Arabic Poetry

For Marwa Helal and me, the histories of our two countries—Egypt and Sudan—are inextricably linked, our shared Nile both the most obvious and fertile metaphor.

Audra Wolowiec explores the materiality of language via text, sound, sculpture, and collaborative projects. Her recent solo exhibition at Studio 10, entitled (                      ), presented both the immateriality and materiality of her subject matter as subtle and poetic experiences. 

1. On the twenty-first birthday of a poet, ostensibly of our group, whom we knew as Nayf (his real name’s not so very important)—on June 20, 1997, to be precise—the activist Radwa Adel went to visit a relative in one of Cairo’s neighborhoods.

The year Columbus found and founded our New World also marked the final end of one particular Old World, the half millennium of rich coexistence and commingling of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish peoples, traditions, and languages in the south of Spain. 

Translation, like any public act, must be strategic to have any effect. 

Mahmoud Darwish was the 2001 winner of the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. He is considered one of the foremost poets of the Arab world.