Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

16 reviews

neverlandpages4's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Colonisation, War, Religious bigotry, Racism, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Death, and Police brutality

bellavictoria's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Genocide, Torture, Murder, War, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Racism, and Police brutality

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

A beautiful collection of poetry that covers the Palestinian experience under Israeli occupation. An important read that I think should be required reading. I read this as an ebook so the formatting could be off at times but overall it was a thought provoking read!

“Palestinians are not the only people to suffer at the hands of settler colonialism and Western white terrorism. Yet we cannot afford to stay quiet about what is taking place there. The state of Israel and the justification for its existence are a crimes against all of humanity. The state is the worst of the human spirit manifested into a fully functioning government.”

“Tell our children the word soldier means what it shouldn't that terrorists look nothing like what God on TV says they should.”

“What is a fact in Arabic is debatable in English”

“portrayed my people only in the ways that adhere to ethnocentric civility, robbing them of their agency. It is to ‘women and children’ Palestinians to death—to infantilize Palestinians in hopes of determining that, indeed, they deserve liberation.

This practice of infantilization stems from the ahistorical depictions of Palestinians and Zionists in the media. Ironically, the regime with one of the world's most lethal armies does not require humanization. The world can grieve Israeli loss without qualifiers, despite the disparities in the death toll. In contrast, we must qualify our dead with reminders of their nonviolence, humane professions, and disabilites.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Death, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality and Gun violence

hanhantap's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Religious bigotry, Genocide, and Police brutality

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

crybabybea's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I found the common theme, Rifqa, the author's grandmother who was a symbol of Palestinian resistance since she was forcibly removed from her home during the Nakba, to be incredibly compelling. Because of this common thread, Mohammed El-Kurd's poems are filled with a sense of tenderness even in their most hard-hitting moments. I can tell he put a lot of thought into showing the subjects of his poems as they are; completely, wholly, imperfectly. It made it impossible not to connect with the poems' subjects, and humanized them in a way that I think is missing in a lot of current media. 

I also admired the author's weaving of his experience living under occupation with his experience as a student in Atlanta. The Black liberation and Palestinian liberation movements are so intertwined, and it was interesting to read about that connection from his point of view. 

The 4 star rating is definitely 100% a "it's not you, it's me" situation; these poems are beautiful, impactful, and left me with an ache in my heart, but I am honestly too inexperienced, so many of the author's clever metaphors, wordplay, and references went way over my head. I definitely recommend this collection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Violence, Genocide, War, and Police brutality

robinks's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This was a beautiful homage to Rifqa, the author’s grandmother. I first discovered El-Kurd’s “This Is Why We Dance” through Al-Jazeera English, and a lot of the other poems in this collection left me deeply moved and agitated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, and Genocide

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Police brutality, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Gaslighting, and Sexism

autisticbucky's review

emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Colonisation

Moderate: War, Grief, and Death

Minor: Police brutality

ro_lux's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Islamophobia, Racism, Hate crime, Gun violence, Police brutality, Deportation, and Genocide

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Medical content

readingwithkaitlyn's review

emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Islamophobia, War, Violence, Murder, Death, Hate crime, Colonisation, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Alcohol, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Racism, Animal death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Incest, Miscarriage, and Grief

kelsiepixler's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

I highly recommend reading this with a highlighter and pen handy. Everything about this exceeded my expectations which were pretty high after reading reviews. 

Though the poetry was immersive and thought provoking on its own, the author’s direct references, to both historical events and the works of other artists, added an additional, unexpected layer of complexity. I found myself frequently searching the names, authors, poems, events mentioned and making notes in the margin. There is no read quite like the one that motivates you to fully engage with the text, take notes, explore the references. 

I’ve already ordered 3 copies to give as gifts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Islamophobia, Colonisation, War, Murder, Hate crime, Genocide, Grief, and Child death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Dementia

Minor: Kidnapping, Drug use, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, Trafficking, Abandonment, Police brutality, Confinement, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood