Comprehending the sufferings of the times’ socio-political wars, emergent Palestinian artists turn to the arts—music, cinema, and poetry—lens to be narrative, culture, and world voice. New artists use their imagination to tell of individual and collective existence, rewriting only histories of Palestinian being and presence.
There are Palestinian young musicians who are merging yesterday’s and today’s music in seeking to produce a hybrid music honoring yesterday and today. They are adding such musical instruments as the oud, which is native, and mixing them with electronic drums and foreign beats in seeking to produce music for human’s large numbers. Lyrics address the fields of struggle, determination, and nationalism and operate mainly with foreign artists in the expectation of acquiring more listeners. They take the path of resistance and identification where artists are given room to speak to listeners geographically and culturally.
The Palestinian cinema is also undergoing overall engagement of new directors, writers, cinematographers, and other groups that are establishing the platform of narration. Their movies and documentaries are all human life in the shadow of political instability. They transition from life to family and normal to displacement and conflict. They are sweeping regional and international film festivals, placing the Palestinian film industry on grand stages where they can relate their stories beyond the continent.
Poetry remains an immediate conduit of voice for Palestinian youth, who are using the form as a discourse of speaking about feeling in terms of experience and common memory. Poetry remains obsessed with themes like identity, lust, and justice, hiding in tropes of the past or appropriating taste from the hybrids of the contemporary spoken-word culture. Open mics, public readings of poetry, and on-line publication are today the norm, facilitating argumentative performance and serving as facilitator of community. Through their readings, these poets are speaking to and for local and global publics, making claims about culture and language continuity and political voice. Collectively, this work is greater than the sum of individual acts. It’s a mass cultural movement that resists simplification to Palestinian-ness. Young Palestinian artists are establishing counter-narratives through the production and distribution of their art that confirm resilience, dignity, and fidelity to peace and self-determination.
They are entering popular cultural discourse for the first time through music, film, and poetry, locating the power of story to be used in resistance against oppression and resistance to change. Their writing is also returning the world of Palestinian life and identity to the fore as a force of individual and collective transformation.
