The Great Book Return

“Let us hope that the day will come where birds will be taking over all physical boundaries, and instead of the concrete wall separating Palestine from Israel, it will be birds nesting on its remaining traces that will draw the absent map and remind us of a past that will hopefully never come back.” - Yara Sharif, Architecture of Resistance ‘Fugitive Archives: A spoken future’ by The Great Book Return and Saluhan Collective closes this Saturday at MADA Gallery. A collection of books, images, films and articles on Palestine, Lebanon and Syria sourced from the collections of Monash University. The gallery is transformed into a reading room, celebrating Levantine arts, culture, resistance and resilience, encouraging critical hope and the future of our communities. Whether you want to read up on Syrian resistance, watch Anthony Bourdain in Beirut (BOTH editions !!) or flick through maps of Palestinian villages, there’s something for every nerd to enjoy 💚 MADA Gallery is open 10AM - 5PM today and Friday, and 12 - 5PM on Saturday. 📷 by Christian Capurro

TGBR X SALUHAN X MAJEDFAYAD Part two of ‘Fugitive Archives: A spoken future’ opens this Saturday 18 October at Dukkana, Coburg. Showcasing works by contemporary Arab-Futurist artist Majed Fayad in conversation with the original archive collection of The Great Book Return, this iteration of ‘A spoken future’ moves beyond the institution and examines the role of artist-led, community-based, and independent archives to consider future possibilities of the Arab community. Join Saluhan Collective, The Great Book Return and Majed Fayad from 5PM at Dukkana for a special activation of the exhibition and an evening of community, culture and Jamal the camel. 🐫 RSVP and accessibility info via link in bio. Exhibition open until Saturday 1 November. Free during the day? We’re starting the fun early with ‘Honk! If you archive…’ an art bus tour journeying passengers from RMIT City Campus to MADA Gallery Caulfield and Dukkana Coburg for both iterations of Fugitive Archives: A spoken future. Snacks, prizes, games, music, and chaotic dodgy ethnic energy. Tickets via link in bio. Presented with @nextwave , @cast_RMIT and @cityofmelbourne With love Anna Emina, Celine, Catherine, MJ, Majed, Safa and Fatima xxx

Are you ready to honk?! 📢 🤡 Join us for 𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙠! 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙫𝙚... an art bus tour for artists, archivists, and their allies, co-curated with The Great Book Return (@tgbrarchive ). Crossing both sides of the Birrarung, the ride blends curated snacks and bootleg bus games with exhibitions and curator talks at every stop. The tour begins at RMIT City Campus, continues to MADA Gallery for part 1 of Fugitive Archives: A spoken future, and then to @dukkana.hardingst for the exhibition opening of part 2, featuring artist Majed Fayad (@maf.zhf ) with the option to stay on, or return to RMIT in the CBD. Pack your primary sources and get ready to honk—because the archive is on the move. 📚 This event is presented as part of 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘁! 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘃𝗲, a two-day symposium program of workshops, talks and activations curated by Next Wave (@next_wave ), and RMIT CAST (@cast_rmit ) research group. Supported by City of Melbourne (@cityofmelbourne ). 🚌 When: Sat 18 Oct, 12:30 - 6:00pm Cost: $10 incl transport and snacks / pls contact us if cost is a barrier Where: Starts at RMIT City Campus Access: Please get in touch with our friends at Next Wave to discuss access needs for the event

Can archives tell us about our futures? ✨ We’re opening ‘Fugitive Archives: A spoken future’ tomorrow at MADA Gallery. Co-curated by The Great Book Return and Saluhan Collective, this exhibition showcases materials on Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, borrowed exclusively from the Monash University Library and Special Collections archive. It centres the future possibilities of peoples and cultures who are acknowledged by their proximity to war, displacement and genocide, rather than their lives. We’re very excited about this super special iteration of TGBR and hope you can join us :) 💚 Thursday 9 October, 5 - 7PM, MADA Gallery, Monash University Caulfield Campus. 💚 RSVP and accessibility info via link in bio

We’re back and we’ve subcontracted! ✨𝗧𝗚𝗕𝗥 𝘅 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗵𝗮𝗻 🤝🏼 Join us for the opening of 𝙁𝙪𝙜𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨: 𝘼 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 at MADA Gallery on Thurs 9 Oct, 5 - 7pm. This two-part exhibition co-curated by art collectives, 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗵𝗮𝗻 (@s_a_l_u_h_a_n ) and 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 (@tgbrarchive ) asks: can archives tell us about our futures? The exhibition showcases materials on Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, borrowed exclusively from the Monash University Library and Special Collections archive (@monashada ). It centres the future possibilities of peoples and cultures who are acknowledged by their proximity to war, displacement and genocide, rather than their lives. The gallery is transformed into a reading room featuring books, maps, articles and travel guides, which document the resistance, achievements, culture and daily life of Arab people. There will be food, drinks (non-alc), and another cake! RSVP in our bio. ❤️‍🔥 With love, Emina, Celine, MJ, Catherine xoxo 📕📗📘📙 Where: MADA Gallery, located on the ground floor of Building D at Monash University Caulifled Campus, 900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East. Access via train, tram, bus, or car. Paid parking is available onsite in J carpark or along the adjacent Sir John Monash Drive or Dandenong Road.
 Access: MADA Gallery is step free and wheelchair and pram accessible. The gallery entrance is located on the ground level. Distance from the train station is approx. 450 metres. Exhibition dates: 9 - 25 Oct Images: 1. Design by artist Majed Fayad (@maf.zhf ) 2. Courtesy of Fadwa Tuqan 3. Haifa, archival map scan 4. Cedars of Lebanon, archival map scan 5. Aleppo, archival map scan 6. Image of Celine Saoud and Anna Emina with The Great Book Return 7. Image of Catherine Ortega-Sandow and MJ Flamiano with The Great Book Return

A curated selection of books from The Great Book Return (@tgbrarchive ) will be on display at The Built Environment Book Fair. Expanding upon last year’s Carousel art book fair, this event aims to broaden the fairs scope to embrace a wider range of practices that engage with the Built Environment. Threshold Projects (@thresholdprojects ), in collaboration with OFFICE (@___office ), have curated a diverse group of publishers, graphic designers, architects, landscape architects, musicians and artists to be involved. Contributors are invited to present works that explore, reference, or respond to the spaces we inhabit—both constructed and natural—whether through text, printed matter, books, or small objects. @threefivefivethree 35-53 Emma St Collingwood Opening Times Friday 11th April: 6pm - 9pm Saturday 12th April: 11am - 5pm  Sunday 13th April: 11am - 3pm

49 ‘Utopian Display’ brings together curatorial experiences that have matured over the past 30 years in various geopolitical contexts – from Africa to China, India to Latin America, and the Middle East to the post-Soviet regions. Featuring experimental voices in contemporary curatorial research, more than a dozen authors from different generations look with scepticism at both the effects of globalisation within today’s artistic scene and the latest premises of so-called de-globalisation. Because, despite everything, the current model of art continues to be very similar to that of an institution capable of determining the integration or exclusion of minorities as a majoritarian measure. About the Editor:  Marco Scotini is an Italian curator, writer and art critic based in Milan. He is artistic director of the FM Center for Contemporary Art in Milan. Since 2004, he has been Head of the Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies Department at NABA, Milan. Since 2014 he has been Head of Exhibitions Program at Parco Arte Vivente, Turin. During his career, Scotini has curated more than two hundred solo exhibitions of artists. He has collaborated with art institutions as Documenta, Manifesta, Van Abbemusuem, SALT, Museo Reina Sofia, Castello di Rivoli, Nottingham Contemporary, MIT, Raven Row, Ludwing Múzeum Budapest, MSU Zagreb and Bildmuseet Umeå. He curated the Albanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and three editions of the Prague Biennale, in 2003, 2005, and 2007, among otherbiennales in Europe and Asia.His project, Disobedience Archive, traveled for 10 years in several European countries, in the United States and Mexico. Title: Utopian Display: Geopolitical Curating Editor: Marco Scotini Type: Book  Format: Paperback  Year: 2019  Language: English  Genre: Art, Criticism & Theory Publisher: Quodlibet ISBN: 9788822904157

44 A sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East, for readers of international literary bestsellers including Washington Black, My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other Parties. As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation. About the author:  Susan Abulhawa (@susanabulhawa ) is a Palestinian-American writer and political activist. She is the author of Mornings in Jenin—translated into thirty languages—and The Blue Between Sky and Water. Born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, she moved to the United States as a teenager, graduated in biomedical science, and established a career in medical science. In July 2001, Abulhawa founded Playgrounds for Palestine, a non-governmental children’s organization dedicated to upholding the Right to Play for Palestinian children. She lives in Pennsylvania. Title: Against the Loveless World Author: Susan Abulhawa Type: Book  Format: Paperback  Year: 2019  Language: English  Genre: Political fiction  Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ISBN: 9781526618818

42 A Palestinian American woman wrestles with faith, loss, and identity before coming face-to-face with a school shooter in this searing debut. A uniquely American story told in powerful, evocative prose, The Beauty of Your Face navigates a country growing ever more divided. Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs. One morning, a shooter—radicalized by the online alt-right—attacks the school. As Afaf listens to his terrifying progress, we are swept back through her memories: the bigotry she faced as a child, her mother’s dreams of returning to Palestine, and the devastating disappearance of her older sister that tore her family apart. Still, there is the sweetness of the music from her father’s oud, and the hope and community Afaf finally finds in Islam. The Beauty of Your Face is a profound and poignant exploration of one woman’s life in a nation at odds with its ideals. About The Author:  The daughter of immigrants, Sahar Mustafah (@saharmustafahwriter ) explores her Palestinian heritage in her writing. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Columbia College where she was a Follett Graduate Scholar. Mustafah is a Willow Books Grand Prize Winner for Code of The West, was named one of the 25 Writers to Watch by The Guild Literary Complex of Chicago, and is a member of Voices Protest and Radius of Arab American Writers. Her debut novel, The Beauty of Your Face, was named a The New York Times Book Review Notable Books of 2020 and a Finalist for the 2021 Palestine Book Award. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Award and chosen for Los Angeles Times “United We Read.” Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago. Title: The Beauty of Your Face Author: Sahar Mustafah (@saharmustafahwriter ) Type: Book  Format: Paperback  Year: 2020  Language: English  Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Islam Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (@w.w.norton ) ISBN: 9781324003380

41 In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi’s Libya, and Assad’s Syria - but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents: his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover About The Author: Riad Sattouf is a bestselling cartoonist and filmmaker who grew up in Syria and Libya and now lives in Paris. He is known for his sharp observations of society, and youth culture in particular. His comics and films chronicle the lives of everyday heroes, including himself, often through a sociological lens. Title: The Arab of the Future Volume 1: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 - A Graphic Memoir  Author: Riad Sattouf Type:  Format: Paperback  Year: 2016  Language: English  Translator: Sam Taylor Genre:  Publisher: John Murray ISBN: 9781473638112

40 Samed means 'the steadfast' or 'the perserving' and is a name given to those who had been living under Israeli occupation by any means available. This book is a selection of stories and journal entries written by Raja Shehadeh in 1980, two years after the 1978 Baghdad Conference. The book describes the daily lives of Palestinians living under Israeli rule and depicts the tactics the Israeli government uses  to force Palestinians out of their country. About The Author:  Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer. He co-founded the award-winning Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in 1979. In 2008, he won the Orwell Prize, a British award for political writing, for his book Palestinian Walks. We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2022, he was named an International Writer of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Ramallah, Palestine. Title: Samed: Journal of a West Bank Palestinian Author: Raja Shehadeh Type: Book  Format: Paperback  Year: 1984 Language: English  Genre:  Publisher: Adama Books ISBN: 9780915361021

39 Each day after school, Mohammed El-Kurd’s grandmother welcomed him at the door of his home with a bouquet of jasmine. Her name was Rifqa-she was older than Israel itself and an icon of Palestinian resilience. With razor-sharp wit and glistening moral clarity, El-Kurd lays bare the brutality of Israeli settler colonialism. His poems trace Rifqa’s exile from Haifa to his family’s current dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, exposing the cyclical and relentless horror of the Nakba. El-Kurd’s debut collection definitively shows that the Palestinian struggle is a revolution, until victory. About the author:  Mohammed el-Kurd (@mohammedelkurd ) is an award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem in Palestine. He is the author of Rifqa. el-Kurd earned an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and a BFA from the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). In 2021, along with his twin sister, Muna el-Kurd, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. The siblings are founders of the #SaveSheikhJarrah grassroots campaign, a movement created in opposition to settler colonialism intended to protect Palestinian families who are facing imminent forced eviction from their homes. Title: Rifqa  Author: Mohammed el-Kurd (@mohammedelkurd ) Type: Book Format: Softcover  Year: 2021  Language: English  Genre: Poetry, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Memoir Publisher: Haymarket Books (@haymarketbooks ) ISBN: English 9781642595864 Kindly loaned from There is No Such Thing As Fiction collection.