Constellations Series: Crowdedness
Constellations is a series of responses to Mosaic’s virtual production of Dalia Taha’s KEFFIYEH/MADE IN CHINA, curated by Fargo Tbakhi. We invited Palestinian artists, writers, and thinkers to contribute pieces which are in conversation with Taha’s play. Some pieces will directly respond to the episodes; some will merely take them as a point of departure. All of them will be thoughtful and beautiful articulations of Palestinian artmaking, thought, and expression. Our hope is that this series can expand on and strengthen Mosaic’s commitment to Palestinian culture-workers, creating a constellation of artistic expression which mirrors and honors the loose, non-linear structure of KEFFIYEH/MADE IN CHINA.
Today, Palestinian american poet George Abraham responds to our episode, "Crowdedness." Through an experimental performative form, they write about the consumptive american gaze and subverts popular representations of the checkpoint in narratives about Palestinians.
Ahlan wa sahlan—welcome. Thank you for being here.
Stage Directions for a Representation in which Eve and Adam travel through their first checkpoint
Content Warning: This piece references sex, as well as colonialist violence.
& though it is their first checkpoint, it occupies a familiar space in both of their bodies.
If, in the audience, GAZER wonders “what checkpoint?” then they are either a soldier or are the checkpoint itself. There are no other soldiers except the soldiers in the mind. The checkpoint smells of rust so heavy a metal taste occupies everyone’s mouths. Empty, the checkpoint is pre- or post- expulsion – this depends on the eye of GAZER. The checkpoint is in Ramallah, or it’s in Khalil, or it’s in Al Quds, or it’s in or, in a present where “today” means “occupied.”
the right curtain is a RIVER, and the left, a SEA. يعني
Enter EVE, at age 6, from the RIVER, carrying a large raggedy-Ann doll wearing a “HI MY NAME IS ______” sticker at its center.
EVE:
(humming a song she doesn’t know the lyrics for, pulls out a protest-sign sharpie and writes ADAM on the sticker at the doll’s center)
ADAM:
(smiling)
EVE:
(waiting in line, hugging ADAM, then crouching onto the ground and using ADAM as a pillow, and eventually standing up dragging ADAM on the floor behind her as she proceeds through the line, humming all the while)
ADAM:
(smiling, gazing onwards)
EVE:
(stepping up to the checkpoint, the song becomes a flutter in her chest, as her eyes affix on the machine gun of the soldier, in her imagination)
EVE remains there, petrified in her stance, until GAZER begins to feel bored at the sight of her terror. GAZER shifts in his seat uncomfortably. GAZER crosses his legs, then eventually, his arms. GAZER looks around though he is the only person in the audience. GAZER contemplates leaving, and maybe he does for a good while, but he always returns. Even if a whole lifetime has passed.
At the first yawn of GAZER, EVE exits towards the SEA, leaving ADAM center stage.
As if pulled by invisible strings, or some other God in heaven, ADAM rises. 20 years pass in the rising.
Enter EVE, age 26, from the SEA. With bits of barnacle and seaweed entangled in her hair, she is still soaking as she walks over to ADAM, who is by now, fully upright. There’s a hole at ADAM’s center. The hole is a missing tooth and it isn’t.
EVE:
(hesitating, she walks up to him, touches his chest, minding the hole at his center)
ADAM:
(smiling, blushing)
EVE:
(suspended, she)
In the audience, GAZER is aroused. The invisible hands of the soldiers in his mind begin to undress ADAM, unbuckling his overall clips one by one. They fall.
ADAM:
(smiling)
EVE:
(folds into ADAM like a prayer, falls into the hole at his center)
GAZER begins to pleasure himself.
The SEA begins to approach ADAM, covering a quarter of the stage.
Forgive me. There’s a boy missing from this scene, though it’s likely not the boy GAZER is thinking of as he finishes too soon. The floor of the auditorium is a disappointed lover.
After finishing, GAZER begins to think the narrative is unreliable. Because the narrative is Palestinian, GAZER doesn’t even feign surprise. GAZER lies down on the stain in the floor like the good little gazer he is.
Beneath the floor, a boy trying to crawl his way out of the earth. The boy is a construction worker just trying to get to work on time, or a farmer taking fresh بندورة to the city, or is simply a boy, tired of the wall that cut between him and his loved ones – all of them – and who wouldn’t blame any of them, presumably from another line from another checkpoint from another familiar, for searching for elsewhere?
The scratching amplifies. GAZER shrinks & shrinks, becomes the stain on a disappointed lover. One by one, the missing boys crawl out of ADAM’s center.
ADAM:
(smiling)
The CONSTRUCTION WORKER breathes, praises God, & runs directly into the sea.
The FARMER kisses ADAM’s feet and the ground beneath him and starts digging at the bank of the RIVER. A lifetime passes.
The third BOY walks into the audience, cleaning up the stain that is GAZER, and leaves through the rear, searching.
None of them are phased by the checkpoint because there are no soldiers in any of their minds.
Silence.
From the silence, يعني, a song, echoing from ADAM’s center.
ADAM:
(reaches down, smiling, touches the country-sized gap in his ribcage and makes eye contact with the empty audience)
RIVER meets SEA.
END SCENE.
Additional Threads:
At the end of each Constellations entry, we’ll ask the responding artist to share Palestinian organizations, artists, or pieces they think we should know. Here are George’s picks.
Mohammed El-Kurd's RIFQA
Mizna's Experimental Issue Submission Call
Fady Joudah's Poems from Palestine series with The Baffler
The Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI)
George Abraham (they/he) is a Palestinian american poet from Jacksonville, FL. Their debut collection Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020) won the Big Other Book Award, and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He is a board member for the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI), a recipient of fellowships from Kundiman and The Boston Foundation, and winner of the 2017 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational's Best Poet title. Abraham currently teaches at Emerson College, and will be a Litowitz MFA+MA Candidate at Northwestern University in the fall.