Three contributors to Gaza Writes Back held an American audience spellbound at the launch event for their U.S.-wide tour in central Philadelphia, April 1st! The three were Refaat Alareer, a staff member at the English Department of IUG, Yousef Aljamal, and Rawan Yaghi, graduates of IUG. The tour started with a talk at Friends Center, the home of the American Friends Service Committee, co-sponsors of the tour along with Just World Books.
The Gaza Writers’ group actually also includes a fourth participant, Sarah Ali. However, even though Sarah has a U.S. visa (and was allowed by Israelis to exit Gaza in order to apply for it in Jerusalem), now that she has it, they won’t let her out of Gaza in order to use it.
Sarah’s participation in the tour events will be represented in many ways, including by the placement of the sign with “Sarah Ali should be here” on it.
The tour lasted 4 weeks as the writers participated in more than 50 events across several US states including Pennsylvania, New York, Washington DC, Georgia, Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
