Georgetown University hosts an evening of Arabic poetry

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) organized an Arabic Poetry evening with Syrian poet Marwan Ali and Egyptian poet Mohamed Abu Zaid, on Tuesday April 7. The evening event was in celebration of GU-Q’s ten year anniversary in Education City, and marks the third installment of a recently launched series of cultural performances by the university’s Arabic Language Studies Program.

Professor Abbas Al-Tonsi, GU-Q professor and Head of the Arabic Language Studies Program, which organized the event, said that shedding light on today’s Arab writers is needed in order to revive Arabic cultural heritage. “Both poets are distinguished by their talents in expressing their feelings and thoughts into beautifully written modern poems. We are able to use their writings as an example of the contemporary Arabic style in writing poems and this reflects an evolution in the Arabic literature remaining attractive,” commented Al-Tonsi.

The evening performance included alternate presentations of collections of poems by the two poets, starting with Mohamed Abu Zaid who read a number of his poems on life, love and feelings while Marwan Ali dedicated most of his readings to Syria.

Marwan Ali is the writer of two collections of Arabic poetry and several poems in different Arab magazines and newspapers. Born in Syria in 1968, Ali left his country for Holland in 1996 and now spends his time between Holland and Germany.

Mohamed Abu Zaid is an author of 6 collections of Arabic poetry with one collection translated into French, in addition to one novel and one poetry collection for children. In 2003 Abu Zaid won the Yehya Haqi Novel Award in Egypt and in 2005 he received the Soad Al Sabh Poetry Award in Kuwait.