Gaza Guy

Why can't I be free is a poem by Mohammed Moussa. You can order Mohammed's new book 'Flamingo' by  emailing gazapoetssociety@gmail.com. 

Originally from Surrey, UK, Francesca is a 3rd year French & linguistics student at the University of Oxford. Outside of her degree, Francesca loves singing, going to the theater, baking, and of course, poetry. She is thrilled to be able to help the Gaza Poets' Society in whatever way she can.  On January 26th, 2019 she helped Gaza Poets Society in organizing their first event in the UK in Oxford University. Moe Moussa talked to her about this and different current topics. 

Hana Haziem is a British Palestinian hybrid living in the UK, she grew up in the UAE and has connections still with the UAE and Palestine. She is a speech and language therapist and manages a team of speech and language therapists within an NHS trust in leeds, uk. She is passionate about poetry, being your true authentic self, and making sure everyone has a voice. She spends her time writing, on long walks and doing her best to always follow her intuition.

In this part Nicole Majdali opens up on starting the debate on sexual harassment in Hollywood before the Me Too Movement; emphasizing that her short film Pretty Funny Nicole brought this up to debate since she discussed her story in the movie and this opened new paths for to new voices to speak up and the debate started after the film. 

In a place like this, New Poem written and read by Moe Mousa

A new poem, written and read by Moe Mousa.

In this episode I talked Areej Kaoud. Areej Kaoud is a Palestinian visual artist and writer raised in Sharjah, UAE and Gaza, Palestine. Her practice draws on her interest in disastrous scenarios and creating narratives. Kaoud’s practice incorporates text, sound, performance, painting and installation to comment on emergency psychology, diaspora and their enactment.

Memory of what is a poem written by Moe Moussa in 2014.

A new poem written and read by Mohamed Moussa.

When do birds leave is a new poem by Muhammad Musa.

In this episode, I answered the question that I get asked a lot which one do I prefer being a poet or being a journalist, so enjoy listening Gaza Guy podcast.

Muhammad talks about the feeling of estrangement that he's battling since he left Gaza and how it became unbearable and so hard to define.

Longing is a scar inside the heart and a country's fingerprint on the body. But no one longs for his wound, no one longs for pain or nightmare, but for what was before. For a time where there was no pain except of primary pleasures that melt time, like a sugar cube in a cup of tea, and for a time of heavenly images.

Our Men Deserve Morning is a poem by the Palestinian poet, translator, Iman Alzaghari. Follow Iman on Instagram at @arabicnerd

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, who was born in Gaza and has spent his life there. He studied English language and literature, he taught English at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools in Gaza from 2016 until 2019, and he is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s first English-language library.

You can order my debut poetry collection FLAMINGO now! Email gazapoetssociety@gmail.com and get your copy.

I was born in Gaza is a poem, from the recent poetry collection by Mohammed Moussa.  Music by: Andre lefebvre.

It is unfathomable that all this military hardware is being used against one of the densest and poorest cities in the world, with no shelters, and lack of electricity, food, medical supplies, during a deadly pandemic. Gaza is also a city that has been under siege for more than thirteen years, and therefore is vulnerable to such intensive military intrusions. The destruction cannot always be retraced, and is coming from all terrains; land, sea, and air. Gaza is being brutally cornered and isolated so Israel can commit a murderous cold-blooded extermination of Palestinians. The silence coming from international actors and the global community, supported by biased media coverage is complicit in this ongoing destruction of Gaza.

In this episode I answered questions I was asked by my listeners on Instagram. Also, I included in this episode clips from the interviews which I conducted months ago about Gaza, life here, how this place battling Covid-19, and more. 

Hello everybody, Welcome to Gaza Guy podcast, Today is the 1st episode in 2021: I know everyone might be asking how is it going in Gaza, nowadays, also its clear that Gaza is old news right now, seeing the world is still battling the furious pandemic, despite of our high hopes for the new year, the actual state in Gaza might further deteriorate honestly, the situation is the same, nothing will change, I can’t believe its 2021, here in Gaza it feels like 2008 right now, continuous buzzing of the drones day and night, and in case you are wondering about the sound of the drones, if you are not familiar with it , it's like the sound of lawn mower. Re the Freedom of Movement, the two crossing are still closed, Rafah crossing has been closed for two months right now, can you imagine this! I know some of the listeners might be familiar with travelling through crossing, it's like airports, but what if your airport is closed and it's not your government who is closing it, imagine this too! Can you! As a young man things are getting tough and baffling for me here, like I don’t know how to spend my time, what else I can do, where else I can go, so somedays I just spend my whole day at home doing nothing,  what can I do, the reality is harsh here, the streets of Gaza are suffocating, should I go to the sea, but I'm tired of the sea, tired f the faces I see every day, it’s been 14 years of siege here, come on, if this would be a movie I wouldn’t even believe this. Good news, there is a fall in the cases here, we are still going through the two days lockdown and night lockdown at 8 pm every day, so lockdown within a lockdown here, what the people see here is unspeakable and inexpressible, if misery would be replaced with one word i'd replace it with Gaza.