Al-mutanabbi Street Starts Here

Beau Beausoleil

Description

On March 5th 2007, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. This is the historic centre of Baghdad bookselling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor stalls. Named after the famed 10th century classical Arab poet al-Mutanabbi, it had been the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community. Begins with a historical introduction to al-Mutanabbi Street and includes the writing of Iraqis and international poets and writers.

Sujets

• Cultural studies
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 19 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781604867640
• Langue: English

Extrait

Project website: http://www.al-mutanabbistreetstartshere-boston.com/
Jaffe Center for Book Arts: http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/al-mutanabbi/index.php
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here
Edited by Beau Beausoleil & Deema K. Shehabi
© 2012 PM Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-60486-590-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011939672
Cover designed by Tania Baban, based on a broadside printed by Suzanne Vilmain for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project
Interior design by briandesign
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA on recycled paper, by the Employee Owners of ThomsonShore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
Contents
Introduction BeauBeausoleil
Preface Muhsin al-Musawi
I. THE RIVER TURNED BLACK WITH INK
The Bookseller’s Story, Ending Much Too Soon Anthony Shadid
A Man in Love with Knowledge Mousa al-Naseri
For al-Mutanabbi Street Naomi Shihab Nye
The Last Word Deena Metzger
The Grief of Birds Sam Hamod
Al-Mutanabbi Street Lutfiya al-Dulaimi
Occident to Orient Zaid Shlah
Ways to Count the Dead Persis M. Karim
Al-Mutanabbi Street Ayub Nuri
Qasida, My Father Spoke at Funerals, Ways to Raise the Dead Marian Haddad
Girls in Red on Page One Sarah Browning
Al-Mutanabbi Street Eileen Grace OMalley Callahan
Abridged Qasida for al-Mutanabbi Street Roger Sedarat
Al-Mutanabbi Street Elline Lipkin
Fragment, in Praise of the Book MeenaAlexander
An Ordinary Bookseller Esther Kamkar
What Prayer Robert Perry
Marianne Moore in Baghdad Gloria Collins
The al-Mutanabbi Street Bombing Brian Turner
In Perpetuity GloriaFrym
Against the Weather (for al-Mutanabbi Street) Owen Hill
Dead Trees Yassin "The Narcicyst" Alsalman
Elegy for al-Mutanabbi Street Jose Luis Gutierrez
The Letter Has Arrived Sargon Boulus
Al-Mutanabbi Street Peter Money
Voices Surround & Fade: The Hooded One Peter Money
A Letter to al-Mutanabbi Sinan Antoon
Escape from al-Mutanabbi Street Muhammad al-Hamrani
into the lizard’s eyes Lilvia Soto
After Rumi Janet Sternburg
To Salah al-Hamdani, November, 2008 Sam Hamill
Thirty Days after Thirty Years Salah al-Hamdani
Excerptfrom Blue Gail Sher
A half-burned page on al-Mutanabbi Street Dunya Mikhail
My Days Lack Happiness and I Want You Irada al-Jabbouri
Remnants Dilara Cirit
Ashes Niamh macFhionnlaoich
The Color She Wears Erica Goss
No Man’s Land Daisy Zamora
On al-Mutanabbi Street George Evans
The Friend Steve Dickison
The River Turned Black with Ink Maysoon Pachachi
II. KNOWLEDGE IS LIGHT
Matter and Spirit on al-Mutanabbi Street Summer Brenner
Untitled Jen Hofer
Untitled Rijin Sahakian
Rain Song Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
The Poet Jane Hirshfield
"Close to God" Jack Marshall
A Book in the Hand Susan Moon
Revolutionary Letter #77 Awkward Song on the Eve of War Diane di Prima
Al-Mutanabbi Street Evelyn So
Ethics of Care: The Retreat of al-Mutanabbi Nahrain al-Mousawi
A Secret Question Ko Un
The Road to al-Mutanabbi Street Joe Lamb
Untitled Katrina Rodabaugh 120
For I Am a Stranger Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
Untitled Mohammed Hayawi
Excerpt from Five Hymns to Pain Nazik al-Malaika
Al-Mutanabbi Street RayaAsee
Attention Saadi Youssef
Destinies Gazar Hantoosh
A Book of Remedies MarkAbley
On the Booksellers’ Street of Baghdad Majid Naficy
Crossroads Lewis Buzbee
Untitled Ibn al-Utri
Remembering al-Mutanabbi Thomas Christensen
On Ashurbanipal’s Library Amy Gerstler
III. GATHERING THE SILENCES
In the Valley of Love Genny Lim
Night in Hamdan Saadi Youssef
Burning Judith Lyn Sutton
Luis and Celso on al-Mutanabbi Street JoshKun
Lullaby Dana Teen Lomax
I Recall al-Sayyab Mahmoud Darwish
Country of Large Rivers EtelAdnan
The Murderer Bushra al-Bustani
GHAZAL: Dar al-Harb Marilyn Hacker
A Home on al-Mutanabbi Street Richard Harrison
Proof of Kindness Fady Joudah
Hearing of Alia Muhammed Baker’s Stroke Philip Metres
Prayer for the Living Hayan Charara
Interpenetrate Annie Finch
The Contract KazimAli
Curves in the Dark Deema K. Shehabi
The Booksellers of Pansodan Kenneth Wong
The Proper Purgation ElmazAbinader
In the Country of the Dead HabibTengour
Adolescence of Burnt Hands Khaled Mattawa
From Tales of a Severed Head Rachida Madani
Untitled Amina Said
What Every Driver Must Know AliseAlousi
Explosion Sita Carboni
Letter to My Childhood Friend, the Baghdad Car Bomber Fran Bourassa
Chrysalis JabezW. Churchill
Al-Mutanabbi Street: Foot Notes after the Fire Daniela Bouneva Elza
Poppies Are Not (Enough) Daniela Bouneva Elza
Psalms and Ashes Linda Norton
Black and Red Fred Norman
Nazik al-Malaika Fred Norman
Al-Mutanabbi Bonnie Nish
random Bonnie Nish
The Twisted Janet Rodney
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve Adrienne Rich
The Blues Sat Down on al-Mutanabbi Street Cornelius Eady
March 9, 2007 Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad Julie Bruck
The Secret Carpentry Kwame Dawes
Blackouts Ralph Angel
Moth B.H. Fairchild
Baghdad Callsby Terese Svoboda
They Didn’t Ask: What’s After Death Mahmoud Darwish
The Airport of Language Amir el-Chidiac
Rocks Aram Saroyan
April Stork Saadi Youssef
Solos on the Oud (#3) Saadi Youssef
See Them Coming Sholeh Wolpe
Love Song Sholeh Wolpe
Until the Glaciers Melt Sholeh Wolpe
Tonight Nathalie Handal
One (for al-Mutanabbi Street) Beau Beausoleil
The Timeless Legacy of al-Mutanabbi Street Azar Nafisi
The Sudden Cessation of Electricity Dima Hilal
Market Forces Runon Tony Kranz
Freedom to Walk Jordan Elgrably
Untitled devorah major
Words Suzy Malcolm
The Last Supper Ibrahim Nasrallah
The Celebration Ibrahim Nasrallah
A Special Invitation Ibrahim Nasrallah
Circle of Prey Rick London
Its First Smell Sarah Menefee
Automatize Roberto Harrison
Verses for Everyday Use Fadhil al-Azzawi
Paper Elegy Amaranth Borsuk
311 and Counting Lamees al-Ethari
A Very Short Letter Shayma al-Saqr
The Street of the Poet Jim Natal
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Sometimes the weight of our own silence becomes completely unbearable, until we cannot take one more day of reading about the blood, bone, and ash.
And then the moment comes when we recognize that this distant landscape is our own, and that we must walk through it.
On March 5, 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. More than thirty people were killed and more than a hundred were wounded. This locale is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. Named after the famed tenth-century classical Arab poet, al-Mutanabbi, this is an old and established street for bookselling and has been for hundreds of years. It has been the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community.
The connection between the booksellers and readers on al-Mutanabbi Street and the booksellers and readers here is very simple and direct. We all share the belief that books are the holders of memories, dreams, and ideas. I felt, as a poet and bookseller here in San Francisco, an urgent need to keep this singular, tragic event in our consciousness, because it has such deep historical and cultural implications, for us, here in this country, and for the people of Iraq. To this end, I decided to create a coalition of poets, artists, writers, printers, booksellers, and readers.
I had two basic goals. The first goal was to have those involved in the arts respond to this targeted attack. A response that would consider the various underpinnings that made up the fabric of al-Mutanabbi Street: a street that held bookstores, a street that held both Shia and Sunni, a street that indeed welcomed all Iraqis, a street where people felt relatively "safe" as they walked, browsed books, bought stationery, arranged for printing, or sat in the Shabandar Cafe. These same people somehow believed that this place of knowledge and history "protected" them from the encroaching chaos.
Besides seeking to gather more dead, the car bomber and his cohorts were attacking the thoughts and ideas latent in each book, trying to also kill the notion that someone might be free to say something not sanctioned by them. It didn’t matter if that idea was in a children’s book, a book of philosophy, a memoir, poetry, or perhaps even more dangerous, a blank notebook.
My second goal was to try to close the distance between al-Mutanabbi Street and similar "cultural streets" here and around the globe. I want people to understand the commonality that exists between al-Mutanabbi Street and any street that holds a bookstore or a cultural institution. I want people to understand that a carefully chosen attack like this should be seen as an attack on us all.
I have felt that concentrating our attention on this one car bombing, on this one day, on this one narrow winding street, would reveal many things to us and perhaps also help us to see the bond we have with everyday Iraqis. These are the Iraqis who get up each day and work to live, Iraqis whose lives are altered forever by being in the wrong place at the wrong time: while on their way to work, to school, to the market, just sitting in a cafe, or picking up a book to read on al-Mutanabbi Street.
I have come to feel that wherever someone gathers their thoughts to write towards the truth, or where someone sits down and opens a book to read, it is there that al-Mutananabbi Street starts.
As much as this anthology celebrates al-Mutanabbi Street and helps others understand what it means to the Iraqi cultural community, it is also a lament for those who were killed and wounded that day, and by extension, on all the streets and days before, and days after, even this very day, as I write these words.
Al-Mutanabbi Street ha