Water to Water: Gaza Renga Book Talk
Wed, Apr 22
|Connexion
Join author Deema K. Shehabi and writer Key K. Bird, as they discuss their poetry collaboration in the call-and-response form of Renga, Water to Water.
Time & Location
Apr 22, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Connexion, 149 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02145, USA
About the Event
Join us, JVP Boston, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Somerville for Palestine on Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00pm for a conversation with authors Deema K. Shehabi & writer Key K. Bird, as they discuss the poetry collaboration, Water to Water, in the call-and-response form of Renga.
In 2009, prompted by the Israeli siege of Gaza, poets Marilyn Hacker and Deema Shehabi started a correspondence. It took the form of responding to each other's poems. They resumed their poetic dialogue by email after Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Their project involved an alternate call and response between them in the tradition of the Japanese renga form, each poet picking up a word, phrase, or image from the poem preceding. The result is a fascinating poetic conversation. The two poetic voices are beautifully meshed together, so that it actually reads as one long poem.
The poetry is very…