Rafeef Ziadah ( ar, رفيف زيادة) (born 1979 in

Beirut, Lebanon Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...

) is a Palestinian-Canadian poet and human rights activist who currently lives in London. She released the spoken word album, '' Hadeel.''

Biography

Ziadah was born in

to Palestinian refugee parents and began writing at a young age. She grew up in Tunisia. She attended

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. In 2004, she gave her first public performance after she was motivated by her experience of racism to write a poem. In 2009 Ziadah released her first spoken word album, '' Hadeel''. Ziadah produced ''Hadeel'' with a grant from the

Ontario Arts Council The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by On ...

within their Word of Mouth program in 2008. Ziadah has traveled to countries all over the world to perform and conduct poetry workshops. In 2011, Ziadah performed with Palestinian-American poet, Remi Kanazi in London, UK as part of the tour for his book, ''Poetic Injustice''. In 2012, Ziadah was chosen to represent Palestine at the South Bank Center Poets Olympiad. In the same year, she performed at the World Village Festival in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. During the summer of 2014, Ziadah contributed an opinion piece for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

regarding the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...

and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. On November 14, 2014 Ziadah performed at a benefit concert for Palestine with Palestinian Hip hop group,

DAM A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

-Palestine sponsored by Manchester Palestine Action. Rafeef Ziadah is well known-for her poems "Shades of Anger" and "We teach life, sir". Ziadah's poem "We teach life, sir" became the inspiration for a photography show for display inside the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

. The exhibit was titled, "We Teach Life: The Children of the Occupation."

References

Living people Palestinian poets Palestinian refugees Palestinian activists 1979 births Lebanese people of Palestinian descent {{activist-stub