Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016

Post date February 1, 2016
In Uncategorized

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016 is a book arts and cultural festival planned for January through March 2016, throughout the Washington, D.C. area. Exhibits, programs, and events will commemorate the 2007 bombing of Baghdad’s historic bookselling street, and celebrate the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq, who have endured so much; and with people at home and abroad who are unable to make their voices heard.

In 2014 a group of non-profit institutions and passionate individuals came together to discuss their ideas and begin to organize an array of exhibitions, poetry readings, performances, hands-on street festival activities, and educational programs for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project. These partners include George Mason University’s School of Art and Fenwick Library, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Split This Rock, McLean Project for the Arts, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University and Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, Cultural DC, Smithsonian Libraries, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Busboys and Poets, and George Mason University Student Media and Fourth Estate Newspaper.

Fenwick Gallery / Special Collections and Archives Exhibitions

Poetry

Super Orphan by Fatimah Asghar

Artists’ Books

Amber Ablett, UK
The Bookseller’s Bookshelf
2013; Ed. of 3
Paper, card, words
210 x 148 mm

The Bookseller’s Bookshelf is a portrait of Sebastian Sandys, the proprietor of LXV Books, an independent bookshop in Bethnal Green in London. The work is made up of the first page of the books that are presently on Sandy’s’ bedside book shelf, and explores the idea that who we are can be described through what we choose to read; these books inform our language, attitudes, beliefs and understanding of the world around us.

Helen Allsebrook, UK
It is what it is…
2012; Ed. of 3
Child’s toy car and trailer, pages from an ‘unwanted book’, Perspex case
21.5 x 9.5 x 12 cm

This response to the 2009 Jeremy Deller’s tour of the car bomb remnants that blew up al-Mutanabbi Street is a focus for discourse, standing as a metaphor for the rich historical knowledge lost and acting as a cenotaph to the absent lives. By presenting the work in a typical museum display box, the artist aims to promote a feeling that this is a time capsule – the significance of which is never to be forgotten. Like Deller’s tour, it aims to heighten public understanding of war’s realities, targeting voyeurs who had been observing through the safety of media.

Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck, DENMARK
Al-Mutanabbi Street – A Vicious Circle
2012-13; Ed. of 10
Grey board, Fabriano 160gsm, pamphlet stitched
20 x 20 cm

This book’s form seeks to represents the idea of history, like the circular design of the city of Baghdad and its continually regenerating conflict, as cyclical. Al-Mutanabbi Street–A Vicious Circle not only portrays the bleak cycle of war, but also celebrates al-Mutanabbi Street’s ever-unfolding history as a place where thoughts and ideas can be exchanged in book form.

Karen Apps, UK
A nation will fall into ruin if its people do not read books: Breakthrough to Literacy
2012; Ed. of 3
Inkjet prints, paper, cardboard
6.5 x 24 cm

A book carries ideas accessed through literacy. The written word allows us the freedom of turning thought into text, sharing ideas with others, learning. The Breakthrough to Literacy folder references the present shortage of books and texts available to libraries, schools and universities in Iraq. Each book contains the same words to create one of three quotations relating to the act of reading. The words are not fixed and there is the potential to make new meanings.

Zsuzsanna Ardo
Looking at the Ice Seller

Tania Baban with Jim Natal, USA/ARGENTINA;USA
The Street of the Poet
2011; Ed. of 8
Japanese book cloth, iridescent & gold ink
Text: Jim Natal, Conflux Press
5.5 x 11” (closed), 5.5 x 22” (open)

Influenced by Islamic illuminated manuscripts, Baban connects her work to the manuscripts destroyed in the 12th century sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols, while remaining present in the 2007 car bombing. The medieval style references both original 12^th century manuscripts and the vintage volumes and Korans lost in the 2007 blast.

Nancy Bardos and Judy Novak, USA
We Shall Always Return and Book Seeds
2013; Ed. of 3
Deconstructed book, inks, handspun Uruguayan wool, clay, book pages, adhesives, graphic designed seed packet, constructed envelope, wooden drink stirrer
10 ¾ x 18 x 10”; 7 ½ x 5 x 8”

We Shall Always Return and Book Seeds I and II, honors the human lives lost and the unimaginable suffering that occurred that day. Bardos pays homage to the sharing of ideas and the freedom of exploring cultures, opinions, art and history that the al-Mutanabbi Street book lovers hungered for and embraced.

Lucy Baxandall, UK
Empty Shelf
2013; Ed. of 4
Handmade pigmented linen paper, inkjet print, inks
17 x 8 cm (closed), shelf depth 2.5 cm

This booklet, meant to be carried and handled, is made from worn household linens brought to the United Kingdom from Germany by Baxandall’s mother’s refugee in the 1930s. The text was sparked by an al-Arabiya video report documenting the 2012 government raid.

John Bently, UK
The Song Lives On
2011; Ed. of 3

The Song Lives On is a project that has grown over time to represent the Freedom of Speech. Bently, prompted by the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro Wiva, started writing this song in 1995. The text of this song, approximately 100 words, is in constant mutation, changing slightly each time it is rewritten or sung.

Alison Bianco & Lara Henderson, USA
Gloomy Monday
2012
Letterpress and screen print
5.5 x 4.5” (closed), 5.5 x 34.25” (opened)

Gloomy Monday, printed at the AS220 Community Print shop in Providence, Rhode Island, revisits consequences of evildoing and forecasts an ideal future. Named after the infamous Hungarian suicide song, “Gloomy Sunday”, this book uses familiar symbols, such as city streets, consumer products, and architecture, to help the onlooker forget the past and recall memories only partly true.

Tia Blassingame, USA
Hers: a primer of sorts
2013; Ed. of 10
Maps, digital printing on Japanese rice paper
4 ½ x 11 1/8”

Hers: a primer of sorts is dedicated to the women for whom education and scholarship are restricted or forbidden. Detailing topography, language, and other basic facts, the discarded almanac pages provide the female protagonist’s cultural and physical landscape. The main text is concealed and revealed just as a woman or girl in any community might hide a book or banned text.

Mare Blocker with Katrina Roberts, USA
What’s Left, al-Mutanabbi Street
2013; Ed. of 5
Smoke drawings, burnt and waxed pages
6 x 8.5 x 1”

This collaboration, prompted with the question “how do you repair the irreparable?” draws on the violent action of book burning and the explosion of a car bomb. Pages were altered with fireworks, flares and flames to mimic the incendiary action of the bomb; the mending of the pages signifies the resiliency of the neighborhood, the people and the book form itself.

Amaranth Borsuk, USA
Sunt Lacrimae Rerum
2013; Ed. of 12
Paper and acrylic box
3 x 3 x 3”

This book takes its title from Aeneas’s words of sorrow uttered before a mural depicting the Trojan War. This reliquary is part lachrymatory: it contains a book whose text is designed to tear away at itself each time the book is displayed. Pleated into an accordion, it plays the elegy for its own effacement as, gradually; the cutout letters catch on one another until they may fall away entirely.

Bound To Be Good Book Group Coordinated by Maureen Astley-Mullen, Jayne H, Cynthia S, Barbara L, Elaine W, Sarah C and Maureen Astley-Mullen, UK
3 of A Kind: Lives Lost, Books Burned Memories, What Remain – Look Forward With Hope
2011; Ed. of 3
Hand painted and collaged

Denise Brady, USA
Tangent
2011; Ed. of 40
Handprinted, handmade end sheets paper and clothe over boards, recycled fabrics with paper inclusions that read in Arabic “al-Mutanabbi Street”
6 x 6”

This book was handcrafted every step of the process: mixing pulp; setting the poem; folding, cutting, and pasting paper and clothe; sewing the book. The poem is a reminder that the violence on al-Mutanabbi Street took the lives of individuals who, like each of us, were leading human lives, turning in particular circles of place and time and family. Through language, through writing, through books, we understand that what is personal is universal.

Helga Butzer-Fellesen
My Poem Becomes Theirs

Julie Chen, USA
Memento
2012; Ed. of 50
Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates
1 9/16 x 2 1/8 x 5/16”

Memento deals with the fragility of the book and the power of reading. It includes a miniature book housed in a wearable locket that allows the reader to wear the book close to the body. The act of carrying a book on one’s person has diverse implications depending on circumstance and place. The locket also holds a triptych that contains a woven token commemorating al-Mutanabbi Street in Iraq: texts on the woven strips taken from the preambles to the constitutions of the United States and Iraq.

Karen Chew, USA
Of Kith and Kin; Standing Still; Between You and the Sky
2013
Edition: Three unique artist books
“Found poems”, mixed media work, cover weight Classic Crest, mulberry paper, ephemera
6 x 6 x 1/2”

Between You and the Sky reflects upon the fleeting thoughts of yesterday and hopes for recovery. As we heal, we look behind and ahead for guidance with revived hope and promise.

Annette C. Disslin, GERMANY
Manarah- A Place Shedding Light
2012; Ed. 15-24
Linoprints, woodcuts, letterpress with metal type, hand sewn with black thread

“Manarah” means lighthouse in Arabic, and was used to mean signpost or road mark, while a more general meaning was “a place shedding light” and was later developed into the expression “minaret“, the tower like part of a mosque. Now, the title for Disslin’s new magazine presenting poetry and other writings, which will shed light and give solace, every issue will deal with an issue of “War“, “Time“ and “Love“ present poems that have been written over a period of four centuries.

Johanna Drucker, USA
Book
2012
Rives Lightweight, Laser print, and water color
8 x 8 ½”

The premise of this book is simple: take quotes about the value of books from authors of credibility and substance, print them, and then deface the book obliterating the word “book” in every quote. The water coloring resembles blood spattered into the pages the damage increases as the pages progress towards the end. The book is a record of damage, distress, pain, and woundedness.

Heinz Insu Fenkl, SOUTH KOREA/USA
ATCG
2012-2013
Acid-free sketch paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches

The text of ATCG is 22 pages of the Human Genome sequence. The cover of the handmade shows illustrations from human chromosomes, and is bound with dental floss containing human DNA.

Jesseca Ferguson, USA; INDIA/SUDAN/USA
Fragment, In Praise of the Book
2013; Ed. of 3d
Cyanotype on paper, silk, waxed thread, book board, book cloth
4 x 4 ½ x 4 ½” (closed); 4 x 4 ½ x 13” (open)
Helene Elsborg (box)

NOTE: The book is a sphere of variable dimensions (can be unrolled to be read) made of paper strips, printed with cyanotype (the text of Meena Alexander’s poem), and sewn together.

Fragment, In Praise of the Book is a sphere of text, printed in deep blue cyanotype on white paper, then backed with transparent black silk. In thinking of the origins of the word text, from texere, to weave, the three-dimensional cyanotype transforms Meena Alexander’s poem into one linear element, wound into a ball like yarn. The book becomes a new way to re-tell that story from fragments left after the bombing.

Friederun Friederichs, GERMANY
Art Library
2012
Book box, miniature books
18 x 24 x 6cm

Art Library centers around the theme that art is a language that does not need translation. It speaks every tongue and makes itself understandable without words, attracts mind and soul by emotion and thought. Art knows no boundaries and can act as a messenger. This artist book object, cut and folded, works like a tiny art library, a bookshelf, a tiny cupboard, and a container for miniature books.

Bernd Friedrich, GERMANY
Al-Mutanabbi Street- The Street of Books
2013
Lithographic print, letterpress printing, handmade paper
20 x 13 ½ cm

This book aims to connect Berlin and Baghdad in a way that could be understood by as many people as possible, regardless of language. The pages are printed using lithography and letterpress techniques over a vivid background. Friedrich uses the leporello fold in honor of the street’s poetic namesake.

Gionna Forte-Towaco, USA
For al-Mutanabbi Street
2012; Ed. of 3
Paper, thread
11 ½ x 12”

This edition optimistically focuses on removal, renewal and order. Forte-Towaco uses blown-up photocopies of manipulated Polaroids transferred onto the pages of the book to compose a story of turmoil and revival through juxtaposing images and text. A piece out of every book is cut out to as a sacrifice, and between pages and spine the gold thread represents the support artists have for those suffering.

Lahib Jaddo, IRAQ/USA
Empty
2013; Ed. of 3
Mixed media
16” x 13”

Jaddo’s mixed-media works span nearly three decades and explore the condition of identity, loss/belonging, and the cultural imagery of the “homeland” through the specific lens of the Middle Eastern Diaspora artist. In Jaddo’s work, the notion of homeland is not fixed or static, but a shifting and organic idea that changes according to one’s own emotional states and inner worlds. Whether placed in landscapes of belonging, or negative abstract spaces of isolation, the female figures in Jaddo’s work explore the circumstances of planting roots in a new world, while remaining inextricably connected to another.

Scott McCarney, USA
Material Meditation on Mending al-Mutanabbi Street
2012; Ed. of 50
Indigo digital prints, tar paper
8.5 x 11”

Material Meditation on Mending Al Mutanabbi Street consists of fifteen two-sided loose-leaf prints made from collages constructed with remnants of found books, rubbings from book bindings, and photographs. The leaves are gathered into a tar paper folder like pages picked up in the street and slipped into a convenient sheath. It speaks to themes of reconstruction and memory; of life, literature and culture suspended.

Toby Millman with Kathleen Rashid and Elizabeth Sutton, USA
Date Due: A Library Book from Detroit to Baghdad
2012; Ed. of 17
Inkjet prints, found paper, double-fan binding
8.5″ x 11″ Toby Millman, Kathleen Rashid, and Elizabeth Sutton perceived a broad connection between the bombing of Al Mutanabbi Street and the neglect and deterioration of their own Detroit area public libraries, still so central to community educational life in inner city neighborhoods. The artists collaborated to create a tribute to the public spaces that provide open access to ideas and communications that survive in spite of the violence and neglect that jeopardize them.

Bonnie Thompson Norman and Jill Alden Littlewood, USA
Remember: People of al-Mutanabbi Street
2011; Ed. of 25
Letterpress printed from hand set type, linotype, illustrations from photoengraving, bronze powder
7 ¾ x 4 ½ x 5/8”

This collaboration imagines people standing on al-Mutanabbi Street with their noses in a book, until they were all blown up. The books survived, but the people didn’t, thus Remember: People of al-Mutanabbi Street is a book of beauty, where the lives lost can live forever. Its distressed pages carry the dust of war and convey the sadness felt after the bombing.

Bettina Pauly, GERMANY/USA
A sun that rises
2013; Ed. of 10
BFK paper, soft Unryu paper, Mulberry paper, hand dyed silk
Ribbon, Machine stitching, abstract etching, letterpress printed, digitally set in Garamond using photopolymer plates
6 x 5 ¾ x 4 ½” (extended); 6 3/8 x 6 x 7/8” (box)

The text for A sun that rises comes from the documentary about the al-Mutanabbi Street bombing, A Candle for Shabandar Cafe, by Emad Ali. It talks about cruel violence persisting over centuries, and ends in saying: ‘There is still a sun that rises and there is hope despite all the destruction’. The color choice for the book evokes the destruction, smoke, and blood while the ribbon evokes the color of the sunrise, seen through air thick with smoke.

Maria G. Pisano, USA
LOST and FOUND
2011; Open Edition
Laser printed with gold paint
7 x 5 x 1 inches

LOST and FOUND reflects on the history of the Middle East. Symbolic fragments were collected and reassembled with historical text and maps, to illustrate the area’s rich cultural heritage of the area. The book hopes to raise awareness of lost lives, cultural property, and the freedom to openly share and discuss ideas.

Michael Pisano with Marie Pisano, USA
Seven Voyages
2012; Open Edition
Accordion book, Hahnemuhle Gutenberg laid paper, archival inks, wrapper with envelope flap, original illustrations in pen and ink
11 x 7 inches

Seven Voyages, illustrated in pen and ink by Michael Pisano and designed by Maria G. Pisano, was inspired by the story of Sinbad the Sailor. It seeks to honor the ability of books and stories to share universal legends that connect cultures and enrich humanity and allow readers to travel to distant and exotic lands.

Bev Samler, UK
Scavenged
2013
Dry point etching, collage, mixed media
205 x 155 mm

Scavenged recreates the scene prior to the deprivation and scavenging attacks on al-Mutanabbi Street, and attempts to restore the to its former glory. Fred Norman’s words written throughout reinforce the necessity for varied, intellectual thoughts and written word.

Dina Scheel, USA
The Cycle of Censorship
2012; Ed. of 25
Tyvek, found papers, linen thread, acrylic paint, cotton linen material
7 x 3 inches

An origami form called Fireworks was modified to make The Cycle of Censorship a moveable book that rotates through its center to tell its story. The story starts with an act of censorship – like a bombing – but the ideas (gold) emerge and spread as the book rotates, which then spawns more ideas, alarming people and causing more censorship (black). The cycle begins anew.

Naomi Sultanik, USA/NETHERLANDS
Slow Wind
2012; Ed. of 3
Mixed media, ink- jet prints of collage, drawings, text
20 x 15 x 2cm

Slow Wind is a reference to the inevitability and process of change. Conceived as book object, Sultanik inter-mingled tactile, abstract and textual elements to reflect upon personal journeys, reading and encounters; the banalities that acknowledge our existence.

Laurie Szujewska, USA
The Iraqi Bookseller
2012; Ed. of 20
Timeworn wood types and Universe foundry type letterpress printed in red, green, and black inks on Rives BFK
7 3/4 x 5 11/16” (closed); 15 x 22” (open)

The Iraqi Bookseller is inspired by The Bookseller’s Story Ending Much too Soon, an article written by Anthony Shadid for the Washington Post Foreign Service on March 12, 2007. The book is intended to be both a remembrance of Hayawi and a tribute to Shadid’s poignant story of his friend. Sadly, as I was finishing the printing, Anthony Shadid died on February 13, 2012, while in Syrian covering the uprising there.

Linda Toigo, USA
H.G. Wells
Ex-votos: altered books
2012; Ed. of 3
Inkjet printing on altered book
9.5 x 11 x 2”

The three altered books, different editions of H.G. Wells’ History of the World, are titled after votive offerings that cover the walls of certain churches in Southern Europe and South America. Meant to be symbolic and sacred, the medical images of hearts are carved into the books to reveal the objects’ volumetric and material qualities. The history doesn’t follow a chronological order: the eye is drawn through the holes and deep into the space carved by the scalpel to connect events.

Rae Trujillo, USA
Al-Mutanabbi Street
2012; Ed. of 10
Plexiglas, ink, adhesive bandages
5 x 6”

Layered with meaning, from a black handprint of oppression, red for the blood shed, and white for the future and what is possible, al-Mutanabbi Street remains transparent. The handprints, layered when the book is closed and individually exposed when the accordion folds out, invite anyone from any language or background to feel what happened, and keep the street alive.

Sylvia Warham, UK
Mandalas for al-Mutanabbi Street
2011

Mandalas encourage meditations on the dead, the loss of ancient scholarly works, the loss of an intellectual community and the hopes and good wishes for its revival. The white ribbon symbolizes the thin thread of humanity, while red shows the intellectual and creative powers that bind all artists and writers to al-Mutanabbi Street. The box is hand marbled with flowing patterns, symbolic of the flow of thoughts between all who meditate on the mandalas.

Nanette Wylde, USA
On Judgment: The book of bully
2012, Ed. 17
Wood relief on Somerset
5.75 x 4.625 x .625”

Creating more questions than answers, Wylde considers parallels and relationships to work through the cause of the destruction of Al-Mutanabbi Street. The book communicates the complexity of the content, and the Wood relief provides the pages with a hand-printed aesthetic, which reflects the history of books, the printed word, and the street itself.

Prints and Broadsides

Peter Annand
Passages

Nina Arder
Bombs Bombs

Printer: Sarah Bodman
Calligraphy: Nadia Chalabi
Translator: Nejat Chalabi
Make Books Not War
Letterpress with laser etching. Edition of 15.

I first heard about the project when Beau Beausoleil contacted me at the recommendation of Steve Woodall at SFCB. I am really pleased that Steve said to get in touch as this is such a great idea. The Make Books Not War text on the broadside was translated into Arabic by Nejat Chalabi and handwritten by Nadia Chalabi to scan and then laser etch into the paper. I wanted to make something that conveyed the message very easily. The letterpress text is meant to look like the old Western “wanted” posters. I asked my friend Nadia Chalabi, who has also produced a broadside, if her mother could translate the text into Arabic for me; these are the variations that arose:

Make Books Not War

Make a book and do not make war

Be the author of a book and not the author of wars

We want books not wars

Give me a book not war

Produce books not wars

Write your thoughts and do not make war

Write for peace and do not write for war

I think that just about sums it all up.

Justus Evans, San Quentin Prison, CA
IQRA, 2015
Linocut

“IQRA” : My print is telling about the connection between Knowledge and Death. How no matter what culture you study Death seeks out those who seek the Truth in Knowledge. Allah subhana wa ta ‘ala sai “Iqra”, Read!

Christine Felce, UK
For Al Mutanabbi Street
Screenprint

I was invited to make a print entitled ‘For Al Mutanabbi Street’ Where is Al Mutanabbi street exactly? What is the history behind this conflict? What about Assyrian culture? How did borders get split up? I had so many questions. I had seen the war, the bombings, the army and the oil refineries on the TV. My personal impressions of Baghdad were from children’s story books; flying carpets and the glamorous Hollywood images of The Thief of Baghdad. I wanted to use a medium that would reflect layers so that the printing process could reflect, in some way, the layers of events behind the conflict in Iraq. I chose screen printing because it can incorporate many layers. I would be like a detective collecting information and laying it down.

A map was my starting point. This would show me exactly the area where the street of booksellers had been. The Internet provided many maps of a city divided by different ethnic groups. I chose an old map. A map needs a base to stand its streets and houses on. I had already been creating work for an exhibition called ‘paper memories’ where I had collected rubbings from tree stumps, bark, paving stones, floors and natural surfaces. Surfaces that have not changed for thousands of years.

I had been working on a series entitled ‘ For…’ as part of the paper memories exhibition. ‘For ‘ commemorated personal and important events that happened for me in 2014. During this time my brother died of cancer. I wanted to make a piece of work entitled ‘ For David’ to help me cope with the loss, it felt right to make ‘ For Al Mutanabbi Street’ part of this series.

Marcelle Hanselaar, UK
The Bookseller’s Daughter I
Etching

Made in response to the Al Mutanabbi Street bombing and also in memory of my father who was an antiquarian bookseller. I hope these prints will in a small way bring the bombed street with its cultural hub back to life. I like the idea that we collectively as artists, writers and poets create a travelling, continuously changing fluid street for anyone to visit, to browse, to discuss, to reflect. Just as it ever was.

Ray Ho, San Quentin State Prison, CA, USA
Behold Good and Evil, 2014
Linocut

A very prolific artist, Ray was able to finish this print just before his release from San Quentin State Prison in California.

Raluca Ianca
Up in Smoke

Ellen Knudson
CNTR-L

Mokhtar Paki, USA
Al Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad, 2014
Screenprint

This is very straightforward work, as clear as the contrast between the violence and human dialogue, between burning fire and education, and between bomb and book. Best luck for Baghdad rationalists against fundamentalists and warmongers.

Brend W. Platke
And One with a Heavy Load

Printer: Gary Price
Author: Al-Mutanabbi
Glory and Honor be Restored

In creating Glory and Honor, I sought to relate both to what had happened on March 5, 2007, on Al-Mutanabbi Street and to its long history. What better place to start in attempting to express my sentiments than with the words of al Mutannabi? As to the image, it seeks again to relate to what the street represents as well as to the event that has brought it to our attention.

Printer: Lisa Rappoport
Author: Al-Mutanabbi
There Is No Abode We Can Call Ours
Letterpress. Edition of 10.

This is the title page to the boxed Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here broadside portfolio collection.

Author and Printer: Janet Rodney
The Twisted
Letterpress. Edition of 25.

It has not been my habit as a printer over the years to make a statement about what I do. It has been my impression that the work speaks for itself; whatever explanation describing the process being contained in the colophon. Al-Mutanabbi Broadside Project is an exception, however. The reason for participating is an Undying Belief that violence is never an acceptable solution to human discord, and that Art created specifically as an alternative view, can make a difference in that regard. The poem was written in 2009, part of a series untitled as yet. The type used on the broadside is Palatino Italic foundry type, printed on Domestic Etching paper. The image is a rainbow roll of black and red printed from a magnesium photoengraving. The image itself originates from a digital photograph of tail lights taken through a car window at dusk.

Printer: Greg Shattenberg
Author: Khaled Mattawa
Adolescence of Burnt Hands
Letterpress; poem in black ink.

Frederick P. Tinsley, USA
Mutanabbi St. Explosion 2007, 2014
Linocut
Live and let live.

Elaine Winter, UK
We will always make another
Etching with drypoint

I had a year to make this print, which sounded like a long time when I decided to join with the other artists, writers and poets that have responded so far. I was initially contacted by the UK coordinator Catherine Cartwright. Why did I decide to take part? Catherine sent me some material to read plus a series of photographs from the bookseller’s district. The images were the deciding factor: portraits of a community sharing stories that was then brutally shattered. A friend of mine said (very wisely) that our story is what makes us who we are; we are not who we are without our stories. How true. All our stories need to be kept alive and the community that shares them needs to be rebuilt when it is blown apart.

Over the year I have read the extraordinary contents of the book ‘Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here’, I went to see the exhibition of art books and broadsheets at The Mosaic Rooms in London. I also, like everyone else, have had a year punctuated by hearing news from Iraq that is unbearably hard to hear and impossible to make sense of, but I am listening to that news from the safe comfort of peace. This work made me acutely aware of that contrast.

Beau Beausoleil, poet, bookseller and founder of the Al- Mutanabbi Street Starts here movement has provided encouraging words to those of us responding. He encouraged us to ‘’struggle with the ideas…discard what comes easy…’’ Struggling with the ideas was always going to be part of the deal with this print but what about discarding what comes easy? I decided to embrace the ethos of the project and not rely on methods for making prints that I have used for previous work. Instead I tried techniques that were new to me and embarked on working with non-toxic etching.

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016

Post date January 22, 2016
In Uncategorized

Book descriptions below provided by publishers:

On the Bookshelf

Nine Alexandrias by Semezdin Mehmedinovic; Ammiel Alcalay (Introduction by, Translator)

Call Number: 0872864235

ISBN: 0872864235

Publication Date: 2003-09-01

Translated from the Bosnian with an introduction by Ammiel Alcalay Following his depiction of Bosnia under siege in the much celebrated Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic´ now explores the vast space of his new continent. Mostly written in response to a cross-country journey by train in post 9-11 America, Mehmedinovic´'s Nine Alexandrias provides a poetry of witness and testimony of a very different order. In this nightmarish and exhilarating odyssey, Mehmedinovic´'s political acuity is displayed everywhere but barely pronounced. In Washington, D.C., his new home, the graphic and tactile affirmation of life amidst horror depicted so masterfully in Sarajevo Blues, turns into an eerie silence that permeates both the expanse of the land and the heart of the American empire. Praise for Semezdin Mehmedinovic´'s Sarajevo Blues: "A memorable literary achievement."--Library Journal "Sarajevo Blues is widely considered here to be the best piece of writing to emerge from the besieged capital since Bosnia's war erupted in April 1992."--The Washington Post "In poems, micro-essays, and prose vignettes, Semezdin Mehmedinovic´ charts the collapse of a world with clear-eyed passion for the truth that one finds in the young Hemingway, the Hemingway of In Our Time."--Paul Auster Semezdin Mehmedinovic´ was born in Tuzla, Bosnia in 1960 and is the author of five books. Mehmedinovic´ -arrived in the U.S. as a political refugee in 1996, and he is currently living in Alexandria, Virginia.

Certain trees : the constructed book, poem and object 1964-2006

Call Number: 2951263856

ISBN: 9782951263857

Publication Date: 2006

Hanging Quotes by Alastair Johnston (Interviewed By)

Call Number: 9780982792667

ISBN: 0982792662

Publication Date: 2011-11-01

Literary Nonfiction. Book Arts. Poetry History & Criticism. Conducted over the course of four decades, HANGING QUOTES is a landmark oral history project comprised of nineteen interviews with pioneer book artists, typographers, and poets. Alastair Johnston's thoughtful questions evoke fascinating new stories and information from luminaries as diverse as Nicolas Barker and Robert Creeley. He discusses the transition from cast metal to digital type with the prime movers in the field: Matthew Carter, Sumner Stone, and Fred Smeijers; and he takes stock of the field of artists' books in wide-ranging conversations with Sandra Kirshenbaum and Joan and Nathan Lyons, while his groundbreaking interviews with Dave Haselwood, Holbrook Teter, Bob Hawley, Walter Hamady, and Graham Mackintosh shed new light on the history of the book in the 20th century.

The Muslim 100 by M. Umer Chapra; Muhammad Mojlum Khan

Call Number: BP70 .K53 2008

ISBN: 9781847740076

Publication Date: 2009-09-01

"It is rare to see a publication which includes personalities from both Shia and Sunni schools of thought and which is so much needed in today's turbulent world. This book, I believe will . . . enrich our understanding of not only the historical but the contemporary history of the Muslim."- Ahmed J. Versi , chief editor of 'The Muslim News' (London)Who have been the Muslim world's most influential people? What were their ideas, thoughts, and achievements? In one hundred short and engaging profiles of these extraordinary people, fourteen hundred years of the vast and rich history of the Muslim world is unfolded. For anyone interested in getting an intimate view of Islam through its kings and scholars, generals and sportsmen, architects and scientists, and many others-this is the book for you.Among those profiled are the Prophet Muhammad , the Caliph Umar , Imam Husain , Abu Hanifa , Harun al-Rashid , al-Khwarizmi , al-Ghazali , Saladin , Rumi , Ibn Battuta , Sinan , Ataturk , Iqbal , Jinnah , Ayatollah Khomeini , Malcolm X , and Muhammad Ali .

The House of Wisdom by Jonathan Lyons

Call Number: CB251 .L96 2010

ISBN: 9781608190584

Publication Date: 2010-03-30

For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to visit cities like Baghdad or Antioch. There, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge, as well as keeping alive the works of Plato and Aristotle. When the best libraries in Europe held several dozen books, Baghdad's great library, The House of Wisdom, housed four hundred thousand. Jonathan Lyons shows just how much "Western" ideas owe to the Golden Age of Arab civilization. Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, hungry for knowledge, traveled East and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. In this brilliant, evocative book Jonathan Lyons reveals the story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.

Peace in the Middle East by Edward W. Said

Call Number: DS63.1 .S329 1991

Publication Date: 1991

Iraq by Shams Constantine Inati (Editor)

Call Number: DS70.7 .I73 2003

ISBN: 1591020964

Publication Date: 2003-03-01

Presents a collection of essays that look at Iraq’s history, arts, religion, politics, and the role of women.

The Power of Nonviolence by Howard Zinn

Call Number: JZ5538 .P685 2002

ISBN: 0807014079

Publication Date: 2002-09-12

There is no easy way out of the spiraling morass of terror and brutality that confronts the world today. It is time now for the human race to hold still, to delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both ancient and modern.--Arundhati Roy The Power of Nonviolence, the first anthology of alternatives to war with a historical perspective, with an introduction by Howard Zinn about September 11 and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks, presents the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the last 2,500 years of human history. Arranged chronologically, covering the major conflagrations in the world, The Power of Nonviolence is a compelling step forward in the study of pacifism, a timely anthology that fills a void for people looking for responses to crisis that are not based on guns or bombs. Included are some of the most original thinkers about peace and nonviolence-Buddha, Scott Nearing, Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," Jane Addams, William Penn on "the end of war," Dorothy Day's position on "Pacifism," Erich Fromm, and Rajendra Prasad. Supplementing these classic voices are more recent advocates of peace: Albert Camus' "Neither Victims Nor Executioners," A. J. Muste's impressive "Getting Rid of War," Martin Luther King's influential "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam," and Arundhati Roy's "War Is Peace," plus many others.

Artists’ Books by Stephen Bury

Call Number: N7433.3 .B87 1995

ISBN: 185928163X

Publication Date: 1995-11-01

"The spread of printing in the 16th century severed the relationship between artist and book, but modern developments in technology - such as lithography and desk-top publishing - have enabled this relationship to be restored. This book, which explores the history of artists' involvement with the book format in the 20th century, provides the historical, philosophical and artistic background for practitioners and art historians." "The book considers the pre-history of the artist's book, beginning with the work of Mallarme and Apollinaire, Cubist, Futurist, Dada and Fluxus books; the upsurge of manifesto, serial and conceptual works of the 1960s and 1970s and the growth of a self-conscious artists' books tradition in the 1980s and 1990s. The development of the artists' books are placed in the context of technological changes and movements in the history of modern art." "Comprehensive reference material is provided by a bibliographic listing of over 500 key artists' books, an exhibition chronology, invaluable practical advice for the collector and librarian and an extensive index."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A Century of Artists Books by Riva Castleman

Call Number: N7433.3 .C38 1994

ISBN: 0870701517

Publication Date: 2002-07-02

Published to accompany the 1994 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this book constitutes the most extensive survey of modern illustrated books to be offered in many years. Work by artists from Pierre Bonnard to Barbara Kruger and writers from Guillaume Apollinarie to Susan Sontag. An importnt reference for collectors and connoisseurs. Includes notable works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.

Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinovic; Ammiel Alcalay (Translator)

Call Number: PG1419.23.E37 S2713 1998

ISBN: 087286345X

Publication Date: 2001-01-01

From one of Bosnia's most prominent poets and writers: spare and haunting stories and poems that were written under the horrific circumstances of the recent war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Semezdin Mehmedinovic remained a citizen of Sarajevo throughout the Serbian nationalists' siege and was active throughout the war in the city's resistance movement, as one of the editor's of the magazine Phantom of Liberty. Sarajevo Blues was originally published at the end of 1992 and was the first book in the Biblioteka "egzil-abc" series, published in Ljubljana, which provided a forum for Bosnian writers and translators under siege or living in exile. Semezdin Mehmedinovic says that "writing is, finally, quite a personal thing that doesn't make much sense unless you are practicing for the last word." For those Bosnians emerging from the siege or still in exile, these "last words" remain intimate possessions, one of the last bastions left against the commodification of tragedy.

The Literary Heritage of the Arabs by Suheil Bushrui (Editor); James M. Malarkey (Editor)

Call Number: PJ7510 .L584 2012

ISBN: 0863568246

Publication Date: 2013-02-19

The breadth of Arabic literature produced by Arab writers from pre-Islamic times to the contemporary period reveals a world of thought and feeling largely unseen and unheard in the English-speaking world. In this wide-ranging and unique anthology, works by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim authors show the genius of Arab civilization through the prism of literature.Through odes (or 'Mu'allaqat' ); selections from the Qur'an; samples of Hadith and the poetry of rivalry, love, adventure, and mystic transcendence; and prose conveying scientific innovation, philosophical inquiry, theological disputation, and historical analysis, this extraordinary collection provides an authoritative overview of Arabic literature.

Rituals of Memory in Contemporary Arab Women’s Writing by Brinda Mehta

Call Number: PJ7525.2 .M44 2007

ISBN: 0815631359

Publication Date: 2007-04-26

This volume carefully assesses fixed notions of Arab womanhood by exploring the complexities of Arab women's lives as portrayed in literature. Encompassing women writers and critics from Arab, French, and English traditions, it forges a transnational Arab feminist consciousness. Brinda Mehta examines the significance of memory rituals in women's writings, such as the importance of water and purification rites in Islam and how these play out in the women's space of the hammam (Turkish bath). Mehta shows how sensory experiences connect Arab women to their past. Specific chapters raise awareness of the experiences of Palestinian women in exile and under occupation, Bedouin and desert rituals, and women's views on conflict in Iraq and Lebanon, and the compatibility between Islam and feminism. At once provocative and enlightening, this work is a groundbreaking addition to the timely field of modern Arab women's writing and criticism and Arab literary studies.

‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres by Julia Ashtiany (Editor); T. M. Johnstone (Editor); J. D. Latham (Editor); R. B. Serjeant (Editor)

Call Number: PJ7530 .A18 1990

ISBN: 0521240166

Publication Date: 1990-03-30

This volume of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature covers artistic prose and poetry produced in the heartland and provinces of the 'Abbasid empire during the second great period of Arabic literature, from the mid-eighth to the thirteenth centuries AD. 'Abbasid literature was characterised by the emergence of many new genres and of a scholarly and sophisticated critical consciousness. This volume deals chronologically with the main genres and provides extended studies of major poets, prose-writers and literary theorists. It concludes with a comprehensive survey of the relatively unknown literature of the Yemen to appear in a European language since the manuscript discoveries of recent years. To make the material accessible to non-specialist readers, 'Abbasid authors are quoted in English translation wherever possible, and clear explanations of their literary techniques and conventions are provided. With chapters by leading specialists from the Middle East, Europe and America, the volume represents a wide cross-section of current academic opinion.

Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur and Arabic Writerly Culture by Shawkat M. Toorawa

Call Number: PJ7532 .T66 2005

ISBN: 0415297621

Publication Date: 2005-07-13

Toorawa re-evaluates the literary history and landscape of  third to ninth century Baghdad by demonstrating and emphasizing the significance of the important transition from a predominantly oral-aural culture to an increasingly literate one. This transformation had a profound influence on the production of learned and literary culture; modes of transmission of learning; nature and types of literary production; nature of scholarly and professional occupations and alliances; and ranges of meanings of certain key concepts, such as plagiarism. In order to better understand these, attention is focused on a central but understudied figure, Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280 to 893), a writer, schoolmaster, scholar and copyist, member of important literary circles, and a significant anthologist and chronicler. This book will appeal to anyone interested in Arabic literary culture and history, and those with an interest in books, writing, authorship and patronage.

Arabic lithographed books in the Islamic Studies Library, McGill Universitby Adam Gacek

Call Number: PJ7538 .G33 1996

ISBN: 9780771704680

Publication Date: 1996

Seen and Heard by Mona N. Mikhail

Call Number: PJ7538 .M554 2004

ISBN: 1566564638

Publication Date: 2004-09-01

How are Arab women seen by others? How do Arab women see themselves? New York University professor Mona Mikhail's new collection of essays casts a wide net over literature, film, popular culture, and the law in order to investigate the living, often rapidly changing, reality of Arab women and their societies.

Reorientations / Arabic and Persian Poetry by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych (Editor); Jaroslav Pinckney Stetkevych (Editor)

Call Number: PJ7541 .R46 1994

ISBN: 0253354935

Publication Date: 1994-03-22

"Quite simply: these are seminal essays.... Distinguished scholarship, erudite, and full of innovative ways of interpreting Arabic and Persian poetry." --Omar Pound "[This book] reads Arabic and Persian poetry in a refreshingly new and significant way.... raises our understanding... to a new level." --James T. Monroe Innovative methodologies reorient critical readings of classical Middle Eastern literature.

Al-Mutanabbi by Margaret Larkin

Call Number: PJ7750.M8 Z768 2008

ISBN: 1851684069

Publication Date: 2008-01-01

This exhaustive and yet enthralling study considers the life and work of al-Mutanabbi (915-965), often regarded as the greatest of the classical Arab poets. A revolutionary at heart and often imprisoned or forced into exile throughout his tumultuous life, al-Mutanabbi wrote both controversial satires and when employed by one of his many patrons, laudatory panegyrics. Employing an ornate style and use of the ode, al-Mutanabbi was one of the first to successfully move away from the traditionally rigid form of Arabic verse, the 'qasida’.

Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar after the Occupation by Amal al-Jubouri; Rebecca Gayle Howell (Translator); Husam Qaisi (Translator)

Call Number: PJ7840.U255 H3513 2011

ISBN: 1882295897

Publication Date: 2011-12-13

"Through these poems, Amal al-Jubouri connects us to the earliest known poems, and yet the dialectic tension between them is utterly contemporary. Al-Jubouri writes 'This is my protest, this is my folly,' yet these poems are neither simple protest nor in any sense folly. These poems are both essential and eternal."--Nick FlynnThis translation of Iraqi author Amal al-Jubouri contextualizes America's occupation of Iraq through the Qur'an's story of Hagar. Complementary pairs of poems portray life before and after the war. This work simultaneously mirrors Hagar's desperate running between Safa and Marwah, as we pace frantically between pre- and post-occupation Iraq--the poet begging in vain for poetry not to abandon her people. Honor before the occupation 'Worship the LeaderLove the PartyCurse America, the siege' '~' Honor after the occupation 'Curse the DictatorForsake the PartyClap with flowers in your hand for America, her wall' Amal al-Jubouri , a nativeof Iraq, is the author of five collections of poetry including 'Wine from Wounds' ; 'Words, Set Me Free!' ; 'Enheduanna', 'Priestess of Exile' ; and '99 Veils'. In 1997 she took asylum in Germany after having been listed first on Uday Hussein's list of renegade Iraqi writers and was the first Iraqi writer to return to Baghdad, two days after the fall of the regime. The founder and editor-in-chief of 'al-Diwan', the first and only Arab-German literary magazine, she is president of the East-WestDiwan German Cultural Foundation and acts as cultural counselor for the Yemen Embassy in Berlin.

Fifteen Iraqi Poets by Dunya Mikhail (Editor)

Call Number: PJ8044.5.E5 F44 2013

ISBN: 0811221792

Publication Date: 2013-12-24

Fifteen Iraqi Poets compiles fifteen poems, each written by a different, prominent twentieth-century Iraqi poet. Selected, with commentary, by award-winning Iraqi-American poet, Dunya Mikhail, this little anthology is the perfect introduction to a glorious literature that traces its roots back to ancient Sumer — a poetry written by those who have lived through a state of continuous wars and massacres, their laments often opening with a plea to their destroyed homeland, “O Iraq.”

Iraqi Poetry Today by Saadi Simawe (Editor); Daniel Weissbort (Editor); Norma Rinsler (Editor)

Call Number: PJ8044.5.E5 I73 2003

ISBN: 095338246X

Publication Date: 2002-05-01

For two decades, since the Iraq-Iran war in 1980, Iraq has been the focus of numerous political, economic, sociological, military, and geopolitical studies. However, very little has been published on the Iraqi literary tradition. Modern Iraq has produced a highly complex literature of survival in response to various realities of oppression and to challenges of modernism. Translators include Naomi Shibab Nye, Ellen Dore Watson, Daniel Weissbort, and Ferial Ghazoul. Dr. Saadi Simawe guest-edited the pioneering Palestine/Israel issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (No. 14), and three years ago guest-edited a special issue of Arab Studies Quarterly on modern Iraqi literature. He is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and American Studies, Grinnell University.

A Human Eye by Adrienne Rich

Call Number: PS3535.I233 H86 2009

ISBN: 9780393070064

Publication Date: 2009-04-06

Over more than three decades Adrienne Rich's essays have been praised for their lucidity, courage, and range of concerns. In A Human Eye, Rich examines a diverse selection of writings and their place in past and present social disorders and transformations. Beyond literary theories, she explores from many angles how the arts of language have acted on and been shaped by their creators' worlds.This powerful new collection includes a stirring response to the anthology Iraqi Poetry Today, a critique of three classic socialist manifestos, and a rereading of The Dead Lecturer, an early volume of poems by LeRoi Jones. Rich engages the impulse to make art that both impels toward and interacts with social change, a theme she also traces through the letters of poets Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov, gay and lesbian politics and poetry, and influential texts on Zionism and the Jewish diaspora.

Sand Opera by Philip Metres

Call Number: PS3613.E887 S26 2015

ISBN: 1938584090

Publication Date: 2015-01-13

"Sand Opera is what political poetry must be like today in our age of seemingly permanent war."--Mark Nowak Sand Opera emerges from the dizzying position of being named but unheard as an Arab American and out of the parallel sense of seeing Arabs named and silenced since 9/11. Polyvocal poems, arias, and redacted text speak for the unheard. Philip Metres exposes our common humanity while investigating the dehumanizing perils of war and its lasting effect on our culture. From "Hung Lyres": @ When the bombs fell, she could barely raise her pendulous head, wept shrapnel until her mother capped the fire with her breast. She teetered on the highwire of herself. She lay down & the armies retreated, never showing their backs. When she unlatched from the breast, the planes took off again. Stubborn stars refused to fall . . . Philip Metres has written a number of books and chapbooks, most recently A Concordance of Leaves (Diode, 2013), abu ghraib arias (Flying Guillotine, 2011), To See the Earth (Cleveland State, 2008), and Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront Since 1941 (University of Iowa, 2007). His work has appeared widely, including in Best American Poetry, and has garnered two NEA fellowships, the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, four Ohio Arts Council Grants, the Anne Halley Prize, the Arab American Book Award, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. He teaches at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

To See the Earth by Philip Metres

Call Number: PS3613.E887 T6 2008

ISBN: 1880834812

Publication Date: 2008-01-15

Poetry. "'Do our voyages,' Auden once asked, 'still promise the Juster Life?' Too many of us would answer this question in negative--not so Philip Metres. His poems seek above all to traverse borders, not merely those between nations and cultures but also--and most importantly--between the personal and the political. With a sure command of craft, which he displays in abundance, Metres plays for high stakes. TO SEE THE EARTH is a debut of unusual distinction"--David Wojahn.

Here, Bullet by Brian Turner

Call Number: PS3620.U763 H47 2005

ISBN: 1882295552

Publication Date: 2005-11-01

Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.