The Word from Palfest!

PALFEST 2011 OPENS TOMORROW
5 DAYS / 6 CITIES / 5 UNIVERSITIES

PalFest 2011 kicks off tomorrow. We have an amazing programme lined up and everything is free and open to the public. We’re traveling through the country so, if you’re in Palestine, the chances are we’ll be near you one day this week. Come and join us.

And if you’re not in Palestine, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook – we’ll be publishing author blogs, photos and videos every day!

FULL PROGRAMME

April 15
1 DAY CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
10am Lajee Centre, BETHLEHEM, Aida Camp

April 15th
7.30pm African Community Society, JERUSALEM

April 16
7.30pm Arab Cultural Association, NAZARETH

April 17
Workshops with an Najah University
7pm Sheikh Qassem Café, NABLUS

April 18
Workshops with BirZeit University
Workshops with Bethlehem University

8pm Friends Meeting House, RAMALLAH
Performance by the Palestine National Orchestra

April 19
Workshops with al Quds University
8pm Khalil Sakakini Centre, RAMALLAH

April 20
7.30pm Solidarity Tent, SILWAN
OPEN MIC NIGHT

See you soon!

www.palfest.org

PALFEST 2011: Call for Support

BWISP is delighted to post this PRESS RELEASE from the PALESTINE FESTIVAL of LITERATURE. We hope readers may be in a position to respond to PALFEST’s request for support.

As the revolution rolls on through the Arab world, we thought we should take a moment to update you about PalFest 2011.

We’re thrilled to announce that this year’s festival will take place from April 15th to 20th, and will hold events in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Nazareth, Jenin, Bethlehem and al-Khalil.

We will be working with students at BirZeit, Bethlehem, an-Najah, al Quds and al Khalil universities as well as cultural centres in Jenin, Balata and Aida camps.

A full list of participating authors will be released very soon.

PAlESTINE WRITING CENTRE

We are delighted to announce we’ve been offered the free use of a building in Birzeit village for three years. We are now working to establish The Palestine Writing Centre with our sister organisation, the Palestine Writing Workshop.

We’re hoping the first stage will be up and running by late April. Will keep you posted!

Support the Arts in Palestine

Raising the funds to run PalFest grows harder every year. We need to raise £20,000 in the next month to deliver a festival truly worthy of the revolutionary momentum sweeping the region.

We are proud of our track record of innovative and engaging educational programmes, our top-quality translations, our distribution of free anthologies. But now we need your help to keep our work of the highest quality.

If you can, please support the arts in Palestine. All online donations are guaranteed to go straight to our educational programmes.

Please Donate Now

Remi Kanazi: ‘Co-existence’

Palestinian-American poet, writer and activist Remi Kanazi is appearing Tuesday night at the South Bank Centre, as part of Poetry International 2010.

Remi always makes a point of mentioning BDS in his stage appearances. To check out his dynamic performance style, you can view his appearance in Nablus at Palfest 2010, giving the audience a taste of Co-Existence

You can pre-order his new book Poetic Injustice here.

And heads up – tickets going fast for Tuesday!

Poetry International 2010: Spotlight on Palestine

Poetry International 2010
at the South Bank Centre, London
Oct 30 – Nov 7

Celebrated poets from around the globe respond to the theme of imagining peace and bring us their perspectives on a changing world, with Palestine and the Middle East as a central focus. During nine days of readings, performance and ideas, poets from 29 countries take to the stage, including Palestinian poets Remi Kanazi, Suheir Hammad, Fady Joudah, and Lisa Suhair Majaj, audio-visual collective Tashweesh, and a special joint appearance by father and son Mourid and Tamim Barghouti, chaired by novelist Ahdaf Soueif, chair of the Palestinian Festival of Literature.

Susan Abulhawa in London: Sat July 10th

This Saturday PalFest and the London Literature Festival are joining forces to bring you an evening with Susan Abulhawa.

Susan Abulhawa’s debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, tells the story of the Abulheja family, who are driven from their Palestinian home by Israeli forces. The novel offers a panaromic view of Palestine’s bloody history, interwoven with personal stories of childhood, marriage and parenthood. Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the 1967 war and is the founder and President of Playgrounds for Palestine.

‘Mornings In Jenin is a powerful and passionate insight into what many Palestinians have had to endure since the state of Israel was created. Susan Abulhawa guides us through traumatic events with anger and great tenderness too, creating unforgettable images of a world in which humanity and inhumanity, selflessness and selfishness, love and hate grow so close to each other’
– Michael Palin


Saturday July 10th, 7.45pm, the SouthBank Centre
Book tickets now
Stay in touch with Palfest on our Connect Page or through our Facebook and Twitter pages.