Step 1: Donate to Sameer Project here (suggested donation $45USD).

Step 2: Register for “Muin Bseiso and the History of Anticolonialism in Gaza” here.

In this workshop, participants will join Prof. Esmat Elhalaby in reading and discussing translated excerpts from Muin Bseiso’s 1971 Gaza Diaries in order to consider the long history of anticolonial resistance in the Gaza strip.

Muin Bseso (1926-1984) was one of the most prominent Palestinian writers of the 20th century. Best known for his poetry, Bseiso was also a widely published and performed playwright, critic and journalist, contributing significantly to Arab literary and political culture from the 1950’s onward. Born in Gaza, Bseiso was also a major chronicler of Gaza’s history and for a time served as the secretary general of the Communist Party in the Gaza strip—political activity which would land him in Egyptian jails.

He was also deeply involved in the Afro-Asian Writers Association and served as the co-editor of the Association’s magazine Lotus while it was published in Beirut (1978-1982) alongside Faiz Ahmed Faiz. His writing includes memoirs from prison, plays about Che Guevarra and the Zanj Revolt, travelogues of India and the Soviet Union, and studies of Israeli literature.

Participants will receive and read translated excerpts of Gaza Diaries, which recount the history of colonial rule in Gaza and Palestinian anti-colonial resistance. As Gaza’s writers are murdered, archives burned and school turned to rubble, Bseiso’s work offers a history of Gaza on its own terms, against genocide.

Note: This workshop will be IN-PERSON at Recirculation in New York City.

Esmat Elhalaby is a historian of colonial and anticolonial thought in West and South Asia. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.