The Art and Poetry of Resisting Genocide

FEATURING S. A. BACHMAN AND BASMAN ALDIRAWI - On this second anniversary of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we’ll take a look at the cultural resistance, Palestinian and American. In a new book, Art of Defiance: Protest Graphics and Poetry for Palestine, editor S. A. Bachman brings together verse in English and Arabic from the likes of Susan Abulhawa, Refaat Alareer, and Saul Williams.

The book, whose proceeds benefit the families of those poets who have been killed, as well as Palestinian aid and justice organizations, is a physical work and also an e-book. Its art is designed to be printed up as protest posters.

Sonali Kolhatkar spoke with S.A. Bachman, editor of Art of Defiance, and an artist, activist, and educator, and Basman Aldirawi, speaking from Cairo, Egypt. Aldirawi is a Palestinian physiotherapist, writer and poet from Gaza whose work is featured in Art of Defiance. He has contributed dozens of stories and poems to the online platform We Are Not Numbers and other outlets including ArabLit, Mondoweiss and Vivamost. He is also co-author of the book, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, and the Arabic poetry anthology; Gaza, the land of poetry.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let me start with you, S. A. This very, very grim two-year anniversary is an opportunity for us to talk about not only what's happening in Gaza, but about the cultural resistance, artistic resistance to it. S. A., start with the description of your book, the Art of Resistance, how did you put this together? Who is involved? You have a collection of basically poetry and visuals, right? 

S. A. Bachman: Correct. And the book was initially inspired by two directors from the Freedom Theater, which is in the West Bank. And they once said that the third Intifada would be fought not just in the streets, but through theater, through music, through visual art and through poetry. 

So, I felt like I had to use the skills that I have to do something, to push back, and I didn't feel that dissent was optional, it was compulsory. So, I began to reach out and start to talk to some poets, and one thing led to another, and each poet led me to another poet. 

And I ended up with an incredible collection of both young poets from Gaza and then a handful of very well-known poets. And then that poetry is juxtaposed with protest posters that I've done since October 2023, as well as other kinds of documentation that are specific to this genocide.