http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4183&ed=226&edid=226
A Palestinian artist originally from the destroyed village of Qisariyah in historic Palestine
In 1984, my first son, Amir, was born. He went into brain paralysis as a result of a medical mistake and was in intensive care for six weeks. During his time at the hospital the doctors asked me to start speaking to him, and since I didn’t know how to speak to someone who wasn’t aware, I found myself telling him stories my father used to tell me, for he found that the best way to keep me quiet. Amir’s existence led me to discover the magic of stories and the connections forged through them.
Later I discovered that my school-principal, conservative father had been a storyteller and had evidently passed that passion on to me. My father’s gravestone reads “For the love of stories, Qisariyah, and my country.”
After Amir was born I left my work at the hospital and went back to school because my time with him made me realise the scarcity of local children’s literature. I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in children’s literature and early childhood education from the University of Haifa. My master’s thesis was about the catastrophe facing children’s literature in Palestine. As I was planning to begin studying for my PhD, I met the Egyptian director Hasan Al Jartly at a storytelling workshop in Amman. His faith in my storytelling was the main reason behind quitting school and taking my talent to the next level.
My journey into the world of stories truly began in 2004. I travelled everywhere - from Palestine to England, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, South Africa, and France - to collect children’s stories and transport them to children and adults all over the country through actual storytelling, letters, and video conferencing (especially for children in Gaza). I also worked as a storytelling trainer to people of all ages, including parents, students, librarians, and others.
In addition to collecting stories, I participate in events such as conferences on children’s literature and cultural festivals. One memorable festival was in Jordan where I participated as a storyteller and accompanied Kamal Khalil, a renowned musician and performer.
My other more recent projects include filming a story for the documentary “Golden Pomegranate,” by director Ghada Altirawi (which was also accompanied by sign language interpretation). Moreover, I have been launching workshops to empower and support women, youth, and children with special needs. My most memorable and heart-warming experiences were two, one with refugee youth in Amman, where we worked on storytelling as a way to discover their identity, creativity, and power. I met the same group nine years later while filming a documentary, and to my cheerful surprise I found them retelling my stories. The experience made me feel as though I had left something of myself with those people, and they had kept and cherished it.
My second beautiful experience was in Tunisia, where I worked with parents of disabled children as part of a workshop launched by the Almoro’a organisation entitled “Hikawati Hiyakati.” During the workshop I shared my story as a mother of a disabled child, and ended up weaving painful, hopeful, and rich masterpieces with these women, who opened up about their own love and suffering. The workshop’s other outcome was a gorgeous book in Arabic and French, also entitled Hikawati Hiyakati, gathering those stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment