Palestine: The Cultural Heart of the Region | Ahmed Masoud

Video Description

Ahmed Masoud, Palestinian writer and director, joins Palestinian Deep Dive’s Ahmed Alnaouq to discuss his creative process, the history of Palestinian literature and culture, witnessing a genocide as a writer and the envisioning a liberated Gaza. Support independent, Palestinian-led media from as little as £1 per month: https://www.palestinedeepdive.com/p/support Ahmed Masoud is a writer and director who grew up in the Gaza Strip and moved to London in 2002. His debut novel ‘Vanished: The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda’ won the Muslim Writers Awards. His theatre credits include ‘The Shroud Maker’, ‘Camouflage’, ‘Walaa’, ‘Loyalty’, ‘Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea’ and ‘Escape from Gaza’. He is the founder of Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre, for whom he has written and directed several productions for the London stage, and subsequent European tours. Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers 00:00 - Intro 01:40 - Writing The Shroud Maker 09:20 - Why do you write in English? 12:40 - Why is so much of recent Palestinian literature in English? 15:40 - Palestine as a centre of culture in the region 20:52 - Palestinian literature as resistance literature 23:39 - How did you become a poet? 27:00 - Recitation of ’To Khalid’ 29:06 - How was it for you as a writer to witness the genocide? 40:00 - The Gaza that we know is lost 44:20 - Your play about Gaza hosting the Olympics 47:10 - Your story about Palestine post-liberation 49:44 - One thing you want your audience to know about Gaza 53:12 - What is the role of artists after this genocide? 57:10 - Recitation of ‘To Gaza With Hope’ 58:10 - Outro