Banipal (UK) Magazine of Modern Arab Literature

Sat 10 July 2010
8.00-10.30pm
Ledbury Poetry Festival – Emirati Poets

At the Ledbury Poetry Festival, Event No 68

Khulood Al-Mu'alla
Khalid Albudoor, Khulood al-Mu’alla, Nujoom al-Ghanem

8.00 – 10.30pm, Saturday 10 July
The Barn, Hellens, the stately home at Much Marcle, near Ledbury

Middle Eastern buffet dinner included. Tickets: £20

Khulood al-Mu'alla, Nujoom al-Ghanem and Khalid Albudoor Nujoom Al-Ghanem, Khalid Albudoor and Khulood Al Mu’alla are three poets at the forefront of a movement reinventing poetry in the United Arab Emirates. Modernist in intent, Nujoom, Khalid and Khulood seek to challenge the literary conventions of traditional Arabic poetry, while reflecting on their experiences of change and time, love and loss, as modern 21st-century Emeratis.

After the performance, the poets signed copies of Banipal 38.

Banipal 38 includes a feature on these three poets plus Ahmed Rashid Thani, also from the United Arab Emirates. To check out the issue, click here. To buy a copy online, click here

Nujoom Al-Ghanem reading at Hellens on 11 July 2010 Nujoom Al-Ghanem writes of a women and her uncertain future:

”Her soul is prepared to ascend.

She wants to leave swiftly

and she wants her body

to fall swiftly into coldness,

but he makes her seem like a liar

to herself, chasing her

like a pirate, wanting her to drown

in the ocean of life,

to drown without dying.”

Translation by Khaled Al-Masri, Harvard University

Khalid Albudoor in Ledbury the day after the reading Khalid Albudoor’s poetry is particularly adept at a literary response to the development revolution his country has undergone. The steel and glass citadels of contemporary Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the unsaid presence in his poem This Shore:

”. . . I cannot run with freedom

over the whiteness of the sands

or hide in the shadow of the boats

resting on the shore

awaiting the gulls flapping over my head

There are no longer boats

nor crew

nor birds."

Translation by John Peate, University of Salford.

Khulood al-Mu’alla’s poetry excels at offering the reader poignant vignettes of experience, such as in her poem Discovery:

“You and I

have been alike for years.

I used to catch myself in you…

time was without pulse

the mirror was without reflection.

One night,

A hand sneaked in,

lit a candle

and I discovered that for years

I had been seeing you in the dark.”

Translation by Rasheeda Plenty, University of Michigan, and the poet.

ABOUT THE POETS

Nujoom Al-Ghanem is recognised as one of the strongest modernist Emirati poets, rising to prominence in the 1980s in the Gulf region. She is a poet, writer and independent filmmaker, born in 1962 in Dubai. Since 1989 she has published seven collections of poetry, and now writes full-time. She has directed four short films, and at the Fifth Dubai International Film Festival was lauded for Best Documentary in the Gulf and named the most promising UAE film-maker.

Khalid Albudoor is at the forefront of the modernist poetry movement in Dubai, where he was born. He won the Al-Khal Prize for Poetry in Lebanon in 1991, and has published five poetry collections. He is a founding member of the Emirati Writers’ Union, and an active participant in readings and festivals in the UAE and abroad. A long-time radio and television scriptwriter, presenter and producer, and former director of Radio Dubai, he is currently researching UAE history and cultural heritage.

Khulood Al Mu’alla won the Buland Al-Haidari Award for Young Arab Poets at the 30th Assilah International Cultural Festival in Mo rocco in 2008, an event celebrating visionary poets and intellectuals from all over the Arab World. She was the first poet from the Gulf to win this award. Active on the Gulf poetry scene, she was born in Umm Al Quwain, UAE, moving to Ras Al Khaimah as a child. Since 1997 she has published four collections of poetry.

LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL 2010 – 2 to 11 July

The Ledbury Poetry Festival is the biggest and best poetry festival in the UK, taking place every summer in July over ten days. The programme presents an exciting array of events, featuring poets and performers from all over the world. Since 2006 the festival has collaborated with Banipal magazine in putting on recitals and events with poets from the Arab world, from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq, and this year Banipal is more than pleased to celebrate poets from the United Arab Emirates. The festival events include live recitals, performances, workshops, open mics, music, exhibitions, films, family events, street events, the slam, and much more.

To contact the Box Office for details of the 2011 festival click here or phone 0845 458 1743

Why not plan to visit Ledbury next year. Cick here for more information

This event was supported by

and

Nujoom Al-Ghanem is recognised as one of the strongest modernist Emirati poets, rising to prominence in the 1980s in the Gulf region. She is a poet, writer and independent filmmaker, born in 1962 in Dubai. Since 1989 she has published six collections of poetry, and now writes full-time. She has directed four short films, and at the Fifth Dubai International Film Festival was lauded for Best Documentary in the Gulf and named the most promising UAE film-maker.

Khulood Al Mu’alla won the Buland Al-Haidari Award for Young Arab Poets at the 30th Assilah International Cultural Festival in Morocco in 2008, an event celebrating visionary poets and intellectuals from all over the Arab World. She was the first poet from the Gulf to win this award. Active on the Gulf poetry scene, she was born in Umm Al Quwain, UAE, moving to Ras Al Khaimah as a child. Since 1997 she has published four collections of poetry.