Praise for Poetic Injustice
In Poetic Injustice, Remi Kanazi lines up his word soldiers and marches into the battle of identity, occupation, loss and exile. Stripping the spin and gloss from policies and politics, Kanazi volleys truths from his own life as a Palestinian-American and as a witness to the oppression and occupations, state terrorism and racism. A poet with immense power and bravery, he underlines each phrase, word and line with devotion.
Elmaz Abinader, Author, poet, and PEN Award winner
“Back from Gaza, Remi Kanazi's poems make tears come to my eyes. Poetry more than any other means communicates what is deepest in man, what gives us hope beyond crime and despair. Auden says : “Follow, poet, follow right/To the bottom of the night/With your unconstraining voice/Still persuade us to rejoice.”
Stéphane Hessel, French ambassador, former French resistance fighter, and participant in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“Remi Kanazi's poetry, full of defiance and longing, allows us to feel the power and pain of Palestine's struggle.”
John Pilger, Award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker
Some poetry is meant to make you sit in quiet contemplation. Not so with Remi Kanazi's. Read his words out loud for yourself and your friends. Let their compassionate anger, their intricate dance of ideas, their unflinching witness, wash over you, dance with you, pick you up, and spur you to action.
Ali Abunimah, Co-founder of Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
You want to hear a voice which refuses to be silenced, and only such voices carry the deep truth about what's happening these days, about what's happening in Gaza or Iraq or East Jerusalem? OK. If you do, listen to Remi Kanazi and the lucidity of his anger.
John Berger, novelist, painter, art historian, and Booker Prize winner
Repression creates resistance. It also generates beautiful artistic works, which become a cultural weapon in the struggle for the realisation of dreams.This book of poems is a shining example of tomorrow’s Palestine.
Ronnie Kasrils, African National Congress activist and former South African government minister
With Poetic Injustice, Remi Kanazi has burst onto the scene with breathtakingly honest prose that shakes the reader's preconceived notions of the Middle East and pokes holes into the conventional wisdom that far too many people refuse to question. Run out and get this collection today—it will shake you up in a good way.
Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman and Green Party nominee for president
It is through art not the news that we feel and begin to understand the long night of suffering and humiliation endured by the Palestinians. There is more truth, and perhaps finally more news, in Remi Kanazi's poems than the pages of your daily newspaper or the sterile reports flashed across your screens.
Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winner and Nation Institute senior fellow
