The international literature festival berlin (ilb) is appealing for a worldwide reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry on 5 October 2008. The activities accompanying this event are designed not only to honour the poet’s body of work but also his commitment to promoting peaceful and fair coexistence between Arabs and Israelis. This appeal is directed at cultural institutions, radio stations, schools, universities, theatres and all other Darwish enthusiasts the world over.
APPEAL
The international literature festival berlin (ilb) is appealing for a worldwide reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry on 5 October 2008. The activities accompanying this event are designed not only to honour the poet’s body of work but also his commitment to promoting peaceful and fair coexistence between Arabs and Israelis. This appeal is directed at cultural institutions, radio stations, schools, universities, theatres and all other Darwish enthusiasts the world over.
Mahmoud Darwish was one of the best-loved Arab lyricists of modern times and counts among the most eminent poets in the history of world literature. Thousands flocked to hear his readings, and his volumes of poetry have been published in the hundreds and thousands. Numerous pieces have been translated into more than 30 different languages. His poems have been transformed into folksongs and many of his verses have taken on the character of proverbs.
Darwish’s poetry draws inspiration from the tradition of ancient Arab poetry and Modernist influences and borrows from the style and language of both the Qur’an and the Bible. Few other poets have displayed such dedication to articulating a vision of a meaningful, real and fair peace between Arabs and Israelis, which furthers a dialogue between two voices and two different outlooks on life, while ensuring that one does not impose its view upon the other.
In the tradition of ancient Arab poetry, the poet assumes the role of spokesperson for his people. And despite Darwish’s move away from this role since the 1990s, many readers still viewed him as Palestine’s literary ambassador to the last.
Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in the village of Al-Birweh near Acre. In 1948, he fled to Lebanon and returned after the foundation of the state of Israel. He worked as an editor for various political and cultural journals in Haifa. After being imprisoned on numerous occasions, he left Israel in 1970 and went into exile. He has lived in Moscow, Cairo, Beirut, Paris and, most recently, in Amman and Ramallah. In 1987, he was elected to the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and helped draft the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988. He left the organization in 1993 in protest against the signing of the Oslo Accords. He received numerous awards, including the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom in
2001 and the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize in 2003.
Darwish died on 9 August 2008 following heart surgery. He was buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah and granted a state funeral.
To sign up for the reading please contact: worldwidereading@literaturfestival.com
SIGNATORIES
Hector Abad (Colombia) | Tariq Ali (Pakistan) | Amal al-Jubouri (Iraq/ Germany) | John Ashbery (USA) | Margaret Atwood (Canada) | Daniel Barenboim (Argentina/ Germany) | Bei Dao (China/ USA) | Mohammed Bennis (Morocco) | Philipp Blom (Germany/ Austria) | Rachid Boudjedra (Algeria) | Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa) | André Brink (South Africa) | Monika Carbe (Germany) | Dilip Chitre (India) | John M. Coetzee (South Africa) | Edgardo Cozarinsky (Argentina) | Germain Droogenbroodt (Belgium/ Spain) | Nuruddin Farah (Somalia/ South Africa) | Enrique Fierro (Uruguay) | Jon Fosse (Norway) | Antje Grabenhorst (Germany) | Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) | Jean Guiloineau (France) | Ha Jin (China) | Qassim Haddad (Bahrain) | Milton Hatoum (Brazil) | Seamus Heaney (Ireland) | Mofidul Hoque (Bangladesh) | Jabbar Yassin Hussin (Iraq/ France) | Nancy Huston (Canada/ France) | Hayder Ibrahim (Sudan) | Philo Ikonya (Kenya) | Elfriede Jelinek (Austria) | Adel Karasholi (Syria/ Germany) | Hanif Karim (Canada) | Navid Kermani (Germany) | Friedrich Kröhnke (Germany) | Rahat Kurd (Canada) | Abdellatif Laabi (Morocco/ France) | Zakes Mda (South Africa) | Pauline Melville (Guyana/ Great Britain) | Paul Muldoon (Northern Ireland/ USA) | Charl-Pierre Naudé (South Africa) | Claudia Ott (Germany) | Michael Palmer (USA) | Shailja Patel (Kenya) | Jean Portante (Luxemburg) | Fernando Rendón (Colombia) | Alberto Ruy-Sánchez (Mexico) | Joachim Sartorius (Germany) | K.S. Satchidanandan (India) | Nasrin Siege (Iran/ Germany) | Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) | Shashi Tharoor (India) | Lina Tibi (Syria) | Tzvetan Todorov (Bulgaria/ France) | Anne Waldman (USA) | Marina Warner (Great Britain) | Eliot Weinberger (USA) | Renate Welsh-Rabady (Austria) | Yang Lian (China/ Great Britain)
TEXTS
Gedichte von Mahmud Darwisch (Deutsch)
Gedichte von Mahmud Darwisch (Englisch)
PARTICIPANTS
Acapulco (Congreso Mundial de Poetas) | Aix-en-Provence (Les Ecritures Croisées et La Cité du Livre) | Alexandria (Bibilotheca Alexandrina) | Algeria (Algerian Writers’ Association) | Bad Ischl (Freies Radio Salzkammergut) | Basel ( Das Kleine Literaturhaus) | Beirut (Lebanese Writers Association) | Berlin (internationales literaturfestival berlin) | Berlin (Deutschlandradio Kultur) | Bonn (DW Radio – Arabic Section) | Brussels (Centre Culturel Arabe) | Budapest (Parnasszus poetry journal headquarter) | Cairo (PEN Temple Pilots) | Cairo (Gudran Association for Art and Development) | Cape Town (University of Cape Town) | Chattanooga (The University of Tennessee) | Cologne (WDR 5) | Dakar (Goethe Institute) | Damascus (Syrian Writers Association) | Denpasar (Ubud Writers Festival) | Dhaka (Liberation War Museum) | Dhaka (Gellery Chitrak) | Durban (Centre for Creative Arts and Poetry Africa) | Ferrara (Festival Internazionale) | Genoa (Festival Internazionale di Poesia di Genova) | Gorée (Gorée Institute) | Harare (Zimbabwe Book Café) | Hong Kong (Bei Dao) | Hurghada (Hotel Regina Resort) | Ibadan (University of Ibadan) | Innsbruck (FREIRAD 105.9) | Kazan (Reading Room of the Goethe Institute) | Khartoum (The Sudanese Studies Center) | Kisumu (Kisumu Festival) | Kuwait ( The Writers Association in Kuwait) | León (Asociación Colegial de Escritores de España) | Madrid (Casa Árabe – IEAM) | Mexico City (Instituto Internacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura) | Mumbai (Gallerie PEN-Jnanaprabha) | Nairobi (Kenyatta International Conference Centre) | Nairobi (Dandora Estate) | New York (The Boewery Poetry Club) | Osnabrück (Erich-Maria-Remarque-Peace Centre and Erich-Maria-Remarque-Association and the Office for Peace Culture) | Paris (Les Cahiers de Colette) | Paris (Reid Hall) | Rabat (Mohammed’s V University at Agdal) | Ramallah (Cultural Centre of the Qattan Foundation) | Ramallah (Palestinian Writers Association) | Sacramento (Sacramento Poetry Center) | San Francisco (Bird &Beckett Books) | San Juan (PEN Puerto Rico) | Sarajevo (Centre André Malraux) | Seattle (PoetsWest) | Seattle (Hugo House) | Seattle (Trinity United Methodist Church) | Skopje (National and University Library “St Kliment Ohridski”) | Stralsund (LiSa Frauenladen) | Sydney (Australia Cultural Media in association with the NSW Writers’ Centre) | Taipei (World Congress of Poets) | Thiruvananthapuram (Victoria Jubilee Town Hall) | Thiruvananthapuram (Kovalam Literary Festival) | Trois Rivières (Trois Rivières Poetry Festival) | Tromsø (Ordkalotten Tromsø International Literature Festival) | Vienna (Austria Public Library at the Urban-Loritz-Platz) | Vilnius (Druskininkai Poetic Fall 2008) | Volterra (Le Guadalupe – Lo Spazio per le Arti) | Wellington (Breytenbach Cultural Centre)