Honoring Doha Kahlout

The event is organized to honor Doha Kahlout, a Palestinian poet and educator. Selected as a 2024-2025 Displaced Artist in residence at Reid Hall, Doha is currently stranded in Deir el Balah, in the middle of the Gaza strip, unable to join us in Paris.

In addition to contributions from Doha, several artists, including the writer Karim Kattan and the filmmaker Lina Soualem, will share their work and stories of displacement and resilience.

Doha Kahlout is a Palestinian poet and teacher of Arabic. She graduated from Al-Azhar University with a BA in Arabic Language and Media Studies. In 2018, Kahlout published her first collection of poetry, Ashbah (“Similarities”), with Dar Tarik Publishing House. She has also contributed to publications of the Qattan Foundation and Dar Tibaq Publishing House. “I am passionate about writing and about experimenting with writing; about reading all forms of literature; and about both participating in special workshops on writing and teaching young people, so that, together, we can reach the secret power of the word and what it does to us.”

Karim Kattan is a writer. He holds a doctoral degree in comparative literature from Paris Nanterre University. In French, his books include a collection of short stories, Préliminaires pour un verger futur (2017), and a novel, Le Palais des deux collines (2021), which were both published by the Tunis-based Éditions Elyzad. Le Palais des deux collines was awarded the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie in 2021 and was shortlisted for many other literary awards. In English, his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Maine Review, +972 Magazine, Translunar Travelers Lounge, The Funambulist, Words Without Borders, The Baffler, and more. His writing was featured in various art spaces, exhibitions, and biennales, including the MMAG Foundation in Amman, Bétonsalon in Paris, B7L9 in Tunis, Arquetopia in Puebla, Art Kulte in Rabat, the Berlinale Forum in Berlin, Frac des Pays de la Loire in Carquefou, and the 58th Venice Biennale.

Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, born and based in Paris. After studying history and political science at the Sorbonne, Lina worked as a programmer for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires. Lina’s debut feature documentary Their Algeria premiered in the Visions du Réel International Film Festival in 2020. Their Algeria received more than a dozen awards, such as the First Film award in CINEMED, the Best Arab Documentary award in El Gouna Film Festival, and the Best Documentary Award at the Cinemania Film Festival in 2021. Her second feature length documentary, Bye Bye Tiberias premiered in 2023 at The 80th Venice International Film Festival, then got selected at TIFF, BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, IDFA, DOC NYC, RIDM, Palm Springs, among others. The film received several awards such as the Best Documentary Award at the BFI and the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival. Bye Bye Tiberias was chosen to represent Palestine at the Oscars 2024 and was nominated as Best Documentary at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

More information coming soon.

Co-organized by the Columbia Global Paris Center and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Displaced Artists Initiative is designed to support artists who have had to leave their countries of origin due to extreme circumstances (war, natural disaster, political oppression). We also acknowledge the generous support of the EHA Foundation.