Join us to appreciate the poems by Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi and enjoy the afternoon with tea featuring the Moroccan Tea ceremony by Moroccan Artist Nizar Gartit.
Led by Robin Lampman, a poem called “My Mother’s Language” by Abdellatif Laabi will be read in English, French, and Arabic by our community members. Abedallatif Laabi is Morocco’s most famous poet. He wrote primarily in French but is also famous for his translations of poems by other poets written in Arabic. In the 1970’s Laabi was imprisoned for eight years for “crimes of opinion.” He was freed when there was an international outcry by artists, poets, and human rights advocates. He was the first translator of the Palestinian poet, Mamoud Darwish, from Arabic into French and English. Laabi’s poetry is an inspiration to all humanity and will serve as inspiration for participants to write a poem of their own and to share their thoughts in this beautiful public green space on this summer day in East Harlem.
Rain Day: June 25
Ou
Ou est l’ami
qui t’appelle
juste pour te dire bonjour?
Ou et le pays
qui ne te reclame pas chaque annee
le prix de ta naissance?
Quoi qu’il arrive
je reposerai en la terre
qui m’aura donne asile
- Abedellatif Laabi
Where
Where is the friend
who calls you
just to say hello?
Where is the country
that doesn’t demand from you
the price of your birth?
Whatever happens
I will rest in whatever land
has given me asylum.
About Robin Lampman:
Robin Lampman is a published poet and an educator with 35 years of experience teaching in universities, high schools, and elementary schools. She has a Master’s Degree in Bilingual Education and has taught literature in two languages in the public schools in New Mexico, Texas, and New York as well as at the University of Monterrey in Mexico and the American School of Madrid in Spain. She has also taught English as a Second Language to adults at the University of Texas in Austin and at the El Paso Community College in El Paso. Texas. She produced a volume of poetry by eighth graders in East Harlem which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and published by the Big Read. For the last several years she has been teaching writing classes for The Noble Maritime Collection. She developed and taught an adult class on Poetic Forms and taught classes on the reading and writing of literature in two languages. Robin is currently teaching a class on writing poetry at the Hill Street Community Garden as well as conducting the Shakespeare Reading Group at Art on the Terrace. She is Editor in Chief of Unspoken Word, an online international literary magazine, and she is Director of Poetry and Tea for Tea Arts and Culture.