Join us on Friday, August 25 for our next in-person cultural event, a discussion with Dr. Mohammed Sawaie on his new book of translated Palestinian poetry, The Tent Generations.

The Tent Generations brings together the work of a select number of Palestinian poets over the past seven decades who gives expression to the Palestinian experience under Israeli rule and Israeli occupation, as well as the experience of dispersion and displacement from their homeland following the Nakba and subsequent wars. This collection shows how Palestinian poets used their poetry to describe their relationship to the Palestinian people, their homeland, and the presence of an Israeli occupier in their midst.

About the Speaker

Dr. Mohammad Sawaie’s lifelong love for the Arabic language has made him an authority on the sociolinguistic, historical, and grammatical aspects of Arabic. His “Fundamentals of Arabic Grammar” (Routledge 2014) has helped transform the teaching of Arabic in North America. “The Tent Generations” is the latest title in an impressive bibliography of over ten books in English and Arabic, which can be found in libraries worldwide, including “Linguistic Variation and Speaker’s Attitudes: A Sociolinguistic Study of Some Arabic Dialects” (1994), and “Arabic-Speaking Migrants in the United States and Canada: a Bibliographical Guide with Annotation” (1985).

Sawaie, Professor of Arabic at the University of Virginia, is a self-described “passionate reader of both English and Arabic on issues related to Arabic literary production, the Middle East generally and Palestine in particular”, a passion that comes through in “The Tent Generations”. An avid gardener as well as researcher, he has brought “the search for translatable poets and poems were not translated previously, or unknown to English readers” to create a work of exquisite beauty and profound ethical engagement.