We are so thrilled to celebrate George Abraham‘s release of their first book, al youm! Please join us for a free writing workshop, a lively open mic, and George!

6:30pm Writing Workshop w/ IS Jones
7:30pm Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm Open Mic

All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Suggested Donation: $5-$10

Praise for al youm:

“George Abraham is the poetic love child of Whitman and Darwish, an exile living in the borderlands of his own Palestinian body. Through these poems–daringly experimental, explosively confession–he rebuilds himself out of his own erasure. In his words, ‘your body isn’t a temple–/ your body is the heaven the temples bow to.'”

– Phil Metres, author of Sand Opera, winner of the Arab American Book Award

“George Abraham’s al youm engages my brain and my heart in ways both relentless and tender. These poems do such exciting things with form—they are simultaneously ancient and futuristic, considering old hurts and old histories while constantly reimagining what is possible in terms of what a poem can do—visually, syntactically, emotionally— on the page. However, their technical skill comes in no way at the expense of their pulsing, living heart—these poems hurt, and bloom, and I will never, ever stop thinking about them. ”

– Safia Elhillo, author of The January Children

“George Abraham’s poems are both guide and gift. Here is writing through the body in space and time; through ancestral memory and trauma; here is breath, soul, life — in America; in Palestine. Abraham’s poems arrive as ingenious and necessary solutions to equations we don’t yet know we need. This book is how we heal.”

– Marwa Helal, author of Invasive Species (forthcoming with Nightboat Books)
 
About the Author:

George Abraham is a Palestinian-American poet attending Swarthmore College. They competed in the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (placing 2nd out of 68 international teams), the National Poetry Slam, and the Individual World Poetry Slam. They are a Pushcart nominee, a 2-time recipient of the Favianna Rodriguez Award for Artistic Activism, and a recipient of the Ghassan Kanafani Palestinian Literature Scholarship. They are the author of al youm: for yesterday & her inherited traumas – a winner of the Atlas Review’s 2016 chapbook contest. Their poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Diode, Kweli, the Margins, Thrush, Apogee, and Sukoon, as well as the Ghassan Kanafani Anthology of Palestinian Literature. They hope to continue bringing awareness to Palestinian human rights and socio-economic struggles through art.
More work and contact info can be found at his artist website: https://gabrahampoet.wixsite.com/gabrahampoet