Fady Joudah’s Meditation on Language and Time Under Genocide

Fady Joudah’s Exhibit G is a multimedia poetry collection that explores Palestinian life under genocide, blending poems, essays, photographs, and drawings. Created collaboratively by Joudah, poets from Gaza, the Gaza Soup Kitchen, and Gazan photographers, the work reflects the Palestinian struggle for survival amid the ongoing US-Israeli genocide, which dates back to the 1948 Nakba. The collection uses the letter “G” as a central motif, representing genocide, Gaza, and concepts like ghurbah (exile) and ghurūb (decline). Unlike a traditional museum exhibit or legal document, Exhibit G captures Gaza’s enduring presence despite attempts to erase it, offering a fragmented yet polyphonic narrative of Palestinian endurance.

Joudah’s work examines how genocide disrupts language, time, and lineage, which are fundamental to human existence. He references the pre-Islamic Arabic poet Labīd, whose ode describes the passage of time and the decay of civilizations, comparing it to the erasure of Palestinian life. Joudah argues that genocide in Gaza has distorted time, making it impossible to measure life in traditional ways. For example, the poem “Truth is Never Finished” highlights the inability to mourn properly when corpses cannot be retrieved, as bombs and snipers prevent access to the dead. The collection also explores how Palestinian identity is fractured by forced displacement and violence, with Joudah noting that he cannot “turn off time” as it flows through Exhibit G.

The collection is a collaborative effort between Joudah, who is based in Houston, Texas, and Palestinian poets and artists in Gaza. The Gaza Soup Kitchen, which provides food during the genocide, and photographers documenting its work are also key contributors. Rawan Hussein, a Gazan poet, is featured prominently, with her poems numbered and signed in a style that inverts traditional Arabic poetic conventions. Her work, such as “Dawn broke on our heads,” reflects the devastation of time and place under Israeli attacks, including the 2021 Unity Intifada and the 2014 “Battle of Withered Grain,” which Israel described as a famine-inducing operation. The collaboration aims to create a new poetics that honors Palestinian life despite global attempts to silence it.

Joudah explores how language itself is weaponized in genocide, particularly through the contrast between Arabic and English. The Arabic letter alif (ا), which opens the alphabet and symbolizes beginnings, is contrasted with the Hebrew aleph (א), which Joudah suggests is used to justify ongoing Nakba. The collection critiques how English, as a dominant global language, often fails to recognize Palestinian suffering, with Joudah stating that English speakers refuse to acknowledge the “material truth” of Palestine’s destruction. For example, the poem “The” is left hanging on the page, symbolizing the incomplete and fragmented nature of Palestinian existence under drone strikes and white noise of genocide. The work also highlights how social media distributes images of Palestinian suffering, such as the death of Shaban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old engineering student, whose death was shared online before he could be buried.