Text and Textile: On Palestinian Poetry, Tatreez, and Projects of Solidarity

• In Event: Palestine Solidarity and Resistances to Empire: Diasporic Cultural Production as Decolonial Praxis

Abstract

The 2024 Year in Poetry Subscription Service from the Seattle-based Open Books presented a powerful intervention in contemporary literary curation by centering the works of Palestinian poets across diverse poetic traditions. Curated by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, each selected book was accompanied by a tatreez bookmark, designed by Hala Saleh. Tatreez is a form of traditional Palestinian embroidery that encodes history, resistance, and identity through intricate motifs. This paper examines the subscription series as a site of cultural production that bridges literary and material culture, foregrounding tatreez as a mode of storytelling that parallels the themes, aesthetics, and political commitments of the curated poetic works. Drawing from cultural studies, decolonial literary movements, and art-based research, this paper looks at how the interplay between text and textile resists settler colonial erasure through both literary and visual poetics. By situating this initiative within broader discussions of cultural preservation, artistic solidarity, and diasporic identity-making, I explore how this project not only highlights Palestinian voices but also engages in a transhistorical conversation on resistance, memory, and artistic expression.

Author

• Julie Feng, University of Washington Seattle