verse. Their appearance, one after the other, created a sensation at the Poesiefestival Berlin, a major annual international conference of poets. more..
Video & Text: Suheir Hammad reading ''Beyond Words'' at ADC 2004
Electronic Intifada 6/12/2004
Palestinian-American poet and political activist Suheir Hammad has published a book of poems, Born Palestinian, Born Black, and a memoir, Drops Of This Story, and is prominently featured in Listen Up! An Anthology Of Spoken Work Poetry. more..
Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan dies
Al-Jazeera 12/13/2003
Fadwa Tuqan, revered among her compatriots as the "Poet of Palestine", died on Friday in her West Bank hometown of Nablus at the age of 86. She died in a local hospital where she had been in a coma for several days following a stroke. Born in 1917 to one of Nablus'' influential families, Fadwa Tuqan, whose work won several international prizes, knew Palestine under British rule, the creation of the state of Israel, the occupation, and Palestinian autonomy. more..
AUB panel explores evolving world of Arab sexuality
Daily Star 12/9/2003
Experts discuss formerly taboo issues such as male impotence, female virginity -- Bringing together issues of sexual identity, sexuality and abuse, scholars at the American University of Beirut (AUB) debated the way sexual desire, fantasy and the body were perceived in Arab literature, poetry and society, during a three-day lecture that started over the weekend. Titled Sexuality in the Arab World, the conference acted as a sequel to Sexuality in the Middle East another similar conference that was held in 2000, at St. Anthony’s College in Oxford, England. more..
Cairo storyteller keeps Arab tradition alive by defying it
Daily Star 11/20/2003
Chirine al-Ansari succeeds despite objections from family, instructors, society -- CAIRO: As the story is told in the courtyard of a restored 18th-century Ottoman home in Islamic Cairo, a wandering girl, searching for something greater, ignores the admonitions of others advising her to turn around and willfully presses on and finds her Eden. Originally a tale by the Sufi poet Jilal al-Din Rumi, the story has been recast by Chirine al-Ansari, a 32-year-old Egyptian storyteller whose own life in many ways embodies the story’s moral.... When storytelling last thrived in the Arab world in the 19th century, it was a male-dominated profession of low regard. It certainly wasn’t the appropriate calling for the Paris-educated daughter of the prominent director of Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency. more..
Scholars plan catalogue of contemporary Arab literature
Daily Star 11/19/2003
Existing lists ‘are not useful’ -- It’s easy to loose track of what’s been written in contemporary Arab literature. Each country has hundreds of authors, some who have only written a few poems. A standardized cataloguing system doesn’t exist. “If you want to find an Arabic book you have to go to the publishing house or hope that they know about it in the bookstore,” says Leslie Tramontini, a research fellow for modern Arab literature at the German Orient Institute in Beirut. She wants to put modern Arab literature into order, and she wants to do so quickly before next year’s Frankfurt Book Fair when the Arab world will be the regional theme. more..
Banu Hilal story in present Arab world
Middle East Online 11/17/2003
Old Egyptian storyteller keeps tradition of epic poem of Banu Hilal tribe alive; the Iliad of Arab people. -- In the courtyard of a restored Mameluk mansion in Cairo, an old man stirs his audience with the epic poem of the Banu Hilal tribe, a legend of past Arab bravery fit for a troubled present. Wearing a brown jalabaya (robe) and white scarf, Sayed al-Dawi, spectacles on his wrinkled face, is among the last practitioners of a centuries-old oral tradition. With his troupe intensifying drumbeats during great battle scenes, Dawi, who himself plays a viol, tells of Abu Zeid al-Hilali and his tribe who voyaged from Yemen to North Africa. more..
Book Fair hosts signing by Mahmoud Darwish, lecture by Talal Salman
Daily Star 11/13/2003
Palestinian poet distributes latest collection, As-Safir publisher comments on Arab movement’s failures -- Beirut’s 47th Arab Book Fair was marked this week by the signing session of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s latest collection, Don’t Apologize for What You Have Done, and a lecture by As-Safir publisher Talal Salman. Salman’s lecture on Tuesday, entitled Reading in Arabism’s Book, focused on the failure of Arab movements and leaders in achieving Arab unity and said that only the idea of an Arab identity remained. more..
The power and beauty of Al-Mutanabbi
Daily Star 11/8/2003
Writer’s theme was nexus between poetry, politics -- “I am the one, whose art was seen by the blind, And whose words were heard by the deaf. ” When poets talk about themselves, people should think twice before believing what they have to say. Yet Ahmed Ibn al-Hussein al-Mutanabbi, the author of the lines above, is an exception. Mutanabbi is by far the most famous and influential poet in the history of Arabic literature. Born in the late Abbasid period, in the 10th century, Mutanabbi was witnessing a rare situation, similar in a sense to the situation in which the great philosophers of ancient Athens found themselves; culture flourished, but the political system was crumbling. more..
Poet’s legacy is one of breaking down barriers between East and West
Daily Star 10/28/2003
Jawdat Haydar, at 98, is a contemporary icon in Lebanon and is also well known in the United States -- When Jawdat Haydar was a little boy he liked to buy sweets from the store the British had set up in his village in the Bekaa. He thought to himself, “If I could just speak English I would certainly get all the sweets I want from them. ” That was before World War I when European powers were stationed in Lebanon to overlook the functionings of the fading Ottoman Empire. Today, Haydar is 98 years old and one of the most renowned poets of Lebanon. His poem, The Temple in Baalbek, is part of the official curriculum for the baccalaureate program in public schools. more..
Friends, family gather in Baalbek to honor poet
Daily Star 10/6/2003
98-year-old Jawdat Haidar continues to impress with wisdom, insight --Devoted friends, family members and acquaintances gathered in Baalbek to express gratitude, respect and affection to Jawdat Haidar, poet, writer and social activist. At the age of 98, Haidar still never fails to impress his guests. “It gives me great pleasure to receive this crowd of loving friends, sisters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren,” Haidar told The Daily Star. Among the guests were former Speaker Hussein Husseini, Sonya Franjieh al-Rasi, head of the Press Association Mohammed Baalbeki, Parliament members Hussein Hajj Hassan and Qabalan Issa Khoury, former ministers, poets, writers, university professors and artists. more..
Promontory in the infinite
Al-Ahram Weekly on-line 2 - 8 October 2003
Creator, mentor, historical agent of justice: in these grieving tributes by his friends and admirers, some of the most prominent figures in the Arab world and beyond, Edward Said emerges as a man who defies description. A Palestinian who never lived in Palestine, an American alienated by the new world order, a citizen of the world whose devotion to Palestine never undermined his loyalty to humanity: Said conquered the Western academy only to become the proverbial father of the Palestine to come, complementing scholarly glory with direct engagement with the turmoil at hand. Arab poets, scholars, political commentators, and the Israeli Chief Conductor for Life of the Staatskapelle Berlin, recollect their inevitably enriching encounters with Said. more..
Iraq war paves way for Syrian poet
Al-Jazeera 10/1/2003
Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, better known as Adonis, is the frontrunner to win this year''s Nobel literature prize. The winner of the prestigious 10 million Swedish crown ($1. 3 million) prize will be announced on Thursday. Book critics are betting on Adonis for the top prize. So intense is the focus on the prize that the choice is often linked to the power of politics of the day, prompting some pundits to say an Arab may win this year to alleviate humiliation and anger caused by the United States-led invasion of Iraq. more..
"We Are the Children of the Camp": A Palestinian Song
Islam Online 2003-07-06
"Her eyes and the tattoo on her hands are Palestinian, / Her name, Palestinian, / Her dreams and sorrow, Palestinian, / Her kerchief, her feet and body, Palestinian, / Her words and her silence, Palestinian, / Her voice, Palestinian, / Her birth and her death, Palestinian. " -- Those verses of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwich were the words Al-Rowwad Theatre Group used as an introduction to all their performances in Cairo last week. more..
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