Applied Words: Voices of Protest

Saturday, April 26, 8:00 p.m.
Facets Multimedia
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
(Note: The same program takes place at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 25.)

Voices of Protest, April 25 & 26, draws attention to the plight of exiled authors and celebrates a global literature. The Guild will host Manal Al-Sheikh (Iraq) and Mazen Maarouf (Palestine), two poets currently living in exile in Scandinavia for their work as writers and journalists. 

As part of this program two short films will be screened which are included in Poets of Protest, an Al Jazeera produced documentary series by British filmmaker Roxana Vilk. The series focuses on six Middle Eastern authors and the relationship of their work to initiatives for democracy and social justice across the Middle East. Screenings will be followed  by readings from Al-Sheikh and Maarouf.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased here.

Support for Voices of Protest is provided by the MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund. It is co-sponsored by Facets Multi-Media, Al Jazeera America, Words Without Borders, and HotHouse.

 About the participants:

Mazen Maarouf is a Palestinian-Icelandic poet and writer, lauded as a “rising international literary star”. He has published three collections of poetry: The Camera Doesn’t Capture Birds, Our Grief Resembles Bread, and most recently An Angel Suspended On The Clothesline, which has been translated into several languages including French by Samira Negrouche (Amandier Poésie, 2013). His work is currently being translated into English by Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Nathalie Handal. Maarouf has read in festivals, universities, museums and cultural centers in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. He has written literary and theatre criticism in various Arabic magazines and newspapers namely An-Nahar and Assafir (Lebanon), Al-Quds-el-Arabi (London) and Qantara (Paris); and he has translated numerous Icelandic poets as well as the following novels in Arabic: The Blue Fox by Sjón, Hands of my Father by Myron Uhlberg, The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snær Magnason and Dwarfstone by Aðalsteinn Ásberg. He resides in Reykjavik.

The Iraqi poet and writer Manal Al-sheikh was born in Nineveh in northern Iraq. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English- Arabic translation from the college of Arts, Mosul University. She has worked in local and Arab press as a freelance journalist. She has published creative and literary articles and texts in many Iraqi, Arab, and European newspapers and magazines, and participated in many cultural festivals within and outside the her native country . Many of her poems and essays have been translated into several languages including: English, French, Norwegian, Catalan and Italian. She currently resides in the city of Stavanger, Norway.

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