Voices from Palestine and other sites of rupture, held in solidarity, resistance, and care.

Join us for the Elegy Reader in Venice, presented by Ibraaz Publishing. You can sign up here if you’d like to read a poem.

On Thursday 7 May, 5–7PM, a public gathering will take place outside Chiesa di Sant’Antonin. Artists, contributors, and guests will read from the Elegy Reader, activating a communal work of mourning that foregrounds solidarity, resilience, survival, and collective creative expression. Copies of the reader will be freely available at the event.  

This community-driven project expands upon the pressing concerns of Goliath’s Elegy; a work of ritual mourning, addressing conditions of femicide and rape culture in South Africa, and genocide in Namibia and Gaza. Bringing together poetry and texts responding to histories of displacement, colonialism, and genocide, this gathering of poetry highlights what mourning can accomplish as a radical basis for community, forging connections in and across differences. 

The launch of the Elegy Reader in Venice is intended as an insurgent intervention within the Biennale context, asserting voice, presence and poetry against conditions of violence and disregard. As a collective assembly, the Elegy Reader brings together 50 poems, comprising works by the Palestinian poet Heba Abunada, Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad, Haitian poet Danielle Legros Georges, South African writer Maneo Mohale, amongst many others.  

Conceived not as an accompaniment but as an extension of Elegy, the reader opens a shared space for mourning, insisting on grief as a collective and political act. Through language, it holds what cannot be resolved yet must nevertheless be spoken. 

The Elegy Reader is a sister initiative of the Gaza Reader (Volume 1, 2024) organised by Artists Against Apartheid, Bidoun, WAWOG (Writers Against the War on Gaza) and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation.  

Sign up as a reader

Following the opening of Gabrielle Goliath’s long-term performance project Elegy at Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, presented during La Biennale di Venezia from 5 May to 31 July, Ibraaz Publishing invites participants to take part in a collective public reading of the Elegy Reader.

Join in this public gathering of mourning and solidarity by offering your presence and voice for a 1-minute reading. Book a 30-minute reading slot here

How to Participate

Participants are invited to book a 30-minute reading slot and join this collective act of mourning and assembly to read a poem during the booked time slot. You will only be required to read for 1-minute. No prior performance experience is required. Readers may select a text from the Elegy Reader to read aloud during their scheduled time.

What to Expect

• A shared public reading held outdoors

• Read a piece of poetry during the 30-minute participation slot you book

• A welcoming, collective atmosphere of listening and reflection

• Participation alongside artists, contributors, and visitors

• Places are limited — please reserve your reading slot in advance.