Mohammed Moussa

Me as a poet, I built Gaza Poets Society as a window to know other poets.

I started Gaza Guy podcast to connect with other poets.

So there has been a hidden urge inside of us as we grow up to learn about the other, to meet the other and to know the other.

And it has been infused by this isolation because most of the time, as a Gazan, you feel alone.

I mean, you feel isolated from who you are, from being Palestinian also.

Absolutely.

I started working as a journalist since I was a student of English literature and it was a really interesting journey to translate.

to English journalists on the ground and to write human interest stories from a very young age.

And that was in my early years as a student also.

And I continued to work as a journalist because of the times we live in as Gazans.

You live war after war and you speak English and this could be a way to earn a living and also express yourself

by writing stories, by working as a translator.

But if you remember, you mentioned Gaza Poets Society.

Gaza Poets Society was founded in 2018 and it is the first spoken word community in Gaza.

And I was looking for space to share poetry in English and in Arabic in Gaza.

And I did not find that place anywhere else because most of the communities in Gaza share poetry in Arabic.

This was interesting, but not my only passion.

I wanted to do a spoken word community in Gaza, share poetry in English and in Arabic because I was very passionate about writing poetry in English and reading poetry in English and in Arabic.

and the translation of poetry itself also.

And I decided to create that space in 2018 and we managed to be, you know, a very well-known poetry community in Gaza and one of its kind, you know, spoken word community.