Event details
The Iraqi American Reconciliation Project invites you to an intimate evening of Arabic and English poetry on March 5th to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Each year on March 5th readings are held around the world as both a moment of solidarity with Iraqi people and their artists and writers, reminding us of what they face. But the readings also celebrate the values that Al-Mutanabbi Street holds: free speech, the free exchange of ideas, and the equality that poetry, writing, and art inherently promise.
This program is free and open to the public. Book art by Patricia Sarrafian Ward.
RSVP here.
About Al-Mutanabbi Street and the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project:
Named for a beloved Iraqi poet, born in 915 A.D. and who wrote on courage, the philosophy of life, and battlefield glory, this heart and soul of Iraq’s intellectual community has been called the “third lung of Baghdad,” a place where scholars and learners go to breathe. It is a library in spirit, despite lacking walls and a roof.
On March 5, 2007, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring hundreds. But unlike the dozens before it, this particular bombing targeted an ancient open-air book market in the city’s old quarter, Al-Mutanabbi Street.Prior to the attack, a first-time visitor to Al-Mutanabbi Street might be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of printed materials stacked, strewn, and for sale by the vendors in stalls along the pillar-and-alcove lined avenue. Men recited poetry in the open-air market and students shopped for school supplies; others may have stopped for a break at one of the street’s smattering of tea and tobacco shops along the way. Many in the literary community felt the international news represented the bombing as merely the latest terrorist attack on the city, not as an attack on the freedom of expression and learning itself. San Francisco-based bookseller Beau Beausoleil responded by enlisting others to create their own literary expressions of support and solidarity for the people of Al-Mutanabbi Street and Iraq. Beausoleil’s call initially elicited 130 printed works, one for each victim killed or injured in the bombing. Each year on March 5th readings are held around the world as both a moment of solidarity with Iraqi people and their artists and writers, reminding us of what they face. But the readings also celebrate the values that Al-Mutanabbi Street holds : free speech, the free exchange of ideas, and the equality that poetry, writing, and art inherently promise.
