Friday Finds: An Excerpt from ‘Al Hallaj’
“How do I kill the light in mine?”
“How do I kill the light in mine?”
“Shajar al-Dur was the wife of a 13th century Ayyubid sultan based in Cairo. When he died unexpectedly, she pretended he was still alive, presided over the defeat of the 7th Crusade, and then had herself named Sultana. But no Top 10 singles, sadly.”
“What I like best is the poem about the spiny-tailed lizard, called a dabb. He tells it as an animal parable, because this is an animal that’s admired for its toughness. It’s very hard to kill it. Even if you put it in a cooking pot, it keeps on swimming in the boiling water.”
“But the broom grows skinnier by the day, just like her.”
“In this wonderful debut collection, Peter Twal impersonates himself: the gifted American poet in his best suit in the gala of originality.”
“‘Velvet’ begins with Hawwa crossing a narrow street, entering a narrower alley, and turning into countless others. As she passes through the alleys she knows by heart, she ruminates on her family and her frequent trips to the seamstress’s house where she works and has found refuge from the harshness of the refugee camp.”
If we allow ourselves to peel off assumptions, biases, “moral lessons,” the sins of ideology, and the lie of the triumph of good and truth over evil and injustice, we will be surprised by the turn of the narrative.
The prize he helped fund, and which is named for him, is now in its twenty-second year, and will be announced later today.
“Until December 25th, we are inviting you to send us plays that tell these global stories and open our eyes to the queer world in all its breadth and variety. They can be any length, from any period, and with any number of characters, and must be in, or translated into, English.”