Palm Trees Leave their Places: Lecture Performance

Lecture Prefromance. 2020

This Lecture performance is inspired by the oral traditions present in Arabic literature, that formed the art of story-telling throughout the centuries.

Many of these traditions, entailed that the story-teller would orally narrate a story, or multiple ones, using his or her voice to keep the audience captivated through the twists and turns of the epic tales that are being narrated. The story teller would use visual aids such as tapestry, drawings, or objects to accompany the human voice, and to serve as visual and tactile evidences to the fictional stories and the legends of heroes that are being told.

This performance uses the notes and drawings that poetry anthologist would create to facilitate their work, to narrate three strange instances that remained unexplained, the first being palm trees that changed their places, the second, a poetry anthology that disappeared, and the third, a philosopher burning all of his books before dying.

Video Excerpt

Publishing Maneuvers Symposium (2020) at Warehouse421. Image courtesy of Warehouse421

The Complete Works of Umayyad poet Jarir, compiled and edited by Mahdi Nassereddine, the the editor's notes.

Note 1: The History of "Abdul Rahmad Al Dakhil": The First Umayyad ruler in Andalusia.

Note 2: Botanical drawing of the Tarragon plant, known to change it's location once planted.

Note 3: The spine of "Al-Imtaa Wal Muanasa" by Abbasid poet "Abu Hayan Al Tawhidi".

Note 4: A sketch depicting the cover of "Al-Imtaa Wal Muanasa" by Abbasid poet "Abu Hayan Al Tawhidi".

Note 5: Dissection of an uncredited Poem.