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The song my parents sing “shuf al-zaman ya yuma sayignee ba’eed khalas” catalogues history.
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To achieve sacredness, I write poems about history.
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Abstract dimension of the Khartoum School is a matrix of the social primitive imagery.
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An untitled composition map’s Africa’s necessary history.
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I swallowed two other languages and gutted my throat of any accent.
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I don’t bother to learn, then come home to history.
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Sudan, I hardly recognize them and their vision in frankincense smoke.
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Faith and spirituality lost in transparent history.
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Israa, a chronological night journey, disbanded in self-exile about their hyphenated bodies.
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They say the world is subject to change,
but we are still imprisoned in history.
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Digital poem by: Israa Abbas
Original poems written by: Dalia Elhassan – The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan (1945–Present) and FINAL PORTRAIT OF THE SUDANESE
Researcher’s method: After experimenting around, I decided to stick to the ghazal form using a (hidden) data table. I used audio of the computer reading this poem out loud to bring in a “new” way of reading poetry and to incorporate sound digitally. The computer is the “instrument” to the poem like a song. To take a traditional form and add modern information that is repeated history, plays with the concept of repetition, hence the word “history” being used to repeat. I chose to do five couplets to represent the five Sudanese artists who were recently wrongfully arrested and imprisoned, then later released. Each couplet has its own identity. The reason why I chose to incorporate these two specific powerful poems by Dalia is that I wanted to combine being Sudanese (and American) and an artist in one. I know that combining the words used will bring the digital poem more to life by digitally expressing the importance of freedom of expression in the Sudanese community in Sudan and across the globe.