Step 1: Donate to Sameer Project here (sugg. donation $40).

Step 2: Register for “Resistance Literature Now!” here.

The late activist-scholar Barbara Harlow’s foundational text, Resistance Literature, first published in 1987, was just republished this year due to popular demand. She opens the text as follows:

"The term ‘resistance' (muqawamah) was first applied in a description of Palestinian literature in 1966 by the Palestinian writer and critic Ghassan Kanafani in his study Literature of Resistance in Occupied Palestine: 1948-1966."

Harlow builds upon Kanafani’s theoretical work by collecting a wide range of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial poetry and prose produced in the 1960s through the early 80s alongside national liberation movements in the Global South.

In this 2-session workshop, we will first read the introductory chapter as well as the one on Resistance Poetry, then the related folio of poems, broadening and deepening our understanding of resistance literature.

We'll discuss the poems within their revolutionary contexts, and consider how we might apply Harlow’s framework to our contemporary moment. No experience with poetry or literary criticism required!

Jaime Shearn Coan is a writer, educator, and organizer living in NYC whose work centers on the role of literature and performance in social movements.