A Handshake in the Dark

Michael Nyman's new work sets texts written by the Iraqi poet Jamal Juma, conscripted to the Iraqi army during the first Gulf War. The poems was series of imaginary letters to his younger brother, a conscript captured by the Americans and whose whereabouts were long unknown. The poetry graphically describes the pain and loss felt before the brother’s eventual release

The choral work was commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra on 8 March 2007 at the Barbican Hall, London, with John Storgards as conductor.

Michael Nyman and Jamal Jumá in the Barbican Hall, London

Jamal Jumá participated in the Pugwash Workshop on the middle East:

The 11th Pugwash Workshop on the Middle East: Prospects for the Peace Process was held in Amman from 4-7th March, 2004 in co-operation with the Amman Center for Peace and Development (ACPD).

The workshop had three broad issues on its agenda: the situation in Iraq, the Geneva Accord and the proposal for a Middle Eastern Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Pugwash Meeting no. 293
11th Pugwash Workshop on the Middle East:
Prospects for the Peace Process

4-7 March 2004, Amman, Jordan
Workshop Report | Papers | Agenda

Søvngængerens Erindringer i Danmarks Radio:     Download og lyt

Nye digter af den herboende irakiske digter Jamal Jumá, oversat til dansk af Ulla Prien i samarbejde med forfatteren.

Karsten Pharao præsenterer den herboende irakiske digter Jamal Jumá og hans digtsamling "Søvngængerens erindringer". Digtene læses af Hans Holten Hansen. Onsdag den 7. oktober 1998, Kl. 22:00

Absolut arabisk:

Arabiske digte på dansk er en sjældenhed, men i næste måned kommer samlingen Søvngængerens Erindringer af den irakiske digter Jamal Jumá, som har boet i Danmark siden 1983. Jumá har udgivet otte digtsamlinger på arabisk, og han debuterede i Danmark i 1990 med Bogens Bog. Ud over at skrive egne digte har han redigeret tre erotiske håndskrifter for Det Kgl. Bibliotek.

19. august 1998

One project of the Oded Halahmy Foundation was support for the poem Letters to my Brother by Jamal Jumá, written after the first Gulf War in 1991 and translated by Salaam Yousif with Emily Howard in the book Iraqi Poetry Today:

Farewell, children sheltered in al-Amiriyya
Your parents will come to see you

in the morning
To see nothing but your white teeth
Glittering in your roasted bodies
Like diamonds in the coal mine
Of the New World Order.

The blood shed by generations of Iraqis, from the times of earlier colonial rule through dictatorship to the present, stains many of the pages. The issues that flow from the Middle East’s deep well of bitterness may seem impossible to resolve. But while we hope, Halahmy is keen to remind us that it is better to exchange words and images than bullets and bombs.

This essay is excerpted from the catalogue for Oded Halahmy’s exhibition this spring at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery at 137 Greene Street in New York City.

Reception:

"Et håndtryk i mørket" udkommer den 24. oktober 1995.

Bogen er resultat af en invitation af Dansk Flygtningehjælp og Redaktion Brøndum til flygtning og indvandrer i Danmark. Vi opfordrede denne befolkningsgruppe til at deltage i en litterær konkurrence, og ud af et overvældende stort materiale fald valget blandt andet på overstående titel.

PÅ UDGIVELSESDAGEN DEN 24. OCTOBER KL.17.15 AFHOLDES DER RECEPTION HOS DANSK FLYGTNINGHJÆLP, BORGERGADE 10, 5. SAL.

Ved receptionen vil bogen, som blev udvalgt, blive præsenteret, hvor forfatteren vil være til stedet, og hvor skuespilleren Annika Hoydal vil præsentere uddrag af digtsamlingen.

Iselin C. Hermann , Redaktion Brøndum