Poets and writers killed in the latest Gaza War
lithub.com/these-are-the-poets-and-writers-who-have-been-killed-in-gaza/
Palestinian poets who are cited or whose work is drawn from in making this album include both living, recently deceased and the ancestral ones: Hibaa Kamal Abu Nada, Refaat Alareer, Rashid Hussein, Mahmoud Darwish, Mohammed El-Kurd.
Many are the words of other Palestinian poets, writers, podcasters that I have listened to in these weeks of research which have entered into the blood-stream of my own texts and words spoken through this album and I thank all those I can recall and those who I can't at the moment. I also thank my fellow Americans: Martin Luther King Jr. and Tony Brewer. Cover art is a re-working of a Samia Halaby painting.
The bulk of the music and some audio was recorded in October at Dom Sztuk, Kęszyca with thanks to Tatiana & Remigiusz Borda for the space grant.
The mastering and composition was carried out at my attic studio In Poznan. Thanks to my wife, Karolina Ossowska.
May we all dwell in peace.
Among those killed, referred to in the dehumanizing jargon as collateral, you will also find those the murdered soldier or military operative, the targeted journalist, then the assassinated ones, those who maybe classed as ideologues, preachers, big talkers, coaches -- those who inspire and reassure their friends that "this too shall pass". In all cases where something like a genocide gets underway it's the intellectuals, the writers and the artists that get targeted because the people they want to remove must be left speechless. I have seen how effective the powers that be have caused speechlessness even without guns or bombs by using television, cinema and social media to shame people into silence or conformity. Depriving people of voice begins with depriving them of means of expression. First you make them feel unworthy. Make them feel they have nothing to say. Refusal of venue, refusal of publication in high profile, refusal of peer review, refusal of any reviews of work at all, a persistent effort at rendering a people invisible, ignoring, ostracizing, not-seeing them. In Gaza this time many poets were killed. I don't know how many exactly. The rubble lay thick. One poet seems to have been a victim of a surgical strike missile, perhaps even assisted by AI in targeting the building and floor where Refaat Alareer was staying with members of his extended family. How many others perished in this war since October remains unknown but it is clear that there is in no sense an equal retaliation (not even a chance of one), no targeting of intellectuals or artists on the "other side". Genocide is one-sided. I'm doing here only what I can to lift up the voices of the poets I have heard over the years whose words resonate both with me and all the oppressed people of all ages and generations and whose messages are not being heard over the drones and propaganda.
released January 27, 2024