Dates Announced for PalFest 2010
April 21st, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Check PULSE regularly for exclusive interviews with PalFest participants which will be published over the coming days.
Robin Yassin-Kassab and Jeremy Harding with Birzeit University students
The 2010 Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest), a traveling cultural roadshow that tours Palestine annually, will be taking place May 1-6. A variety of international artists will be participating including Suheir Hammad, Pankaj Mishra and new patrons Philip Pullman and Emma Thompson.
In an effort to promote the “the power of culture over the culture of power,” PalFest counters the travel restrictions imposed upon victims of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine by connecting international artists with Palestinian audiences.
According to PalFest Chair and Founder, Ahdaf Soueif:
There’s tremendous energy to PalFest, and huge amounts of goodwill pushing it forward… This is a literary festival that makes a difference, both to the hosts and to the visitors.
Since its inception PalFest has reached audiences of thousands in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. In 2009 the festival expanded to include events in Jenin and al-Khalil/Hebron, and this year PalFest will once again be touring the West Bank while visiting a variety of different locations.
The festival creators also strive to incorporate an outreach and education component into their program and this year international authors will be meeting with Palestinian writers, visiting and reading in Dheisha Refugee Camp, and visiting schools and universities. Renowned novelist and PULSE coeditor Robin Yassin-Kassab was a featured PalFest participant last year and wrote about his experiences on PULSE. In “All roads lead to Palfest,” Yassin-Kassab includes commentary about a workshop he helped run at Birzeit University and notes that even
Beyond Bir Zeit’s lecture halls, all Palestine is bubbling with creative energy and intelligence, and this filled me with hope. A people like this cannot be kept down indefinitely.
You can find Yassin-Kassab’s 2010 reflections on PalFest here.
According to author and PalFest patron, Philip Pullman:
Every literary act, whether it’s a great epic poem or an honest piece of journalism or a simple nonsense tale for children is a blow against the forces of stupidity and ignorance and darkness…The Palestine Festival of Literature exists to do just that…
In an effort to expand and diversify, PalFest will also incorporate film screenings, art exhibitions and staged readings carried out by local artists in different Palestinian cities this year.
Thanks to the generosity of PalFest’s partners and valued donors, all events are free and open to everyone. A full programme of events can be found on PalFest’s official website.
Found below is a 2009 PalFest performance by award-winning Palestinian-American poet, Suheir Hammad. You can find more PalFest performances on its Facebook page.
Check PULSE regularly for exclusive interviews with PalFest participants which will be published over the coming days. You can find my recent interview with PalFest creative producer, Omar Robert Hamilton, here.
