a guide by Samah Fadil
Step 1
Forget to feed the chrysalis as it forms. Once the transformation is complete, protect the butterfly as it crawls out of its cocoon by holding on to its wings gently, for it not …
Songs of the Sunbirds
How to Outlive a Colonizer
…
Nafs-a-Shit
Lately I’ve been searching for a word, but I don’t know how to look it up. It’s a word that belongs to a moment, one I’ve lived over and over again in the past few months. In what follows: I …
A Bird Over Apartheid Wall
A picture of the apartheid wall, in the picture there is a bird flying above it. No matter how tall walls are you can’t change the fact the people are born free, and they’ll break any siege and fly above
…Soldier On
On this walk
Around my house
In Amman
Everything
Reminds me of death.
After hours of scrolling past images and footage of blood and destruction and death
Everything
Reminds me of death.
The naked November trees,
The gray structure of …
Of Seasons and Souls
Once upon a time, the holy land would sing sweet melodies under the soothing heat of
the sky’s golden disk – signaling the start of this near-sacred season
They ask you about the harvest –
Al-Hasaad –
A word this …
Maqluba Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 medium-sized eggplants
- 2 yellow potatoes
- 2 tomatoes
- 3 cups of rice
- 10 cloves of garlic– or adjust to taste
- 1 medium sized onion
- Green chili pepper (optional)
- Vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons 7 spices, 1 teaspoon
Handala Walking
This mixed media animation is inspired by Handala. Before he smells the red poppy you can still see if face. The explosion represents the Nakba. Which causes him to turn his back on the world that betrayed him. Then he …
Ecology of My Own
“A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a
silent mournful expanse…. a desolation….” – this is of Palestine by Mark Twain, from his
book The Innocents Abroad, written in 1869.
Dear Mr. …
The Reasons I Do
My father worries I’ll be captured
on photo1 or video and remembered fondly2
by a state3 or drones or the collection of generals and agents4
who can and who may one day seek to snatch me…
