To Tell Our Stories: the journeys of Palestinian narrative (RBF 2024)

Please check ticket info for this event below, incl. information about access.

Stories of Palestine and its people are handed over borders and distance, through barriers of occupation - an essential vehicle for the sovereignty of Palestinian voices.

Like all stories, there is no knowing or controlling how they are received.

We’re hugely honoured to welcome Basma Ghalayini, translator and editor of Palestine+100, and Sami Hermez, author of My Brother, My Land to the opening night of the fair. Together, they will seek to untangle the ways Palestinian narratives are held, framed, rejected or passed on in the world, and what it involves to be the one who carries someone else’s story.

The event will be chaired by Noor Hemani

Our speakers:

Basma Ghalayini is an Arabic-language translator and interpreter born and grew up in the Gaza Strip. She is series editor on all of Comma Press's Arabic titles, including the anthology Palestine+100, and has written for The New York Times.

Sami Hermez, PhD, is the director of the Liberal Arts Program and associate professor of anthropology at Northwestern University in Qatar. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University. He is the author of War is Coming: Between Past and Future Violence in Lebanon (UPenn 2017) and My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine (Stanford 2024). His broader research concerns include the study of social movements, the state, the future, memory, violence, and critical security in the Arab World.

*Please note that masks will be required at this event (as with all Lighthouse events).

*Accessibility: All events will be professionally filmed & livestreamed. The Roxy is wheelchair accessible (including toilets) and we'll have provisions for neurodivergent guests including stims, quiet space and colour-coded lanyards.

*Events are £6 or free -we completely understand paying for one or two events and then getting free spots for others. The Radical Book Fair is entirely bookshop run and ticket sales are vital to keeping the fair sustainable and paying all our speakers so all support is heartily welcome!

*Featured books: The book & ticket option will select the most recently published book at any given event, if you’re not sure which book you want or don’t want that featured book, then buy a £6 voucher ticket that can be used for any of the books below.

*If you'd like to help make the book fair accessible to more folks, please consider adding to our pay-it-forward fund HERE.