and from the inside in

Editor’s note:
It’s November and I am in Beirut. It hasn’t rained
yet, not the way it used to, the way it rained
when I was a child, in Beirut, where November
was really Autumn, and we would wear light
sweaters and carry an umbrella and dream
of roasted chestnuts and hot chocolate
any time soon. Beirut is still warm-ish and it is
November and there are people on the
beach and people in the mountains and
people on the streets demanding their rights
for water, for light, for warmth, for meds, for
clean streets, for work, for love; mostly for
a type of love that means that we are all
safe, that means that we are all safe here.
But we are not all safe here. Nor are we
safe elsewhere, where there’s war and
occupation and racism and apartheid
and all kinds of discrimination, inside our
homes and TV screens. There is loss here,
and there is loss there, across the border,
the sea and the street. “Sad land of monks
& soldiers/ gardening the world’s light” says
Kenneth E. Harrison, Jr. in his poem “Elegy.”
But there is also survival. There is always a
protest for survival. And there is art. There is
always art.
“Art inspires peace, encourages us to be kind
to each other” says Muntaha, a character
in Marguerite G. Bouvard’s poem “Hidden
Stories.” In Zeina Hashem Beck’s poem “Beirut
Wall, August 24, 2015” written about the
protests that happened in Beirut this summer,
she says “I will draw. I will dance. I will dig /
start within my heart.”
A character in Philip Metres’ poem “Letter
(Never Sent) to Volodya and Natasha” says,
“Art, you said, was a sacred place, resting
by a river, where a person could feel some
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things come clearer. Not better, but clearer.”
In the sixth issue of Sukoon, I bring you such
art that perhaps makes things clearer, if not
better. Art in the form of poetry and stories and
essays, by new voices and new artists, as well
as those who’ve been published in previous
issues of Sukoon. I am happy to bring you
Sukoon’s first book review, by Imene Bennani
and Sukoon’s first play! Two plays actually; one
by Shebana Coelho entitled “Are You Safe?”
and one by Pam Laskin, entitled “RONIT AND
JAMIL,” both excerpts, both related to Palestine.
Sukoon is proud to collaborate with Arabian
Stories - a literary project that tries to bring
together the Arabic and Western world
through expression and translation. Within
this issue, you’ll find the English translation
of their literary contest’s winning story, “The
Beauty and the Gazelle.”
I also bring you a special interview with a
special poet, writer, editor, teacher and painter;
the wonderful Etel Adnan, with whom I’ve had
the pleasure and privilege to correspond.
Adnan lives in Paris right now and I include
an interview where she tells about her work,
her plans, and her optimistic thoughts about
a changing Arab world; a world where a civil
society will always exist and will always win,
even if that victory doesn’t happen today.
I include some of her artwork (exhibited
in Galerie Lelong in Paris) as well as a
previously unpublished excerpt from a poem
she is currently working on, entitled “Night.”
Adnan says that she’s always believed that
we were born to spend our time writing poetry.
(What a different world we would be living in
if that were the case.) I couldn’t agree more,
could you?
REWA ZEINATI