What Does it Mean to Be a Poet in War Time? is a poem by Hend Jouda, published on her Facebook in October 2023, at the height of the massacres in Gaza. Iconic and immediately viral, it was translated into multiple languages. This fundamental question forms the backbone of the show, which gathers other poems that bear witness to the tragedy, terror and desolation. It also explores the poets’ and the Palestinians’ inextinguishable thirst for life: a paradoxical vital energy that can only be called joy.
On stage, Hend Jouda carries the weight of the wars endured and the ongoing devastation. Her voice stands proudly in mourning as the guardian of life’s fragile flame. Her performance offers a passage from darkness to light—always threatened with extinction, yet still undeniably alive. Her stubborn affirmation of life poses a haunting question: how can all of this continue before the eyes of the world?
Credits:
Credits: Poetry and Performance: Hend Jouda • Direction: Henri Jules Julien • Light and Sound Design: Zouheir Atbane •
English 
Arabic