Upcoming Events in Detroit, Philadelphia & Minneapolis

Palestine Festival of Literature is holding its first-ever events in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to join us for some landmark conversations about Palestine and the solidarity movement in your city.

Detroit, Jam Handy, at 8pm TONIGHT: Online tickets are sold out for our discussion featuring Zaina Alsous, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Mohammed el-Kurd, Fred Moten & Kamelya Omayma Youssef. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Doors open at 7pm.

Philadelphia, Bok Auditorium, 7:30pm on November 26: Get your ticket for an evening of performances and discussion with Ahmad Almallah, Huda Fakhreddine, Sarah Hagi, Malcolm Harris, Nicki Kattoura & Ahmad Shokr. Doors open at 7:30pm.

Minneapolis, The Parkway Theater, 7pm on December 9: Join PalFest and Mizna for a conversation with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Mosab Abu Toha, Sarah Aziza, Dina Omar, Nick Estes, Sagirah Shahid & Danez Smith. Tickets will be on sale soon.

Robyn Maynard & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: “Why we boycott Israel”

Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, both initiating signatories of the recent letter refusing complicity with Israeli publishers, weigh in here about their decision to boycott.

“As Black and Indigenous women,” they write, “we hail from transnational political traditions that have supported people trying to survive under regimes of racial hierarchy, apartheid, and militarized violence from Canada to Haiti to South Africa. Signing this letter continues in the spirit of these traditions.”

Boycotting institutions that are complicit in the dispossession and genocide of Palestinians, they argue, is a “profound ethical obligation.”

This article by Maynard and Simpson comes as the Giller Prize, one of Canada’s biggest prizes for literature, has been roiled by mass withdrawal and author protests for the corporate sponsorships it receives from institutions that are bankrolling the genocide in Gaza.

Read their whole article here.

LONDON: Solidarity is the Political Version of Love

Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise will be hosting a talk and panel discussion on November 30 in London featuring the themes of their new book, Solidarity is the Political Version of Love: Lessons From Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing.

They will be joined in conversation by Sarona Bedwan and Ben Jamal, and their discussion will be moderated by Asad Rehman.

The event will be held in Shoreditch. You can purchase tickets here.

Book of the Week

Khalaf Tuffaha’s elegant poems sing the fractured songs of Diaspora while remaining clear-eyed to the cause of the fracturing: the multinational hubris of colonialism and greed. This collection is her witness to our collective unraveling, vowel by vowel, syllable by syllable.

Adrian Matejka

It’s nearly impossible to write poetry that holds the human desire for joy and the insistent agitations of protest at the same time, but Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s gorgeous and wide-ranging new collection Something About Living does just that. Her poems interweave Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence.

Khalaf Tuffaha’s elegant poems sing the fractured songs of Diaspora while remaining clear-eyed to the cause of the the multinational hubris of colonialism and greed. This collection is her witness to our collective unraveling, vowel by vowel, syllable by syllable.

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s collection Something About Living just received the National Book Award for Poetry. You can hear Khalaf Tuffaha read at the Finalist’s Ceremony here, and you can listen to her moving acceptance speech here.

This collection was published earlier this year by University of Akron Press. Get your copy here.

Reading Roundup

Tunnel — I mean, trench! - Saba Innab theorizes tunneling as a vernacular form of architecture that of the movement for Palestinian liberation, arguing that tunnels are “a manifestation of the hidden knowledge embedded within the land.”

Letter to My Friend Killed by Israel - Ghada Eyed writes a letter to her friend Tasneem, whose death she did not learn about until two months later.

A Scene at Rafah’s Beach - Shaimaa Abulebda shares a new poem about Rafah’s beach: “And paper kites flying over, / reclaiming our sky.”

Israeli Troops Have Turned North Gaza’s Only Desalination Station Into a Military Base - Younis Tirawi reports on the Israeli military takeover of one of the only sources for fresh water in Northern Gaza.

The Antisemitism of Zionism - Shane Burley writes of the risks of conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, showing how Zionist organizations in the United States align themselves with antisemitic figures on the far right out of their allegiance to Israel.

The Civil Rights Law Shutting Down Pro-Palestine Speech - Alex Kane describes how the use of civil rights legislation to quash Palestine solidarity at American universities is setting a precedent for even greater repression under a second Trump administration.

Giller Protests Sparked a Literary Movement to End ‘Artwashing’ of Israeli Crimes - Nour Abi-Nakhoul examines the repoliticization of the Canadian literary landscape as the result of authors organizing against institutional complicity in genocide.

The Edge of Descent - A poem from Gazan poet Asmaa Dwaima honoring two friends, Eman Saqallah and Nour Yaghi, who were martyred: “I hear the whisper of names / that vanish in the wind.”

A Clothesline, An Old Letter, A Smashed Finger - Reem Sleem shares a dispatch from Gaza of the intertwined nature of despair and hope.

The Denial of Genocide is on the March Everywhere - James Bridle, who won the Schilling Architecture Award only to have it rescinded for his public support for Palestine, writes about the “hysterical obedience” guiding institutional suppression of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian writers and artists.

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