a poetic break

…by two of my favorite poets. first suheir hammad from the palestine festival of literature that i went to a couple of months ago:

then taha muhammad ali, taken from monthly review zine:

on why coca cola should be boycotted (and no pepsi, etc. is not any better)

there was a great article about bds by sousan hammad in counterpunch last month, which begins with a great fanon quote and engages in an important analysis of the psychological complications involved when trying to educate palestinians about bds:
“An underdeveloped people must prove, by its fighting power, its ability to set itself up as a [...]

on refugees & idps

today is world refugee day. there are 42 million refugees world-wide. there are also 7.6 million palestinian refugees, who are not included in the numbers that the united nations high commission for refugees (unhcr) uses because palestinian refugees fall under the united nations relief and works agency (unrwa) which means something different in terms of [...]

on nathalie handal’s poetry

nathalie handal sent me an email today telling me that she was recently on the news hour with jim lehrer on pbs. here is the clip of her interview:

more about "Art Beat: Poetry Series: Nathalie Han…", posted with vodpod

the beautiful poem nathalie reads in the above [...]

note: literature is illegal in palestine

i went to the last night of the palestine festival of literature expecting that it would be shut down yet again. a friend of mine in the old city had bumped into one of the actors in al hakawati (the palestinian national theatre) and she told him that they were already planning to move it [...]

what is a palestinian festival of literature?

it was the fourth day of the palestinian festival of literature today. the schedule had the group spending the afternoon in aida refugee camp and a friend of mine at badil was doing the logistical organizing so i asked him if i could join them and he said yes. i had to be a bit [...]

a not-so-funny thing happened on the way home from suheir hammad’s poetry reading… (UPDATED)

today the palestine festival of literature split up into two groups during the day, one going to the arab american university of jenin and the freedom theatre in jenin refugee camp and the other group to birzeit university. the organizers have been tweeting about their activities and posted photos today of the checkpoints where they [...]

on cultural resistance and anti-normalization

day two of the palestine festival of literature was far less dramatic than day one, thankfully. of course, this is because it was held at the khalil sakakini cultural center in ramallah and not at the palestinian national theatre in al quds (though it is scheduled to return there for the closing night’s ceremony). when [...]

video footage of cultural genocide in al quds (UPDATED)

here is the palestine literature festival video from yesterday. it is a short 4 minute video but definitely a must watch. they filmed in places that i am really shocked by, including the jordanian-palestinian border (under zionist control, of course). for those of you who have been reading my blog for a while and have [...]

on cultural genocide

in jonathan cook’s brilliant book disappearing palestine, he documents a number of ways in which zionists ethnically cleanse palestinians from their land historically and currently. but in one section of the book he talks about other forms of genocide:
“Genocide” is widely, and mistakenly, assumed to refer only to an act of mass extermination of a [...]