Content area
Full text
POETS FOR PALESTINE by Remi Kanazi, ed. New York: Al Jisser Group, 2008 (xv + 118 pages) $16.00 (paper)
Reviewed by Ahmad Diab
Poets for Palestine presents a remarkable array of voices from poetry, hip-hop, and spoken word that come together to write for Palestine as a metaphor for justice deferred. The collection deliberately and successfully presents Palestine as a translatable motif for universal justice. By threading together poems from several struggles in recent history- both from the Palestinian and non-Palestinian contexts-the collection invites the reader to conceive of Palestine simultaneously as a country under occupation and a symbol for the universal struggle for liberation. In a suggestive employment, forty-eight poems by a group of thirty poets from different backgrounds articulate the "basic appeal of justice," writes Remi Kanazi, the editor of the collection (xiii). An immensely talented poet himself, Kanazi dedicates the greater part of his book to a new generation of promising young poets, largely of Palestinian descent. Other poems celebrate an older and more established group of poets whose call for justice has echoed throughout the world in recent decades.
Poets for Palestine captures the diversity of Palestinian experience not only in its choice of authors but in the forms of art that make up the collection: It juxtaposes poetry and spoken word verse with visual art. The presence of black and white reproductions of works by thirty Palestinian visual artists in this collection of poetry invites the reader to experience a combination of art forms, normally presented in isolation, all of which place Palestine at center stage. Whether through documentary-style spoken word or through deeply personal accounts of quotidian memories, Poets for Palestine ultimately reflects on the purpose of art under occupation and protracted injustice.
The volume opens a space for a new generation of poets to discuss the issues of Palestine, justice, and the perseverance of hope. From the spoken word performer and activist Tahani Saleh to the ten-year-old Hamida Begum, the reader faces a multi-layered reflection on the meaning of justice. Saleh's bold poem "Hate" unapologetically confronts the broader universe of abstract injustice as exemplified in the Palestinian condition. Her reexamination of the ubiquitous accusation of Muslim hatred for Western liberty challenges what she sees as human apathy. Saleh...