#rasha abdulhadi

[houseofpurplestars]

Please practice loving Palestinian liberation more than you love any one of us as personalities (including me 💚).

This is not reality television.

May this practice deepen your commitment to your own liberation. May you never be tempted toward false rescues.

- Rasha Abdulhadi, Palestinian poet

@ rashaabdulhadi

[edwordsmyth]

Aracelis Girmay

[fiercynn]

palestinian poets: rasha abdulhadi

rasha abdulhadi is a queer palestinian southerner with long covid who cut their teeth organizing on the southsides of chicago and atlanta. rasha's writing has appeared in speculative city, liminality, strange horizons, shade journal, mizna, room, itap| magazine, beltway poetry, and lambda literary. their work is anthologized in essential voices: a COVID-19 anthology, unfettered hexes, halal if you hear me, stoked words, and luminescent threads: connections to octavia butler. rasha is a member of justice for muslims collective, the radius of arab american writers, and alternate ROOTS. their small book of poetry is WHO IS OWED SPRINGTIME (neon hemlock press). you can find rasha on twitter.

RASHA'S CALL TO ACTION

"rasha abdulhadi is calling on you, dear reader, to join them in refusing and resisting the genocide of the palestinian people. wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. if it's a handful, throw it. if it's a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw. get in the way however you can. the elimination of the palestinian people is not inevitable. we can refuse with our every breath and action. we must."

IF YOU READ JUST ONE POEM BY RASHA ABDULHADI, MAKE IT THIS ONE

"Casting Runes" was originally published by fiyah literary magazine in the palestine special issue, which was curated, edited, illustrated and comprised entirely of palestinian creators, in december 2021. the collection was edited by guests nadia shammas and summer farah, and featured cover art by leila aboutaleb.

if you have the means, you can purchase the e-book of the fiyah lit palestine special issue for USD $5.99, the proceeds of which go to medical aid for palestinians.

OTHER POEMS ONLINE THAT I LOVE BY RASHA ABDULHADI

Rabbits at lambda literary

Picking up Rocks at split this rock (also read aloud)

Dad's Combs at beltway poetry

Table of Contents for a Manual of Pandemic Response Protocols at poetry.onl (also read aloud)

Safe Harbor in Enemy Homes at get lit anthology

Build the Graves at the deadlands

How to Build a Dad Out of Bricks at electric lit

[theoffingmag]

— Rasha Abdulhadi, "a litany of refusals to become ghostly"

[havingapoemwithyou]

Casting Runes by Rasha Abdulhadi

[thingsthatmakeyouacey]

I urge any and everyone to read or listen to this podcast. It is exceptionally clarifying about what complicity in death-making during this genocide looks like. Including criticism of the Western left that is incredibly pressing.

Transcript above or listen here: https://m.soundcloud.com/deathpanel/refusing-genocide-w-rasha-abdulhadi

[apollon-emos]

periodic and sincere reminder to writers and artists of all sorts: don't be a tool for the empire.

[kitchen-light]

As a Palestinian in diaspora, nothing builds my connection to the land more than literature. It is not just the scenes detailed by our great poets that makes the ground feel realer under my feet, but the gravitational pull towards each other that gives me belief in that liberated homeland. In my work as a critic, I’ve often played it safe; devoted my time to works I loved or could situate as a positive contribution to the culture, shying away from being public in my negative critiques. As I read and re-read Ghassan Kanafani’s On Zionist Literature, I am reminded that this work is, in fact, a matter of life-or-death; literatures can set the stage for the attempted annihilation of a people, and it is our responsibility to point to it. How often have I chosen a slow death in service of comfort? The truth is, I have never been able to look around a room and not see the genocidal escalation to come—if the vitriolic disregard for human life, for Palestinian life, did not permeate through to our most mundane of activities, over 18,000 Palestinians would not have been killed in the past 67 days, over 1.5 million would not be displaced from Gaza. As Gaza’s poets are assassinated, as the libraries are destroyed, as Palestinians across historic Palestine (and all over the world) are arrested for dissent, as writers face censorship globally for speaking the truth of the genocide that is occurring, we must consider: if literature is your corner, what will you do to rid it of these violences? 

Summer Farah, from the opening paragraphs of "Palestinian Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide | Summer Farah, Samah Fadil, Priscilla Wathington, and Rasha Abdulhadi discuss countering Zionist propaganda and mobilizing art into action", published in Lit Hub, December 14, 2023. You can read the full discussion here

[kissingcullens]

Refusing Genocide w/ Rasha Abdulhadi

Death Panel podcast host Beatrice Adler-Bolton speaks with Rasha Abdulhadi about how to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in this moment, the importance of refusing the idea that the genocide of Palestinians is inevitable, and how the language we use to resist the colonial project can sometimes fail to meet the scale of our demands.

(10/16/23)

[readingsquotes]

"

So, I want to ask: what is the role of poetry in genocide?

Samah Fadil: This question reminds me of the call to action Rasha Abdulhadi sent to me and urged other writers to use: “Whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now.” Poetry is sand that can be thrown on the gears of genocide, so I agree with Solmaz—the aesthetic pleasure comes second. But, one must remember that sand is made up of trillions of particles of eroding rock. Poetry is sand but sand is not only poetry… Poetry is a tool that can be wielded by anyone—for good or bad, status or self, self or salve. In my experience, I can’t say that my poetry has changed anyone but myself, but when I think of all of the poets that have inspired me to reach for my pen, and who continue to do so, I’d like to think that in some way, we are all continuously changing with each other’s words.

The answer above was written before the recent targeted assassination of beloved Gazan poet Dr. Refaat Alareer, and feels especially haunting now. I wish more people knew of him and his work before he was martyred. I wish people knew the poets who are still breathing as much as they knew the ones who are not. But to go back to the question, what is the role of poetry in genocide? After seeing the literal hundreds of people around the world who translated Refaat’s poem “If I must die”, it’s a reminder to me that in our hundreds, in our millions, we are all Palestinian. My last interaction with Refaat was him asking me to send him a clearer image of my poem “lucid”. I was so incredibly honored he asked. I did, and I hope he got to read my words. I hope he enjoyed them. He is someone who held poetry very, very dear to his heart and someone who taught its revolutionary potential to his students. My role as a poet is to honor that legacy.

[houseofpurplestars]

Write the worst poetry or the best, show it to everyone or no one, BUT GET IN THE WAY TO STOP GENOCIDE WHILE YOU DO IT.

🪨🌱

— rasha abdulhadi (@rashaabdulhadi) March 8, 2024

[edwordsmyth]

Rasha Abdulhadi

[inhernature]

“Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it’s a handful, throw it. If it’s a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw it.” -Rasha Abdulhadi (source: tweet)

[havingapoemwithyou]

Safe Harbor in Enemy Homes by Rasha Abdulhadi

[scatteredprayerbeads]

... our mothers have been here before, they know there's no antidote for the poisons sown in the fields of war but i will refuse the death machine of the imagination any morsel more ... at least in my heart, the war can't have you, my friend— and wherever the last domino of my body falls, let me land as a gear-breaking wedge— the murder wheel won't win my shame. i won't let them kill me before i die and i offer you the same.

From "Pocketful of Warding Stones" by Rasha Abdulhadi

[apollon-emos]

shut down ports and call for ceasefire [and arms embargo and humanitarian corridors.] sit in at/demonstrate before/blockade your government buildings. disrupt political rallies. please get organized, god, we are not in the awareness campaign stage of this crisis. we're not even in the donations stage. please. radical collective action is our only only hope.