Headfirst Editor's Pick
"A vital reading by multi-award-winning Palestinian poet Batool Abu Akleen from her acclaimed debut collection 48kg. Akleen’s heart-rending body of work chronicles daily brutalities of life in occupied Gaza, shifting between the mundane and the surreal to find “a language for the unspeakable”."
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A event held at The Island on Saturday 13th December. The event starts at 18:00.
*Please note, the date for this event in the printed programme is incorrect. The correct date is Saturday, 13 December.*
Date: Saturday 13th December 2025
Time: 18:00 - 19:15
Venue: The Island Gallery, 1st Floor, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD
Readings in English and Arabic of 48kg, an astonishing debut work by Batool Abu Akleen. With support readings TBC.
“One of the most viscerally affecting collections of poems I have ever read. Devastatingly precise and unforgettable images emerge from every line.” — Max Porter
“The poets of Palestine have become vital archivists. In 48Kg Batool Abu Akleen not only provides brute testimony of the Genocide committed by Israel against her people, but by her inventiveness and surreality, by the barbed humour and bitter irony of her voice, and the tender revelation and humane wisdom of her work, she defiantly gives voice and futurity to Palestinian life. She writes that she waits for death, ‘like a mother expecting her newborn’ telling us ‘I will scream / I will feel his head coming out of my body.’ No one should have to write these incredible, haunting lines, but everyone should read them. This is an extraordinary book of poetry.” — Jack Underwood
In association with Tenement Press and East Bristol Books.
#artspaceevents
Entry requirements: 18+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio
Date: Saturday 13th December 2025
Time: 18:00 - 19:15
Venue: The Island Gallery, 1st Floor, Bridewell Street, BS1 2QD
Readings in English and Arabic of 48kg, an astonishing debut work by Batool Abu Akleen. With support readings TBC.
“One of the most viscerally affecting collections of poems I have ever read. Devastatingly precise and unforgettable images emerge from every line.” — Max Porter
“The poets of Palestine have become vital archivists. In 48Kg Batool Abu Akleen not only provides brute testimony of the Genocide committed by Israel against her people, but by her inventiveness and surreality, by the barbed humour and bitter irony of her voice, and the tender revelation and humane wisdom of her work, she defiantly gives voice and futurity to Palestinian life. She writes that she waits for death, ‘like a mother expecting her newborn’ telling us ‘I will scream / I will feel his head coming out of my body.’ No one should have to write these incredible, haunting lines, but everyone should read them. This is an extraordinary book of poetry.” — Jack Underwood
In association with Tenement Press and East Bristol Books.
#artspaceevents
Entry requirements: 18+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio
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