Samah Sabawi ( ar, سماح السبعاوي; 1967) is a Palestinian playwright, scholar, commentator and poet. Her plays include ''Cries from the Land'' (2003), ''Three Wishes'' (2008), ''Tales of a City by the Sea'' (2014) and ''Them'' (2019). Sabawi has received two Drama Victoria Awards, a Green Room Award, and a place in the
VCE Drama curriculum for the latter two plays. Since 2014, ''Tales of a City by the Sea'' has been staged over 100 times in theaters and schools around the world. ''THEM'' will be remounted in July 2021, with a premiere at the
Arts Centre Melbourne
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central ...
before it tours through Shepparton, Bendigo, and Sydney.
Sabawi's essays and opeds have appeared in
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
,
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
,
Al-Ahram,
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
,
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
, and
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
. She is a frequent guest/co-presenter on 774 ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine's Conversation Hour. She appeared alongside Israeli writer
Ari Shavit
Ari Shavit (; born 16 November 1957) is an Israeli reporter and writer. Shavit was a senior correspondent at the left-of-center Israeli newspaper ''Haaretz'' before he resigned when a pattern of sexual misconduct came to public attention.
A sel ...
,
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
New York and UN Correspondent Nick Bryant, actress
Miriam Margolyes
Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus.
The ...
, and numerous others.
Sabawi is a policy advisor to the Palestinian policy network
Al Shabaka, and a member of the board of directors of the
National Council on Canada-Arab Relations
The National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to building bridges of understanding and cooperation between Canada and the Arab world. NCCAR was established in 1985 by Canadians who believe that Ca ...
. She participated in various public forums on peace building, women in conflict areas, the
Palestinian right of return, as well as various presentations for interfaith groups. Previously, she was a public advocate for Australians for Palestine, Executive Director and Media Spokesperson for the
National Council on Canada-Arab Relations
The National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to building bridges of understanding and cooperation between Canada and the Arab world. NCCAR was established in 1985 by Canadians who believe that Ca ...
(NCCAR), and a Subject Matter Expert on the Middle East's cultural and political landscape for the Canadian Foreign Service Institute's Center for Intercultural Learning.
Writings
Samah Sabawi has co-edited ''Double Exposure'', an anthology of Jewish and Palestinian plays from diaspora for the
Playwrights Canada Press. Her poetry has also been featured in various magazines and books, most recently in an anthology published by
West End Press titled ''With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century''.
In 2016, Novum Publishing released ''I Remember My Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud and Jehan Bseiso''. The anthology aimed to feature "deeply personal and deeply political expressions of three gifted Palestinian poets in exile". The book received
Middle East Monitor
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) is a not-for-profit press monitoring organisation and lobbying group that emerged in mid 2009. MEMO is largely focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but writes about other issues in the Middle East as wel ...
's 2016 Palestine Book Award.
Currency Press
Currency Press is a leading performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works.
H ...
published the script of ''Tales of a City by the Sea'' in 2016, which was then listed on the VCE play list for Drama students years 11 and 12. At the Drama Victoria Awards, it earned the title of ''Best Publication for VCE in 2016''.
Plays
Sabawi wrote and produced the plays ''Cries from the Land'' (2003) and ''Three Wishes'' (2008), both successfully received in Canada.
In November 2014, Sabawi's play ''Tales of a City by the Sea'' (described as a "Palestinian story of love and separation") premiered at
La Mama Theatre in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia and Al Rowwad Theatre, Palestine. With the venue entirely filled for each viewing, the play received highly positive reviews from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Music, The Australian Jewish Democratic Society and Melbourne Arts Fashion.
In 2018, Melbourne Theatre Company premiered a reading of Sabawi's ''Them'', scheduled to premiere at
La Mama Theatre (Melbourne)
La Mama Theatre is a not-for-profit theatre in Carlton, Victoria. It has been nationally and internationally acknowledged as a crucible for cutting edge, contemporary theatre since 1967. La Mama produces work by theatre makers of all backgroun ...
in 2019. Inspired by the psychology of civil conflict, Sabawi describes ''Them'' as a "tragicomedy about love, honour and sacrifice".
Views on the Palestine-Israeli conflict
Sabawi's family left Gaza following Israel's occupation of the Strip in the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
. Although she has lived and worked in many countries around the world she still has "strong ties to her place of birth - ties that have shaped
erwork and identity". As a result of this she is fluent in both
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and has given speeches and interviews in both.
Sabawi has called for better representation of the Palestinian people She has, for example, criticised the Palestinian leadership for signing the Oslo Agreement. In her view, the Oslo Agreements were "designed to fragment the Palestinian people both physically and politically." She has been a consistent participant of
Israeli Apartheid Week and a lifetime advocate for non-violent resistance.
Wheeler Centre Incident
Sabawi was controversially dis-invited from a speaker panel at the
Wheeler Centre
The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pat ...
in Melbourne, due to pressure from opposing speakers. Following a social media storm of protest, the Wheeler Centre reversed their decision. Sabawi joined
Peter Beinart
Peter Alexander Beinart (; born February 28, 1971) is an American liberal columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of ''The New Republic'', he has also written for ''Time'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Revie ...
, Mark Baker, Or Avi-Guy, Maher Mughrabi and Dahlia Scheindlin in the event ''What we talk about when we talk about Israel/Palestine''. The panel was later broadcast on ABC's ''Big Ideas'' and is currently viewable on the Wheeler Centre website.
"Samah Sabawi"
''The Wheeler Centre''. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
Awards and nominations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabawi, Samah
Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
1967 births
Living people
Australian people of Palestinian descent
Palestinian emigrants to Australia
Palestinian emigrants to Canada