Episode notes
“I think that it's almost like in some ways the specificity of Palestine also becomes kind of a universality, where you can stay in this specific example because there is something about this experience that makes it specific, right? It's happening because it's been sanctioned to happen in this way. Right? Because you can't slaughter tens of thousands of people without consequence unless you have made those people less than people. Unless there has been a very effective project of dehumanization that's been carried out against the people that are being killed.
I think, in some ways, this memoir was a project of sifting through and excavating the darkest hours, both for me and for the lineage and ancestry that I came from. I think the darkest hours were experienced by so many people I come from who have had to leave places they didn't want t ...
Keywords
Hala Alyan, Palestine, Palestinian, Palestinian-American, Israel, genocide, Nakba, motherhood, surrogacy, parenting, Memory, History, ethnic cleansing, Culture, Middle East, Poetry, Identity, Heritage, Family, Stories, Resilience, Art, Trauma, HealinHala