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, the two ‘sisters in poetry’ bring Gaza O My joy to life. The intense and dignified presence of Hend Jouda, whose voice carries the weight of wars endured, is doubled by the precise and infinitely gentle voice of Moroccan poet Soukaina Habiballah, who performs the French translations. This oratorio of women’s voices, standing tall in grief and guardians of life’s fragile flame, becomes a passage from darkness to light, from death to life–always threatened with extinction but undeniably alive.
Credits:
• Writing: Hend Jouda • Performance: Hend Jouda & Soukaina Habiballah • Direction: Henri Jules Julien • Lighting & Sound Design: Zouheir Atbane • Coproduction: Théâtre Joliette / Marseille, Festival Sens Interdis / Lyon, Théâtre Jean Marais / Saint-Fons •
English 
Arabic