In this gathering, Samih Al-Qasim’s poem “End of a Discussion with a Jailer” / خاتمة النقاش مع سجان>> will be a point of departure toward a discussion about the uses of art on the outside of the prison: the space the poem describes as the “large cell” in relation to the “small cell” from which the imprisoned speaker delivers his address. In so far as the poem is speaking to a jailer, it is also speaking to many of us. To what kinds of poetics, acts and devotions does an understanding of oneself as living in “the large cell” give rise?

Safa Khatib will read a selection of poems, translations, and essay excerpts as an introduction, after which all are invited to respond, discuss and / or share from their own work-in-progress.

Safa Khatib is the author of A Dress of Locusts (Bloomsbury 2025). Her poems, essays and interviews recently appear in Mizna, Poetry Review, Wasafiri and the 2026 Forward Book of Poetry. She is working on translations of Fadwa Tuqan and Lucía Sánchez Saornil.