Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine - Book Launch
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine Book Launch On May 20, 2025, Daraja Press marked a significant literary and political moment with the launch of Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine, a stirring anthology edited by John P. Portelli. Bringing together the voices of 50 poets from across the globe, this collection weaves together art and activism, offering a lyrical testament to Palestinian resistance, resilience, and the enduring call for justice. This special podcast episode presents a lightly edited recording of the powerful launch event in Ottawa, hosted by Adrian Harewood—award-winning...
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Alliance of Sahel States Forges Ahead
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Between 2021 and 2023 West Africa saw three popular military coups. Assimi Goïta became the president of Mali in 2021, Ibrahim Traoré became the president of Burkina Faso in 2022, and Abdourahamane Tchiani, became the president of Niger in 2023. The three former French colonies expelled French and US military. They withdrew from ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, and confederated, forming the Alliance of Sahel States. In French, that’s the Alliance des États du Sahel (AES). They announced their intention to cooperate on regional security, integration, sovereignty, and...
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The threats to Mother Earth from the Trump Regime
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Firoze Manji and Nnimmo Bassey discuss the environmental threats posed by the Trump administration's policies, particularly the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the prioritization of oil and gas drilling. Bassey highlights the severe environmental degradation in the Niger Delta, including contaminated water and soil, and the health impacts on local communities. He emphasizes the need for African unity and transformative leadership to combat these issues. Bassey also notes the broader implications for Africa, including potential environmental genocide in other regions like Senegal and...
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Threats to the Black Women's movement of the new Trump regime
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Thandisizwe Chimurenga talks about the threats to the Black Women's movement of the new Trump regime A society born of white supremacy and patriarchy must, by definition, ignore the voices of Black women. We know that unfortunately, such an attitude will also naturally seep into every stratum of that society. With the ascent of the Trump regime, a whole range of policies and practices are being implemented and more to be planned on both on the USA domestic scene as well as on the international arena. Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an award winning, Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and writer....
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Prospects for movements in the new Trump regime
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Kali, of course, hardly needs an introduction, but for those of you who have not been fortune to hear and engage with Kali, let me say a few words about him: Kali Akuno is the co-founder of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. He is the co-editor of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi and of Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons On Building The Future In The Present. As many of you will know, we have had the pleasure of interviewing Kali on several occasions here on Daraja Press Podcasts. In our last podcast, Kali discussed...
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Beyond the Bill: What do elections have to do with freedom?
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Busia Senator and activist lawyer Okiya Omtatah recently declared his intent to run for president in 2027. Over his career, Omtatah has sued multinationals, government, politicians, and many others on behalf of the public interest and promises to focus on "anti-corruption measures" and executing the Constitution. We've spent many hours helping people understand the structural nature of what ails Kenya. Omtatah has certainly played an important role as an individual, but is this at odds with what would actually be necessary, structurally, to liberate Kenya from the root causes of its problems?...
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Palestine Wail
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Palestine is personal for writer, Yahia Lababidi. His Palestinian grandmother, Rabiha Dajani — educator, activist and social worker — was forced to flee her ancestral home in Jerusalem at gunpoint some eighty years ago. As an Arab-American, Lababidi feels deeply betrayed by the USA’s blind support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. In Palestine Wail, he reminds us that religion is not politics, Judaism is not Zionism, and to criticize the immoral, illegal actions of Israel is not antisemitism — especially since, as an Arab, Lababidi is a Semite himself. Using both poetry and...
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The Second Coming
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
In the remnants of a fractured UK, England is on the brink of collapse where far-right militias rise to power. As Islamophobia and English nationalism ignite brutal violence, 19-year-old Marah Sultana is thrust into a fight for survival. Hunted by forces seeking control, she carries a secret powerful enough to change the course of the war—and the future of the world. In a world in which America’s reign as a superpower has crumbled, its mercenaries now rule in its shadow, In The Second Coming, Tariq Mehmood delivers a searing, unflinching narrative that mirrors his own lifelong struggle for...
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Night Settles Upon the City
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
Written with urgency out of a war-time Beirut, this poetry collection registers the griefs and the heroism of the Lebanese, under siege yet again. Sabbagh lends his lyrical voice here, to give a voice to the voiceless, trying to find some harmonic sense out of catastrophe. This book will compel readers, both Lebanese and those with any kind of human heart. While much of the work was written swiftly, on impulse, and almost like, as one of the poem’s titles has it, a ‘War Diary,’ in verse, this work aims nonetheless to last in its significance and resonance at a time when the world as a...
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The rise of racism in the UK
DARAJA PRESS PODCASTS
As many of our listeners will know, there have been racist uprsings across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The trigger for the riots was disinformation: that three small girls stabbed to death in Southport on 29 July had been killed by a Muslim asylum seeker. In fact, the suspected killer was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and is not Muslim. It is true that rightwing mobilization and counter-mobilizations have been on an unprecedented scale, but has this not been building up over many decades? How is this related to Brexit, which some suggest that it was essentially the result of...
info_outlineUnsilenced: Poems for Palestine Book Launch
On May 20, 2025, Daraja Press marked a significant literary and political moment with the launch of Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine, a stirring anthology edited by John P. Portelli. Bringing together the voices of 50 poets from across the globe, this collection weaves together art and activism, offering a lyrical testament to Palestinian resistance, resilience, and the enduring call for justice.
This special podcast episode presents a lightly edited recording of the powerful launch event in Ottawa, hosted by Adrian Harewood—award-winning journalist, professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, and former CBC anchor. With his decades of experience in media and cultural storytelling, Harewood guided an evening of profound reflection, where poetry became both witness and weapon against oppression.
The panel featured an extraordinary gathering of contributors, each lending their unique perspective to the conversation:
- John Portelli, the anthology’s editor, a poet, novelist, and professor emeritus whose work bridges academia and literary activism;
- Firoze Manji, Daraja Press publisher and public scholar, whose work centers African and global liberation struggles;
- Nahla Abdo, Carleton University professor and anti-colonial feminist scholar, whose research exposes the gendered violence of settler colonialism;
- Leila Marshy, writer and community organizer, whose novel The Philistine and family history inform her advocacy for Palestinian rights;
- Nibal Khalil, Palestinian anthropologist and gender studies expert, whose work amplifies marginalized voices;
- Shirani Rajapakse, award-winning Sri Lankan poet, whose writing explores themes of war, displacement, and healing;
- Omar Sabbagh, Lebanese-British poet and critic, whose forthcoming collection Night Settles Upon the City (Daraja Press) delves into Beirut’s layered histories;
- Xanthi Hondrou-Hill, Greek-German poet and translator, whose award-winning work bridges cultures and languages;
- Joseph Ogbonna, Nigerian poet and educator, whose verses resonate with historical and contemporary struggles.
Their readings and discussions illuminated how poetry can transcend borders, challenge silence, and forge solidarity. From personal narratives to collective calls for justice, Unsilenced is more than a book—it’s a movement.
Listen to this unforgettable day of words and resistance on Daraja Press’s podcast. Available now on all major platforms.
#UnsilencedPoems #PoetryForPalestine #LiteraryActivism #DarajaPress
Produced by Pierre Loiselle, Music by Arlo Maverick. Thanks for listening.