“Between news, between new landmines, shrapnel texts, I have to wait to check if they’re still alive, and in turn, they check on my life,” Pitzer professor Yahya Ashour said of his family back in Gaza.
On Wednesday, March 11, students and faculty filtered into the Ena Thompson Room at Pomona College’s Crookshank Hall to listen to Palestinian poet and Pitzer visiting professor Yahya Ashour read a selection of his poems. Alongside stand-alone poems, he shared several from his e-book and manuscript, “A Gaza of Siege & Genocide.”
Ashour is an award-winning poet and writer, an honorary fellow in writing at the University of Iowa and the recipient of multiple scholarships and fellowships. He has also presented his work at over 50 U.S. organizations and universities.
Since he was forced into exile by Israel’s intensified military assault on Gaza in 2023, Ashour has made a mark in Gazan literature as a powerful storyteller of resistance and identity.
Pomona English Professor Prageeta Sharma, one of the event organizers, kicked off the reading with a brief introduction. She described Ashour as an incredible poet with an ability to call upon readers and their passivity toward violence — someone who has witnessed violence firsthand and carries with him a responsibility to continue sharing stories from Gaza.
“The speaker [Ashour] appears split between two positions, one half experiencing grief and displacement, the other witnessing it from afar in exile,” Sharma said. “In this way, the mirror marks a boundary between experience and observation, creating a distance within the self where the speaker is both participant in and witness to his own pain.”
From the reading of his first poem, “Seashells,” to an excerpt of his last poem, “At Lake Michigan,” Ashour traced his experiences of exile and displacement, from his life in Gaza to his life in the United States.
Attendees drew their breath and leaned in, struck by his sharp lyric address, openness, vulnerability and ability to move the room.
Attendee Annika Weber PO ’27 expressed not only her general love for attending readings, which allow her to engage with words in real time, but also her special appreciation for the progression of readings and the ways Ashour staged the narrative to convey ideas of homeland and exile.
“I was curious about the order in which [Ashour] arranged the poems because I feel like they started in a way that maybe felt a little bit more distant, then almost felt like [the poems] narrowed in until they were kind of drilling into me, ” Weber said. “[Toward the end] the poems felt like they were more addressed, perhaps, to the people in the room.”
During the Q&A, an attendee asked a question about the act of translation — from Arabic to English — in Ashour’s writing and how it informs his craft.
“What does that mean to you to have these atrocities taking place against [people who speak Arabic], taking place essentially in Arabic, and having to communicate it in English?” the student asked.
In response, Ashour reflected on the complexities of language and bilingualism in his work. He described the act of translation as central to his work as a poet. Yet he also acknowledged the limitations of translation, explaining that words from one language cannot fully capture the nuances and feelings of another.
“I really, really love my Arabic language. I really miss it. I think it’s one of the greatest things that I’m … losing right now,” Ashour said. “I feel like my emotions, whether positive or negative, are very strong in Arabic … In English, you can only try — you can only wish that someone [sees] the anger and someone [sees] the humor or someone [sees] the love or belonging, the loss.”
Attendees reflected on the readings and discussions, sharing their thoughts on the role of art and poetry in social change. Lina McRoberts PO ’27 described how poetry acts as a foundational step in creating tangible change.
“Change must first occur in the hearts and minds of those involved before it can occur in a more material context, and I think [poetry] has the ability to do that,” McRoberts said.
In addition to teaching and writing, Ashour is currently putting together “The Gaza Folio,” an anthology of poetry and prose by Gazan writers from around the world.
“It’s really wonderful, but at the same time, it’s a very heartbreaking process,” Ashour said. “Every time I go back to that folio, a lot of intense feelings come to me, and it’s a very hard process.”
The talk closed with a promotion of Ashour’s book, along with ways to support the Grassroots Gaza initiative and a Gazan student writer support group led by Ashour.
Ashour’s poetry is both his way of grappling with personal tragedy and standing up for Gazans in the face of devastation. Students expressed that creative processes such as these are a means of reconciliation and a means of compelling people to act.
“[Poetry and art] play a crucial role in revolutionary struggle because it helps sustain the imaginative and affective conditions necessary for collective resistance … Art is part of the human experience — how can one not make art in the face of tragedy?” McRoberts said.
Another talk and reading with Ashour will take place on Wednesday, March 25, at 6 p.m. at Pitzer College’s Benson Auditorium.
Facebook Comments