Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi was recently invited to Dublin to celebrate International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi was recently invited to Dublin to celebrate International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Kanazi performed at the Teacher’s Club on Dublin’s Parnell Square at an event organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign on 29 November following similar engagements in Cork.
Born in Massachusetts in 1981 to Palestinian refugee parents, Kanazi describes himself as a poet, writer and activist. He moved to New York in 2001 with dreams to become an actor, but after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and in the face of increasing Islamophobia, he tells Metro Éireann that spoken-word activism became his priority.
“I wanted to speak about Palestine, because of all that my family lived through, but not only that – this is all about social justice, to fight a system,” he says. “As I wanted to connect with the youth – who listen to hip-hop, for example – it was easier to do it through this medium.”
Kanazi took inspiration from the Def Poetry Jam series, and worked with artists such as Palestinian-American activist Suheir Hammad. “I talk about Afghanistan, Palestine, Obama, the US military campaigns,” he says of his performances, which don’t shy away from controversial topics.
He’s also a contributor to poetry anthologies, editing Poets For Palestine in 2008 and publishing Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine in 2011.
Kanazi sees his role as important as a politician’s. “I do not separate art from politics,” he says. “Hip-hop reflects the environment. We all do the same things: speaking about action. And when you speak about refugees, this is not a political issue, this is about human rights.”
What he seeks is to reach and involve “global civil society to support the Palestinians”, he says. “We are just asking for basic human rights.”
Kanazi uses different channels to pursue this purpose. Firstly he is very active on social networks to reach young people. “It helps to push down the doors, and it cuts out the mainstream media,” he says. “I put a lot of videos on YouTube.”
In tandem with this, he performs regularly on stage around the world – “in North America, in Europe, and the Middle East... I do a lot of university shows in the United States, because there is big diversity and the students always have a good network.”
Ultimately, for Kanazi the best way to support the people of Palestine is by meeting people and exchanging ideas all over the world.
