360 Degrees: 11/07/11

November 7, 2011

Identity Card - Performed by Souhad Zendah

Souhad Zendah is a lecturer at Tufts University where she teaches Arabic language and culture. She has also taught Arabic language and literacy at Harvard where she is currently working on an advanced degree in language education.

Identity Card was written by Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) who was born in Al Birweh, Palestine into a land-owing Sunni Muslim family. During the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, his village was destroyed and his family fled to Lebanon.

Darwish was an editor for a Palestine Liberation Organization monthly journal and the director of the group's research center. He also founded the literary review Al-Karmel and served as the editor-in-chief. Darwish is considered Palestine's most eminent poet. Souhad delivers a moving performance of one of Darwish's most famous poems.

Identity Card

Mahmoud Darwish

(performed first in Arabic then in English)

Some details about Mahmoud Darwish from: The Academy of American Poets

About Dr. Z. Hall

Hall is a researcher, artist, and art writer whose published scholarly writing and art writing focus on visual art, literature, visual and material rhetoric, race, identity, gender, performance art, media, and intersections of these. She has blogged about these since 2011. She is a poet, photographer, and emerging visual and performance artist. Ekphrasis is her poetry specialty.* Her performance art exhibitions include ‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’ (Jan. 2016) for the Dialogue Institute’s Martin Luther King birthday celebration and ‘Intersession’ (Apr. 2016) at The Riverfront Readings Special 'What on Earth?' in celebration of Earth Day. Her art works articulate social and political realism as critique.

Hall began curating visual and performance art as a vital part of dialogic events in 2015. She is the Executive Director and Producer of Salon~360, a monthly event that brings together artists, business people, scholars, activists, and community members in dialogue around society’s most pressing issues in a safe and responsive space. Hall’s passion for creating room for genuine dialogue stems back to the 2011 online version of Salon~360, 'Shaken Not Stirred: Conversations with Friends,' here on her blog.

Themes of Salon~360’s inaugural 2015 season included: forgiveness, anger, suicide, humane capacity, and grief. The first year closed with a benefit show based on its five themes. Highlights can be seen on their website.

The connection between Salon~360 and Hall’s scholarship, artistry, curating and art writing is her interest in the relationships between artistic expression and dialogue and how these shape culture within societies.

*To read, listen to, and view some of Hall's ekprasis poetry collaborations go to Palisade of Poetry under the Blog Posts tab.

Salon~360's website, Facebook, and LinkedIn

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November 7, 2011

Identity Card - Performed by Souhad Zendah