Again, Fanon’s words come to mind: “The town belonging to the colonized people . . . the native town, the Negro village, the medina, the reservation, is a place of ill fame, peopled by men of evil repute. They are born there, it matters little where or how; they die there, it matters not where, nor how.”

Protect the head, where the algae grow, and the sun screams from the summit.  The head that has stared for centuries  into the sea as it closed its eyelids, and never blinked. 

We are flesh measured in kilograms, my Palestinian colleague says in desperation But you are a thinker not a doer  So you do nothing

Mizna, a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, is accepting applications for a paid Poetry Coalition Fellowship position. This position … Continue reading "FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY"

IF THERE IS AN UPPER LIMIT TO THE HUMAN CAPACITY TO COMPUTE MASS ATROCITY THEN THERE MUST BE A HARD LIMIT ON LETHAL TECHNOLOGIES BECAUSE THE IMPLICATION IS THAT AS VIOLENCE ESCALATES IT ALSO BECOMES INCREASINGLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE

We are a part of history, and history—as it is well known—is a condition and an action in the past. Except us: we are a past continuous and neverending. We address you all from it presently, so that it does not become your future. 

In these three poems by academic and poet Mohja Kahf, Syria is written not only as the site of violent … Continue reading "Three Poems by Mohja Kahf"

As we reflect on Syria’s last fifty-three years under the Assad regime and look to the future of the country … Continue reading "Two Poems by Banah el Ghadbanah"

Gaza is the ghost of the world, the persistent presence that, despite all efforts to erase it, to make it disappear, remains and resists. It is Gaza that has shown us the impossible: the horrors of settler colonialism at its most extreme and brutal, the ways in which resistance is possible in the smallest of gestures, and finally, the triumphant acts of return and reunification following the now-broken ceasefire agreement. The ghost of the world has shown us the world for what it is and what must be done, what alliances must be drawn in order to resist it. 

are you a total fucking idiot do you know anything about gunpowder       have you heard a hand grenade detonate have you seen a combat medic amputate eighty legs in one go do you understand what 75% saltpeter 15% charcoal and 10% sulfur can achieve