I’ve mentioned before that I run a collective called Norwich Writers Rebel. We are a group of writers of all genres who are exploring the climate emergency with our pens. However, people who are concerned about the climate and ecological emergency tend to also be looking at issues of anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-war. For the past six months or so, I’d been on the hunt for a Palestinian writer who could host an online writing workshop and so our group and many others could stand in solidarity with Palestinians while the genocide raged on across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

I had a few false starts, thinking I’d found someone, but then in it proving too complicated and falling through. And then I read this article in Al Jazeera, entitled Gaza’s Libraries will rise from the Ashes, and somehow, instinctively, I knew I’d found my person. Libraries have shaped and defined me throughout the course of my life. They have grounded me, inspired me, given me what I have needed and without a doubt, helped to create Rebecca the Writer. Over the Covid lockdown, feeling acutely their sudden absence in my life, I was moved to write a poem entitled The Public Library Love Letter which you can read here. The point is, here I was reading about somebody else’s love and appreciation for these vital spaces. And yet, unlike during Covid which came to an end and I could walk back through those doors, in Gaza, the United Nations has reported that thirteen public libraries have been badly damaged or destroyed and that many are now being forced to burn books as fuel for fires to stay warm or to cook. In words from the article: This is our heartbreaking reality: survival comes at the cost of cultural and intellectual heritage.

Shahd Alnaami

The writer from the article was called Shahd Alnaami. It said she was a literature and translation student based in Gaza and her passionate advocacy for libraries, reading, writing and literacy shone brightly through her words. It was clear from her article as well that she was a gifted writer. I found her on Instagram and reached out to her and heard straight back.

And so it began, this back and forth of a shared love of books and writing and very slowly, the bare bones of an online workshop began to take place. I constantly marvelled at her Instagram posts, how this young woman was living amongst the hardships of the genocide and so much destruction, and there she was – taking photos of a cloud scudding across a rich blue sky or scribing her words of her prayers and dreams for peace and stability. Shahd is much younger than me (she is 20, not much older than my eldest child), yet I keenly felt with her that our positions could so easily have been reversed. Down to a simple twist of fate, she was born in Gaza and I was born in London. But there we were, two bookish writers from different lands and different generations, just trying to make a difference with our pens.

Credit to Andy South @imagineyouwereborningaza – Andy has been placing stickers and spray-paint art all over the place, just asking us to pause in our day and really consider this

Before Christmas I received the devastating news that Shahd’s beloved sister had been killed in a bombing. Her name was Rahaf and she was 13 years old. Rahaf was bright and curious, a young teenager who loved drawing and singing and couldn’t wait for the day she would see a ceasefire. That day did not come for her. So much needless death; so much needless suffering.

Rahaf

And though a ceasefire has now been declared, with President Trump’s vows to turn the strip into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ and the offensive ramping up in the West Bank while all eyes are on Gaza, this ‘ceasefire’ is far from secure. I thought that it would be too much, given her heartbreaking circumstances, for Shahd to now run the workshop. But after a while, I heard back from her. I want to do it still, she said. A still, calm voice of extraordinary courage.

And so, on the 9th February, on a Sunday afternoon following all our preparations, we held this online workshop. We had people on the call from the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Gaza itself. Shahd had literally just completed her exams and was having to walk long distances to sit them and also huge amounts of time and perseverance to gather the material for two short videos she wanted to share for the event, which she used as springboards for the writing exercises.

Shahd had never taught in this way before but she was a natural and stepped into this space with so much wisdom and courage. I was in awe of her; everyone in that workshop was. The collective solidarity and energy in the space was palpable, even from our different little boxes on the screen and when I put my laptop down at the end of it, I knew that Shahd’s was a voice that the world needed to hear.

A destroyed library in Gaza

I have now set up a fundraiser through GoFundMe to help re-build and re-stock Gaza’s destroyed libraries. You may think, why donate money to books when people are starving and need food and medical treatment? And it’s true that first and foremost sustenance needs must be met. But books can heal, words can heal, stories can and do heal. In fact, I firmly believe that telling better stories will heal our world.

Half of the money from this fundraiser will go towards re-stocking and re-building Gaza’s libraries and the other half will go to Shahd, her family and her friends. Having lost two homes, she is currently living in the roof space of her uncle’s house. Despite all this, she is continuing to study (although this is online as her University is no longer standing) and to write. One of the projects that she wants to donate her own portion of this money to is the work of her aforementioned friend, Hani Alsalmi.

At the end of the workshop, I asked everyone to type in a word or phrase from some of the writing they had done over the course of the two hours. In the following days, Shahd and I wove these words and images into a group poem, which she entitled A Voice Among the Ashes. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it. And do please consider donating to and sharing this fundraiser. Thank you

NB Everything I have shared in this post is by generous permission from Shahd Alnaami. Follow her on Instragram @palestinian.shahd

The post A Voice Among the Ashes appeared first on Rebecca Stonehill.