ENGLISH - poem by Khawla in Grief

Dr Khawla Badwan

@KhawlaBadwan

It was never about English #KeepTellingofGaza #GazaGenocide

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” ― James Baldwin

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

― James Baldwin 

 

“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin 

 

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
― James Baldwin 

 

“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”
― James Baldwin  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=2

 

“Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen ... Perhaps it can't be done without the poet, but it certainly can't be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that's all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world.”
― James Baldwin 

 

“The impossible is the least that one can demand.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time: Mcdougal Littell Literature Connections  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=3

  

“No man is a devil in his own mind.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“Those kids aren't dumb. But the people who run these schools want to make sure they don't get smart: they are really teaching the kids to be slaves.”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk  

 

“It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.”
― James Baldwin  

 

 https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=4

 

“Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“History is not a procession of illustrious people. It's about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also so much more than that. So are we all.”
― James Baldwin  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=5

 

“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”
― James Baldwin  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=6

 

“Artists are here to disturb the peace.”
― James Baldwin  

 

“Don’t let it make you bitter. Try to understand. Try to understand. The world’s already bitter enough, we got to try to be better than the world.”
― James Baldwin, Another Country  

 

“I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain.”
― James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

 

 “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.”
― James Baldwin 

 

“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light.”
― James Baldwin, Nothing Personal  

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10427.James_Baldwin?page=7

Love to all, Ibtisam the Palestinian author

Ibtisam Barakat

Good Palestinian moment: 

 

I went to the local authors exhibit at the public library and had a great time. Many people stopped by and said that they are sorry for what is happening in Palestine. . . That means they see our humanity . . I wrote their names in Arabic calligraphy, sold books, gave out sweet grapes rather than candy to the children and many signed up for my Arabic language and culture class on Zoom. 

 

The best part is that I don't have to fake anything. 

 

For many, many years, I had to act like I am American and my people are not facing genocide. Nobody wanted to hear that or accept that. I had to carry a mountain on my back for years. 

 

Now, people know and say they are sorry. The mountain is on the ground. It's a mountain of pain, but I can look at it and walk around it and aim to climb it now rather than it crush my soul alone . . . Thank you everyone who thinks about the humanity of Palestine denied for so long . . 

 

Love to all,

Ibtisam the Palestinian author

Ibtisam Barakat, author of 

TASTING THE SKY, a Palestinian Childhood

& 

BALCONY ON THE MOON, Coming of Age in Palestine. 

 

2010 photo: Helen Thoman, Anan Ameri, AANM director, and author Ibtisam Barakat at the AANM national book award ceremony. Ibtisam served as a judge for the fiction category, 2010. Helen's sculpture was unveiled at the event. She was funny and sad about that controversial comment that ended her career.. Sam Donaldson from ABC introduced Helen's speech. Two huge journalism icons. Washington, DC.  GALLERY   http://www.ibtisambarakat.com/ 

Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

@gazamom