mahmoud darwish

The Catalyst Expressions of Mahmoud Darwish/awakening in Palestine

Who can rest unawakened after listening to Mahmoud Darwish?

Not I.

I met the sound of his poetry on my last day in Ramallah in 2014, when I visited the museum that honors his legacy as the poet synonymous with Palestine. That day, Gaza was being bombed as well. As then, as before then, as now.

Preparing for the journey of Your Voice as Catalyst which begins on January 31, I am revisiting what broke my heart open, what breaks my heart open still, what inspired me to stand up in my sound, poems which we will draw on in this experience, create in response to…one catalyst lighting up another, our fierce lyric hearts that can- I still believe - remake the world with our voices.

Below is an animated version of his poem, لاعب النرد - قصيدة متحركة (The Dice Player). Video animation by Nissmah Roshdy.

It begins:

Who am I to tell you this?

I was never a drenched rock...

Who am I to tell you this?

The questions and the language of the senses in which he speaks gets to the gut. It got to mine. Viscera. What my friend Coral, a flamenco singer, says she sings with. “nos cantamos desde las vísceras,” she says, and takes hold of her stomach.

Your voice as catalyst. also, your voice is catalyst.

So much of why I want to guide folks on this journey is because of what I have lived, the felt body sense of healing when we engage with that gut, when we express ourselves in language that protects our soft bellies even as the words we speak pack a punch. Releasing us to step into our bold truth. The step comes naturally after the truth is spoken.

Even when the world is dissolving, the truth does not.

in solidarity, in creativity, in catalysis

YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST: a 6 week journey to create one powerful expression that propels you to act on what is calling you, January 31, 2024

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