Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian performance poet and human rights activist based in London. Her performances of poems like ‘We Teach Life, Sir’ and ‘Shades of Anger’ went viral online within days of their release.
She received an Ontario Arts Council Grant from the Word of Mouth programme to create her debut spoken-word album Hadeel. Since releasing her album, she has toured many countries, performing poetry and conducting workshops. She was chosen to represent Palestine at the South Bank center Poets Olympiad in 2012.
Although Ziadah began writing at a very early age, her first public performance was not until 2004, while studying at York University. Since her poetic debut, she has done much over the past decade to raise awareness of Palestinian suffering, both the oppression within Palestine as well as Palestinian displacement across the globe.
Ziadah was born in Beirut, a third generation refugee. Some of her first childhood memories were of the 1982 siege and bombing of Beirut.
As an active member of the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, Ziadah’s primary purpose is to seek equality and justice against racism and extreme Zionist ideologies.
Cultivate Hope
Our Spring in Palestine is born in a prison cell
Our Spring in Palestine is born shackled to a hospital bed
Our Spring in Palestine is born with an administrative detention order against it.
But, it blossoms even in hunger!
I pray you strength
I pray you justice
I pray you freedom
Hana’, I pray your heart muscle, holding all of us tonight
holds on a day stronger – a sunrise longer – a day longer – a sunrise stronger
Though forgive me sister, I forgot prayers some time ago
lost them in allies in refugee camps
too crowded with shrapnel memory
when sound barrier breaking – skies breaking – sound breaking
wasn’t sure our voices would reach god anymore
That same year 82 you were born.
But you cultivate hope in me
so I light candles and kneel to whisper:
I pray you strength
I pray you justice
I pray you freedom
You cultivate hope in the rest of us.
Cultivate that part hungry for freedom – hungry for justice.
Lost in roadmaps to nowhere – to anywhere but the shores of Akka.
You cultivate hope long lost in their “pragmatic” solutions.
In your hunger – we find our own.
You cultivate hope in the rest of us.
In your strength – we are no longer
67 – Palestinians
48 – Palestinians
No numbers dividing us by massacres attached to our skin
No numbers for years dividing us by massacres attached to our skin
No negotiating tables to dine over in silence
No negotiating tables to dine over in silence and
No intellectual conversations to argue how lucky Israeli women are
how lucky / how free they serve in the army?
One of them handcuffed you as others beat you
One ordered you to strip naked
One dragged you across the floor
One promised severe punishment
In your silence you are stronger than each of them.
But You cultivate hope in the rest of us.
What do your captures know of heart muscles
Born to the beat of bombs over Beirut?
Born against a state of siege?
Born to a rhythm louder than guns?
Born free
What do they know of us?
Hearts as soft as child hands
learned to pick up rock
with the care of farmers loving harvest
Our Spring in Palestine is born in a prison cell
Our Spring in Palestine is born shackled to a hospital bed
Our Spring in Palestine is born with an administrative order against it.
But, our Spring in Palestine blossoms even in hunger
Their walls can only surround them.
Their prisons can only hold their dreams still.
Your spirit – like Spring – will always be free
Your spirit – our spirit – like Spring – will always be free
I pray us strength I pray us justice I pray us freedom
Achievements and Awards
Rafeef started performing poetry in Toronto in 2004 with the spoken word collective Pueblo Unido and is the winner of the 2007 Mayworks Festival Poetry Face-Off. Rafeef Ziadah launched her album of collected spoken word poetry put to music at Toronto’s Concord Cafe late last fall. She performed a few selected poems to an audience of friends, fans, musicians and of course Palestinian political activists. On Ziadah’s anticipated debut album Hadeel, you’ll find a selection of 10 poems that established this Palestinian spoken word artist’s reputation as a political poet in Toronto over the past six years. Her work is accompanied by a diverse range of musicians, adding a new layer of depth to the work.
Video
Rafeef Ziadah – ‘We teach life, sir’
Rafeef Ziadah – ‘Shades of anger’
Further reading:
– Rafeef Ziadah – ‘We teach life, sir’
– An interview with Palestinian poet, Rafeef Ziadah
Sources:
