A-salam Alykom, willkomen, Shalom ve brochim habaim. We are gathered here today in a bit of a weird format, due to the corona virus \u2013 some of you are in Germany and some all over the world watching us here in Berlin. We wanted to have many people here, to sit together, talk, exchange ideas, views, beliefs, and literary pieces. But instead, our world has become more segregated, people are further away, and all of this seems very depressing. But I want to encourage us all – those here with us, under the regulations, and those who are watching us from home \u2013 I would like to encourage us all to take part in this important conversation we are having here. We are happy to take questions from people at home, during the event, and we would try and do our best to incorporate a discussion with the people at home. In that way you could all engage with our event and share your thoughts about it.<\/p>\n
First of all, I would like to introduce Anu – we are a small team of Arab-Jewish writers living in Berlin. We aim to bring together Jewish and Muslim authors & poets with heritage stemming from the Middle East, Asia, and north Africa. We want to revive the lost Jewish-Muslim dialogue through literature and art. We have curated a few events in the past and we welcome you to follow our FB, Instagram and Twitter to get more information on future events. We also want to thank our partners at the Berliner Literarische Aktion who made it possible to gather here today and who supported this event even throughout this global pandemic. We also wish to thank the LCB who are hosting us today for the are working with us today for the second time\u2014 both have showed us a lot of generosity.<\/p>\n
What is the plan for today?<\/p>\n
Our symposium PARATAXE SYMPOSIUM VII NahostBerlin \u2013 the literary Middle East Union seeks to illuminate the existing, evolving and reviving meeting points of Middle Eastern and German Culture. More specifically it seeks to highlight the city of Berlin and its vivid cultural scene as a manifestation of the coming-together of the diverse middle eastern cultures. Over the course of a whole day and within the framework of three panels we want to outline the contours of a Middle East Union in the literary world.<\/p>\n
We have a set of three different panels, bringing together diverse voices and diverse poetics.<\/p>\n
Our first panel, titled \u201cNationalism kaput? Muslim and Jewish poetics in the diaspora\u201d deals with the moment of departure from the national project in the Middle East and the emigration to Berlin. Guiding questions will regard what we create here in the diaspora: Are we, Arabs and Jews who left the Middle East, creating middle eastern poetics from the diaspora or is our cultural product disconnected from the cultural and the national projects we left behind? The participants of this panel are Asaf Dvori, Hasan Al Zaanon, Mariam Rasheed and myself.<\/p>\n
In the second Panel, titled \u201cMiddle East Berlin\u201d we want to examine the impact of Middle Eastern culture on the German culture especially with regard to the city\u2019s own history of a wall of separation. We as Jews have a wall separating us from our Arab past, and in Israel we have a wall separating us from our Palestinians neighbors. How has the city of Berlin influenced the Middle East culture that live within her and vice versa \u2013 How the Middle East culture influenced and re-vitalized the Berlin culture? Our panel will include a keynote talk by Ozan Zakariya Keskink\u0131l\u0131\u00e7, and a discussion with Abdulkadir Musa, Tali Okavi, Mati Shemoelof and Afshin Javadi.<\/p>\n
The concluding Reading titled \u201cVos shprakh do you write in? German Jews meet Arab Jews\u201d is meant to shed a light on the encounter of German-Jews and Arab-Jews by examining their literary and poetic work. In doing so, we will ask whether two sides of the same culture, religion, and tradition, connect? It will begin with a keynote talk by Tal Hever Chybowski, and will follow by a reading of literary works by Anna Shapiro, Mona Yahia, Max Czollek, Esther Dischereit and Zehava Khalfa.<\/p>\n
We hope you, our viewers from Berlin and maybe from other places, will enjoy the event and participate in the discussion. We are happy that even within this global situation we are still able to find space and time for literature and discussion, and we hope to continue this discussion with the participants, and with the audience, over our social media. Stay healthy, stay sane, and let\u2019s begin with our first panel!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A-salam Alykom, willkomen, Shalom ve brochim habaim. We are gathered here today in a bit of a weird format, due to the corona virus \u2013 some of you are in Germany and some all over the world watching us here in Berlin. We wanted to have many people here, to sit together, talk, exchange ideas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14832,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-14797","stsp_text","type-stsp_text","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n