On March 5 2007, a car bomb exploded and devastated Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling. More than 30 people were killed, more than 100 people were wounded. In the wake of that terrible event, Iraqis suffered not only lives lost but also a blow to the heart and soul of Baghdad’s cultural and intellectual community.
In 2012, Beau Beausoleil, San Francisco-based poet, teamed up with Deema Shehabi, a Palestinian-American poet, editor, and translator, to create Al- Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, an anthology of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. In the introduction, Beau writes that their intent was a “lament for those who were killed and wounded that day, and by extension, on all the days before, and the days after, even on this very day as I write these words.”
Each year art and photography exhibits and readings from the anthology are held around the world to observe the anniversary of the Al-Mutanabbi Street bombing and remember the lives lost and forever changed that day. In hopes of continuing this tradition of mourning and remembrance, we asked Iraqi and American poets, writers and activists to collectively read poet Dunya Mikhail’s “A half-burned page on Al-Mutanabbi Street”, in a project we are calling Remembering Al-Mutanabbi Street 2021. This virtual collaborative reading will be shared March 5th at 11:40, the exact time and day the bomb “scattered all those pages”.
Can you also join us online to continue this tradition of mourning and remembrance?
On March 5th, share a poem, story, music, art, or other offering and join us online with the hashtags:
#RememberingAlMutanabbiStreet #تذكر_شارع_المتنبي
#almutanabbistreetstartshere #شارع_المتنبي_يبدأ_هنا
Thank you for being a part of the virtual 14th anniversary commemoration.
Sincerely,
Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and Her Story Is
Special thanks to Dunya Mikhail for her support and poignant poem.
Special thanks to the talented Sajjad Abbas for editing and compiling the video.
We are so grateful to each one of this remembering project’s readers- to be announced soon.
Special thanks to Beau Beausoleil for his ever-present solidarity and the Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Anthology and Project for its support and inspiration.