In late October, I found out about WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance), the three-day March 2024 New Zealand festival. Curious about potentially bringing my craft to that distant land, I was excited to see they were accepting submissions to their Poetry Slam Contest. So I submitted a three-minute video performing one of my poems I’d long ago committed to memory (reading from a page wouldn’t be too impressive).
The short version of the very long story (you can read about it here and here), is that they invited me to attend the festival – providing me with the details of cost, lodging and process.
I was thrilled UNTIL I started to research their stance on Palestine. All quite, so I reached out, indicating my pro-Palestinian perspective was a non-negotiable one. The other thing was, that I needed to ensure taking the really long (& costly) trek from Borikén to New Zealand would be something that did not conflict with my values.
We do not use our stages for political broadcast of any means.
I know this is one of those life lessons where I have zero regret for standing by my convictions. Still, I have residual resentment toward WOMAD NZ for their hypocrisy. On the one hand they boast of being an advocate for cultural diversity and community building – they even use Indigenous Māori greetings & closings (Kia Ora, translated as ‘have life’ or ‘healthy’ / Ngā mihi, meaning ‘congratulations’ or ‘thanks’) in their email communications with me.
Neither I nor my poetry will make it to New Zealand this month — and that’s ok. I’d rather continue to use my voice in support of my Palestinian sisters and brothers than set my values aside to advance my poetry career.
Original story first published on Medium, Jan 1, 2024.
Cover image: Stephen Harlan via Unsplash.
