What does it mean to remain 'here' when here is not a physical space?
In partnership with Wasafiri magazine, join us for the book launch of Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming by Abdelrahman ElGendy. In the book, ElGendy begins from that word, huna, here, inspired by the popular protest song "Sawfa Nabqa Huna". Huna emerges from six years of political imprisonment in Egypt and grapples with revolutionary hereness and withness inside a revolution, prison cells, and exile, reckoning with what it means to inhabit a space designed to erase you and find ways to be.
ElGendy will be join in conversation with historian and award-winning translator Hazem Jamjoum. The conversation will span multiple topics and questions, begining with Huna and open outward: toward prison literature, cross-prison solidarity, and the resonances between prison movements in Egypt and Palestine, as well as the ways in which they may refuse easy comparison. What can prisoners teach us when we stop treating them as mere spectacles and begin listening to them as theorists and meaning-makers? Can well-intentioned superhumanisation of political prisoners be as harmful as dehumanisation?
What does it mean to remain 'here' when here is not a physical space?
In partnership with Wasafiri magazine, join us for the book launch of Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming by Abdelrahman ElGendy. In the book, ElGendy begins from that word, huna, here, inspired by the popular protest song "Sawfa Nabqa Huna". Huna emerges from six years of political imprisonment in Egypt and grapples with revolutionary hereness and withness inside a revolution, prison cells, and exile, reckoning with what it means to inhabit a space designed to erase you and find ways to be.
ElGendy will be join in conversation with historian and award-winning translator Hazem Jamjoum. The conversation will span multiple topics and questions, begining with Huna and open outward: toward prison literature, cross-prison solidarity, and the resonances between prison movements in Egypt and Palestine, as well as the ways in which they may refuse easy comparison. What can prisoners teach us when we stop treating them as mere spectacles and begin listening to them as theorists and meaning-makers? Can well-intentioned superhumanisation of political prisoners be as harmful as dehumanisation?