Meeting Taha

Went with SR to a wonderful reception last night, for Taha Muhammad Ali, at a home in Laurelhurst. About 40-50 people gathered, a light buffet, wine. An amazing full moon rising over Lake Washington. I was able to chat a little bit with Taha, and his translator, Peter Cole, and Taha's biographer, Adina Hoffman (?). And then they gave a short bilingual reading. It was pretty amazing how they work together this way, an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab. Their reading voices are very different, but complementary (you have to hear it). And it's really stunning work. They finished with a new poem (not in the new book) called "Revenge" that had us all almost in tears. I gives me hope to know a man who has suffered so much, seen so much oppression and war and death, can still write so optimistically about the world. It gives me hope (I know this sounds really pollyanna) for peace someday in the Middle East.

Picked up the beautiful broadside below at the reading. It's by Stern and Faye. (The format was too large for my scanner, so I scanned it in two pieces, ugh.) I think they'll have them at the reading tonight. Only 300 copies!