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Sophie DeWitt for This Week in Palestine, Mar 26, 2010
Seven months pregnant, Remi Kanazi's grandmother was forced to flee her home in Jaffa in 1948. Himself a refugee since birth, Kanazi was born in Western Massachusetts in 1981 and grew up in the United States, disconnected from his Palestinian identity. When he moved to New York four months before September 11, he had already begun to rethink his place in the world. That event, as was the case with so many Arab Americans, helped shape his future path. Kanazi found himself overwhelmed with anger and frustration, which sent him on a reading frenzy - learning all he could about the Middle East, especially Palestine. Recalling stories from his grandparents and parents, Kanazi began to reformulate and articulate his own views on Palestine. Then came the first transformational encounter he had as an emerging artist: seeing Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, featuring Palestinian American poet Suheir Hammad. That event was a defining moment in Kanazi's journey towards becoming a performance poet.
Since the fall of 2008, Kanazi has consistently toured, promoting the book and bringing his voice to North American audiences. Speaking of the performance aspect of his poetry, Kanazi notes: "What I learned from many of the poets in the book is that what you put on the page is as important as how you perform for the audience. My purpose in performing is to give voice not only to myself but also to a community of people who are not offered a platform in the United States." Spoken word is about performance and that requires confidence, something Kanazi truly embodies on stage. Often characterised as the "angry Arab," Kanazi calls his audience to action, refusing ignorance and silence by demanding awareness and giving meaning to the term "punch line." He is wholly political, critiquing governments and individuals alike with lines such as: Sometimes I don't know who to hate more The governments in the West or the politicians in the East Who sell their souls quicker than the oil they export Straw men who use Palestine as a tool to line their pockets And don't give a nickel to their people... (Excerpt from Israel/America: A Rambling Poem.) Coming home, Kanazi performed for the first time ever to a Palestinian audience in Palestine. On Wednesday, 10 February, Kanazi shouted into a microphone as a packed house - overflowing onto the veranda - screamed and applauded, welcoming him home. One audience member, a student at Birzeit, remarked: "It was one of the best events I have ever been to. I was inspired by Remi Kanazi. He is a model for all of us, and I learned from him and from his words to be strong and fight for our rights no matter how hard it is." In addition to the performance for Poetry of Palestine at Cafe La Vie, Kanazi came alive in front of two hundred fifth and sixth graders, inspiring them with both a performance and an interactive talk. Moreover, he gave a lecture to poetry students at Birzeit University and taught a workshop in Nablus that ended with a performance. Kanazi not only performed while in Palestine, but mentored fourteen emerging writers through an intensive spoken-word workshop* that ran for nine days. A student in the workshop, Emile Sabba, echoes his classmates: "I love the class. I didn't expect to like it so much or that we would all be so good, but we are. And Remi's really an inspiration. He's so young and he's done so much. And he's funny!" Other students described how he inspires them and how excited they are to find and develop their own voices as poets. Kanazi will return for a follow-up workshop, preparing the students for the upcoming third annual Palestine Festival of Literature from 1 to 6 May (www.palfest.org), in which he'll participate. Kanazi will host the May PalFest-sponsored Poetry of Palestine show and introduce his students to their first-ever performance. * The workshop and Poetry of Palestine night are part of the Palestine Writing Workshop (palestineworkshop.org), which offers writer-in-residence workshops and events in an effort to develop and support a community of creative writers in Palestine. This article was originally published on This Week in Palestine and is republished with permission.
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