Poetry
Poems of a Vanished World
A century ago, a vital debate was ignited over the authenticity of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. Among the many reasons to accept the antiquity of much of this body of verse is the distinct mindset it reveals, in which humans stand fully within the natural world.
Blackness in Urdu Poetry
Noon Meem Danish, a Black Pakistani poet, explores themes of Blackness, identity and belonging in his work. In a rare interview, the only Urdu-language poet writing within the Negritude tradition reflects on a life and career that has taken him from protest in Karachi to solitude in Connecticut.
A New Discovery Sheds Light on Malcolm X’s Journey to Islam
Previous Malcolm X biographies did him a disservice by skimming over his period of incarceration. Behind prison walls, he developed his mind and his faith, honing his love for language. It was a formative time, best understood by considering what he read and appreciating what he wrote.
Gazan Poets Write To Survive
Writers in Gaza today, threatened by relentless bombardment and displacement and forced to focus their attention on the small details of survival, have been leaning on language to document, communicate and seek refuge from the brutal war that has now entered its second year.
The Remarkable Overlaps in the Lives of Two Poets: One Chronicled the Nakba, the Other the Holocaust
Mahmoud Darwish and Avrom Sutzkever wrote sophisticated, modernist lyrical and prose poetry about the great 20th-century traumas of their peoples, the Nakba and the Holocaust, which they respectively survived. Their lives and the themes they explored in their poetry overlapped in extraordinary ways.
Recovering the Bawdy Humor of Classical Arabic Literature
While those who advocate censorship tend to invoke the past, classical Arabic literature often mirrors today’s informality and humor. Stories and anecdotes laced with profanity were told in the same candid manner in which they were composed, without any hesitation or disgust.
Al-Mutanabbi’s Status as the ‘Shakespeare of the Arabs’ Was Always Controversial
Though some today ask whether al-Mutanabbi, long hailed as the greatest Arab poet, truly deserves the title, they ignore the fact that his reputation was always in dispute.