Poetry Reading: 48kg by Batool Abu Akleen
Readings in English and Arabic of 85kg, an astonishing debut work by Batool Abu Akleen.
“One of the most viscerally affecting collections of poems I have ever read. Devastatingly precise and unforgettable images emerge from every line.”—Max Porter
“The poets of Palestine have become vital archivists. In 48Kgs Batool Abu Akleen not only provides brute testimony of the Genocide committed by Israel against her people, but by her inventiveness and surreality, by the barbed humour and bitter irony of her voice, and the tender revelation and humane wisdom of her work, she defiantly gives voice and futurity to Palestinian life. She writes that she waits for death, ‘like a mother expecting her newborn’ telling us ‘I will scream / I will feel his head coming out of my body.’ No one should have to write these incredible, haunting lines, but everyone should read them. This is an extraordinary book of poetry.”—Eileen Myles
In association with Tenement Press.
