Palestinian Poetry, an Introduction

An evening on which several guest speakers will gather to talk about their connection to Palestinian poetry. We will discuss poets living in Palestine and in the Diaspora, poets who wrote during the Nakba, and contemporary poets. The program is an introduction to Palestinian poetry that sings of the land and its people.

Amal Karam (1969) is the daughter of Palestinian parents and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. At eighteen she moved to Syria to study English literature and work as a journalist. In late 1996 she came to the Netherlands as a political refugee. Under the pseudonym Ama Karma, she wrote weekly columns for the Gelderlander from 2006 to 2013. In 2012 she won the El Hizjra Literature Prize for poetry with her poem “De Haatpostbode.” In late 2014, she self-published her debut collection of poems, also called “De Haatpostbode.” In addition to being a poet, she is a teacher and mentor of precarious youth at ROC Nijmegen. She was city poet of Nijmegen from 2017 to 2018; the resulting city poems were published in the poetry collection “Ik heb je door” by Wintertuin.

Marianne Dagevos is a literary scholar and founder of Marcada, literary and cultural projects for polyphony. Her literary projects are Podium voor Palestina, Diaspora Literature and VerhalenPost. All projects aim to introduce Dutch-speaking readers introduced to the diversity and richness of Middle Eastern and Diaspora literature. Activities include workshops, book reviews, podcasts, a story service and articles. In addition, Marianne is active as a speaker on polyphony.

Maureen Ghazal is a poet and writer. She graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in 2018, and in the same year she won the El Hizjra Literature Prize for her poetry. Her work has been published in De Gids, De Revisor and Deux Ex Machina, among others. She has performed at venues such as Crossing Border Festival, Read My World and Winter Garden Festival. In her work she writes about native soil, connecting languages and landscapes and womanhood. Maureen is in the development process of Wintertuin.

Rasha Hilwi (Akka) is a Palestinian writer, journalist and mother of twins based in Amsterdam. She graduated from the University of Haifa with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology. She is the advocacy editor and strategy director of Raseef22, an Arabic-language media platform at the intersection of identity, democracy and social justice. Hilwi is also DJ storyteller: an artistic form that combines stories and music. In her performances and writing she focuses on the questions surrounding “Home بيت” and “Ghorbah غربة” and their intersection with motherhood, personal narratives, history and identities.