Vox Populi

A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.

Olivia Rosane: USC Cancels Muslim Valedictorian’s Speech

“USC offers a minor in ‘resistance to genocide,’ this girl minored in it, was named valedictorian, and then they cancelled her speech because she might talk about genocide.”

April 17, 2024 · 13 Comments

Phyllis Bennis: Why False Accusations of Anti-Semitism Are So Harmful

Bad-faith smears of Rep. Ilhan Omar and many others are being used to crush Palestinian rights, undermine social movements, and divert attention from real anti-Semitism.

April 10, 2024 · 4 Comments

Joanne Durham: Becoming Educated 

No one spoke
of their exodus, how they fled homes
stolen or burned

March 28, 2024 · 2 Comments

Chard deNiord: Grief is the River with a Foreign Name

Grief is the river with a foreign name
that floods your heart, pulling you in
with a musical force you can’t resist

March 3, 2024 · 13 Comments

Abby Zimet: Ironclad Support For Starving, Blinding, Shattering Children

Gaza’s horrors grow. Israel kills 250 people a day, attacks hospitals, bombs survivors in tents, blocks over 75% of humanitarian aid from reaching a place where “every single person is hungry,” a quarter are starving, most are cold, 60,000 are maimed.

January 25, 2024 · 7 Comments

Abe Louise Young: New Seeds for Old Stories

When I was a child, everything I heard & read about Israel was aspirational. We saved our quarters in cardboard boxes emblazoned, “Plant Trees In Israel!” People said, “Next year in Jerusalem!” to mean goodbye, to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

January 4, 2024 · 19 Comments

Mosab Abu Toha: Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

When you open my ear, touch it
gently.
My mother’s voice lingers somewhere inside.

December 13, 2023 · 20 Comments

Brett Wilkins: US Lawmakers Call on Biden to End US Taxpayer Support of Israeli Human Rights Violations

“Each year, the U.S. funnels billions of tax dollars to the Israeli government, funding obscene human rights violations,” said Rep. Cori Bush, who signed the letter. “We must stop funding Israeli apartheid.”

April 17, 2023 · 5 Comments

Video: Suheir Hammad | Poems of war, peace, women, power

Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: Wait for the astonishing line: “Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded.”

April 14, 2023 · 10 Comments

Naomi Shihab Nye: Blood

Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root
is too big for us. What flag can we wave?
I wave the flag of stone and seed,
table mat stitched in blue.

February 19, 2023 · 17 Comments

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Lullaby

We want things smaller than we know.
A vessel strong enough
to lift you into tomorrow,

May 14, 2021 · 1 Comment

Angele Ellis: In Lebanon, 2000 June

It was the summer the Israelis withdrew, leaving
behind
a landmined no-man’s-land of phosphorus orange groves,
blighted with white like the kingdom of the Snow Queen.

September 16, 2020 · 4 Comments

Abby Zimet: Resist, My People, Resist Them — Poetry Is Not A Crime, Except For Palestinians

   Tatour in court with her attorney. Reuters photo . After what critics called “a hollow charade of a trial” and “theater of the absurd,” an Israeli court Thursday convicted … Continue reading

May 4, 2018 · Leave a comment

Rafeef Ziadah: “We Teach Life, Sir.”

Rafeef Ziadah is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who … Continue reading

July 15, 2014 · Leave a comment

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