How do you contemplate a blaze of light in the midst of disaster? What hope is named when the hundreds of thousands of deaths are counted? Of children who, just by circumstance, were born in a country that has historically been violated and is at war? As?
From the Gaza Strip, Mexican playwright Ángel Hernándezcompany leader Theater for the end of the world, took on the task of searching for poetic voices that, despite the tragedy —of the war that, as León Gieco wrote, “is a big monster and it stomps”—; continue producing poetry and literature.
This recovery of poetry moved to activations in places where the situation allows it, like Jordan and the border with Egypt, places where Theater for the end of the world has taken Palestinian poetry and activated it.
- You can read a small sample of poets from Palestine by clicking here. We suggest you explore and discover more Palestinian literature on your own.
READ: The UN estimates that Gaza has lost almost 70 years of development
In an interview, Hernández points out that a large number of Palestinian poets have been imprisoned in the last 20 years, coupled with the fact that during their confinement they were not allowed to produce texts. Today, some of those writers live in refugee camps in Jordan.
“In mid-August of this year we began collecting testimonies from Palestinians who live in refugee camps, what we did was recover the poetic word from texts that were being forgotten, and that were even banned or canceled, or destroyed , in a large number of cases,” he details.
Hernández, who has been in Palestinian territory for three months, explains that The Zionist regime has the power to catalog texts (such as literature and poetry) in terrorist propaganda, which is why many writings have been destroyed.
“We recover the memory of those texts that no longer exist and we begin to activate them in performative actions, where Theater for the end of the world collaborated with Palestinian groups,” adds Hernández, who won the 2023 Perla Szuchmacher Fine Arts Award for Theater Works for Children and Young People.
Although Jordan has remained somewhat neutral in the Palestinian conflict, in recent weeks the country has suffered an escalation of violence, which has made the investigation difficult. Theater for the end of the world performs.
“There is a constant siege of the refugee camps located in the north of Jordan, this causes strong persecution of activists, artists, volunteers and journalists, the management has been very complicated between us and the Palestinian artists.
Although there are organizations that are working on behalf of the Palestinian people, these Non-Governmental Organizations cannot support the scale of the attacks,” narrates the playwright. Given the situation, Hernández explains, artists, journalists and activists prefer to go into exile rather than be deported, disappeared or murdered.
“In this last season there has been an unprecedented increase in death crimes against artists and activists in Palestine, so they seek refuge in Jordan or Egypt, and from there we have managed to work on actions and activations,” he indicates.
The research will come to an end in the middle of the month, and it is projected that in 2025 these poetic texts will be activated in Mexico.
READ: Gaza Strip, in ruins and facing famine
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