Photo: Toni Lewis at Artworkers Reading Palestinian Poetry, Eastside Projects, 4 July 2021. Credit Yas Lime
This recording was produced by our current UK associate Harun Morrison for the June edition of Delfina Foundation’s monthly show on Radio AlHara (The Delfina Sessions), forming part of the station’s Sonic Liberation Front. Documenting the collaborative event Artworkers Reading Palestinian Poetry, which took place on 4 June at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, this edited recording is now presented on the Delfina PLATFORM.
Artworkers Reading Palestinian Poetry was a day-long event organised by Yas Lime and Harun Morrison. In an act of solidarity with Palestine, across the afternoon 43 people read poetry by a Palestinian writer of their choice, as well as the occasional Syrian writer too.
On the day external speakers broadcast readings onto the street as well as the gallery to catch the ears of passers-by. Throughout the event the doors were also kept open so that readers were literally speaking to the world beyond the art space. In the live recording this background sound from the street is overlaid with the poetry, and is a welcome ‘voice’.
CREDITS
Audio recording and editing
Samuel Rodgers
Title and poem introductions
Lorén Elhili
Readers
Carla Busuttil, Sandra Hall, Samiir Saunders, Stuart Whipps, Toni Lewis, Polly Brant, Candice Nembhard, Gavin Wade, Vicky Roden, Hazel Seleaf, Alex Billingham, James Yarker, Saima Razzaq, Ian Sergeant, Wilf Speller, Lorén Elhili, Tony Bontana, Faisal Hussain, Leah Clements, Ruth Claxton, Harun Morrison, Joyce Treasure, Hasna Khan, Marwan Darweish, Lu Cass, Yas Lime, Cheryl Jones, Melissandre Varin, Roise Goan, Alice O’Rourke, Cathy Wade, Antonio Roberts, Laura O’Leary, Shaheen Ahmed, Laura McDermott, Seán Elder, Mark Murphy, Rupi Dhillon.
Writers
Fatena Al-Gharra, Mahmoud Darwish, Hasan al-Buhari, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Abdul-QaderAl-Azzi, Sami Muhanna, Abdallah Abu Bakr, Murad al-Sudani, Mohammed Lafi, Naomi Shihab Nye, Faisal Qarqati, Omar Shabanah, Sameera Sharabati, DAM, Atef Abu Saif, Samih al-Qasim, Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Tawfiq Ziad, Fadwa Tuqan, Dareen Tatour, Ahmed Miqdad, Ghayath Almadhoun, Abd al-altif ‘Aql, Al-Mutawakil Taha, Adonis (Syrian), Izdihar Afyouni, Mourid Barghouti, Rafeef Zidah, Samih Mohsen, Yousef Abu Loz.
Additional thanks
Marwen Darweish (Lecturer in Peace Studies at Coventry University, who loaned a selection of his poetry collection for the event), Gavin Wade, Amelia Hawk, Candice Nembhard, Ruth Claxton, Salma Tuqan, Helen Gale and those who made financial donations.