In conversation with Ibtisam Barakat and Tamam el-Akhal about “The Lilac Girl”

 

Ibtisam Barakat (first from left to right), Tamam el-Akhal (second)

In conversation with the Palestinian-American author, educator, poet and translator Ibtisam Barakat and the emblematic Palestinian painter Tamam el-Akhal on the occasion of the release of the illustrated book The Lilac Girl in Greek.

Inspired by the renowned artist’s life and work, The Lilac Girl is written by Ibtisam Barakat and illustrated by Sinan Hallak.

Ibtisam Barakat: “The healing of others is a healing of ourselves too”

Inspired by the forced expatriation of the emblematic Palestinian painter Tamam el-Akhal from Jaffa due to the Nakba and her yearning for return, The Lilac Girl is an evocative, subtly political illustrated book addressed to children and adults.

When did you first come across her artistic work, when did you first meet her in person and what were your initial impressions of her as a person and an artist?

I first saw the paintings of her brilliant husband Ismail Shammout. I was in awe at his great art and talent, so I began searching about his other works and his life too.

Then I found out that he is married to an artist, Tamam el-Akhal, and began to investigate her work.

I saw that her art is great as well. I had a feeling that the fact that he is male and she is female has played a role in his art gaining more fame.

I met Tamam in person in Jordan upon the release of the Lilac Girl. Before that I spoke with her on the phone to see if she likes the story and feels that it’s true to the spirit of her experience.

Given the fact that you also moved to another country -in your case the USA- when you were young, albeit not in a forced manner, do you share Ms el-Akhal’s grief over the loss/occupation of a homeland and the yearning for return?

In the presence of the genocidal colonialism and the great injustice that is forced upon the Palestinians as a daily reality, all Palestinians move to other countries in a forced manner.

Some can move physically, some only “migrate” inward and gate themselves, some become depressed in the absence of any freedom, some become sick, and some break the cages in innovative ways.

Colonialism is violent and inhumane and that way it also forces innovation in expressing humanity. But to move somehow, actually or creatively, visibly or invisibly, and respond, is a must.

I moved to the US because I did not want to live in a war zone and in a country that targeted my life and my people’s life for destruction on a daily basis.

The Nakba never stopped. It only changed forms and is not often in the media. But if you look at Palestinian lives from year to year, you know the Nakba is going on unstopped for more than 73 years so far.

And the Nakba itself is the continuation of the Holocaust that took place against Jews in Europe.

The players changed, the name changed, the actual attempt of a group to destroy another group to have dominance and a “pure” presence as much as possible continues.

Some Jewish thinkers and activists acknowledge this reality too. I am grateful to them and their integrity. The Holocaust took at least 6 million losses of lives for the Jews before it was stopped.

For us Palestinians the Holocaust has taken so far 73 years of untold number of losses and has not been stopped. It’s an issue pertaining to the global forces that play with entire peoples’ lives.

Humanity has a long road to heal from the low-level consciousness that creates the reality of ongoing injustice for various groups, while others only either benefit from the abuse or just watch it.

Tamam el-Akhal, first oil on canvas

In previous years you have published two volumes in the format of personal memoirs chronicling your childhood and adolescence in Ramallah, Palestine. Why did you choose the format of an illustrated book in The Lilac Girl’s case?

I did not initiate the project myself. In 2019, Tamer Institute for Community Education put out a call for authors to write illustrated books inspired by Palestinian artists. I had not heard of the call because I live in America.

But they sent me a personal invitation. I read the invitation, and responded with a “yes” the very same day. Then I sat with myself for a deep soul search as to how to proceed, and I wrote the The Lilac Girl in one day. I cried from the first word to the last.

I then wrote another book, inspired by another Palestinian artist who specializes ceramics, Vera Tamari.

When all was published, I discovered that the end product that Tamer Institute published, was four books about four Palestinian artists, and two of the books were my books.

One about Tamam, The Lilac Girl, and the other about Vera, The Jar that Became a Galaxy.

Your collaboration with Sinan Hallak on this was of crucial importance. Has it been a joint venture or did you work separately?

Sinan Hallak is a Lebanese illustrator and I am a Palestinian author. Sinan did a great job on the project. I like it that the text is spare and the art is spare too. This has resulted in an elegant book.

We worked separately and the completed story came first. Tamer Institute chose the artist after they got the completed book.

There was a committee that gave comments for adjusting the images and making them meet the Palestinian spirit and expression- for example, adding keys on the ground.

The keys symbolize all the keys Palestinians took with them when they were forced to flee their homes during the Nakba. Many still have their keys with them.

It’s wonderful that an illustrator who is not Palestinian can contribute in this beautiful way. I am thankful to everyone who helped in the production of the The Lilac Girl.

You are the founder of Write Your Life seminars, aimed at encouraging groups and individuals to turn life stories into literature. How do these seminars operate?

Many people dream of writing their life stories but they don’t know how, and doubt that their stories are important.

In the workshop I collaborate with the participants to reclaim the sense of the “unique” value of their voices and lives and that each person is as important as any other. The hierarchy of importance is fake.

Life needs every single atom in it, and humanity needs the expression of every human being always. At Write Your Life, we write as an expression of freedom and ownership of self and of a central place in the human story.

One issue we explore, for example, is how a person feels about their names. It’s surprising how complex a person’s relationship to their first or last name can be.

So, I will ask the readers of this interview here to engage this question:

Take a deep breath. Write your name on a piece of paper and hold your name in your hand. Look at your name for a minute and let it speak to you. What does your name want to say to you? Write that down.

I hope you enjoy this beginning of the Write Your Life workshop.

Have they been an eye-opening, therapeutic experience for their participants?

They are powerful and healing experiences. When a person moves from silence to speaking, from hiding to shining, from despair to hoping, from ignoring self to keen curiosity and love for self and life, the entire world changes.

I just led a workshop for 50 writers and interested people in Indonesia via Zoom platform. The excitement and aliveness could be felt.

People breathe better when they know they are valued, and reconnect with whom they are, and what their life stories are- essential and necessary.

The Lilac Girl is a big Palestinian breakthrough in how we finally can offer the Palestinian human, especially the child, a way to transcend the Nakba by means she or he possess, the great imagination and love of Palestine and our great human spirit.

No Nakba and no colonialism can ever destroy these.

The Lilac Girl was recently released in Greek by Strange Days, an eclectic co-operative publishing house based in Rethymno, Crete. What does its publication in Greek signify to you, and especially by a small, independent publisher?

I am thrilled about this translation by Strange Days. The Greek language is at the root of civilization as the Arabic language is. That these two languages meet in one of my books feels like a co-operative cross-cultural triumph.

I have never been to Crete, but now my words have. I feel great joy and I look forward to the day when I see in person that great part of our glorious planet.

Primarily against the public sentiment, consecutive Greek governments, regardless of political orientation, have upgraded/broadened the political and economic ties between the Greek and the Israeli state in recent years.

How do you assess this choice?

Our world at this time is experiencing a leadership crisis in all of the countries, East, West, South and North. Decisions are made that don’t further the course of humanity on a more just, healing, and wiser path.

That’s alright, though. I have a deep belief that the time will come and humanity as a collective will discover a cure for “injustice” like we are striving to find a cure for Covid-19.

It’s our destiny as a species to learn more empathy as we go. That’s my belief and I work toward cultivating more empathy in my personal and professional worlds. With more empathy, we see that the healing of others is a healing of ourselves too.

According to your sister, as you write in your memoir Balcony on the Moon, Coming of Age in Palestine, “being Palestinian teaches you to be ready for any destiny.”

Looking back on your life and choices, have you ever had second thoughts about relocating to the USA?

I made the right decision to move to the USA, a country where I could heal my voice, and then begin helping in the healing of others through the creative and leading powerful art of speech and the written word.

Had I stayed in Palestine, I would not have accomplished what I have accomplished in America. I consider all of the planet my home and I love America as much as I love Palestine.

Someday, in my imagination, the Palestinians would give other people who need refuge a home in Palestine, and all would have equal rights and would be welcomed.

All nationalities in general, while they are organizing elements, should be of much lesser importance compared to humanity.

This is a one planet that needs to understand that what happens in the East affects directly what happens in the West, and vice versa, like a body. There is a wonderful unity to humanity and the universe at large.

Would you consider returning to Ramallah permanently or do you feel that your voice as a person of Palestinian origin is being heard/respected in the North-American public sphere?

Living in America as an immigrant is a very important human experience.

In America one can see new perspectives and can meet people from many backgrounds, and also can live in a culturally complex society, with all the good and all the problems of that too.

I would be so happy to live in Ramallah and Jerusalem, where I was born, permanently if the situation changed to one where living there is more of a constructive experience.

But wherever I live on the planet, I will aim to do work that helps to increase the freedom for all people, and to inspire towards more empathy and the beauty of courage and creativity.

Tamam el-Akhal: “I have always been drawn to express the Palestinian cause”

Being uprooted from your homeland -and especially when you know that the Israeli occupying forces prohibit you from returning to it as an inhabitant- is extremely painful. What do you most fondly recall from the pre-Nakba period?

I most fondly recall my doll that I made with my own hands as a child and I was attached to it, and wanted to take it with me, but I could not take it with me when we were rushed and forced at gunpoint on April 28, 1948.

Also, I used to make my own kites and fly them. That created trouble when the kite dipped into the hookah of the neighbor and ruined her afternoons.

I loved it when people were happy, like when the Palestinian leader Amin Al Husseini was announced to be coming: there were great festivities, and I loved those festivities.

I enjoyed seeing my people happy in Palestine. And I took that happiness into my paintings later on.

There weren’t many Palestinian -and Arab ones in general- female painters in your days- if at all. How do you interpret this fact? When did you become aware of your special talent?

True. There weren’t many if any female painters that I knew of at that time. I do not know why.

It was my father who discovered my talent and encouraged me initially when I was a child. Then, after the Nakba, a leading Lebanese poet encouraged my school principal to help me go to art school. That started my journey to a lifelong experience of art.

This talent started bearing fruits in Egypt, and was further nurtured when you met your late husband, Ismail Shammout, partner in life and art. Were you complementing each other, while evolving as artists?

Yes. Actually, Ismail’s proposal to me was: “What do you think if we become two wings of one bird that represents Palestine?” Even before we were married, we exhibited together as artists, traveled together and complemented each other in art and life.

Diverse, colorful and vibrant, your art is deeply rooted in the Palestinian heritage and cause. Has the preservation of memory -of people, places, events, moments- always been at the heart of your artistic, political and personal concerns?

I have always been drawn to express the Palestinian cause, life, feelings, experiences, aspirations, and especially the great feelings of joy and triumph in addition to the honest struggles.

I love music and the performing arts too and I transform the performance’s feelings into vibrant paintings. People enjoy this and can relate to these expressions in my paintings.

In the past you were politically affiliated with the PLO. Where do you stand politically at present?

Ismail and I were never affiliated with any political movement that did not represent the entire Palestinian people.

Ismail and I were close friends with the leaders of all political parties, but our cause was not any political party- only Palestine mattered to us, not this or that party. Art cannot be limited under political “umbrellas”.

Thanks to the recent publication of The Lilac Girl in Greek too, your art, life and personality have crossed boundaries and found their way to the Greek readers.

Are you happy about it?

Yes, very much. The Lilac Girl is a great work of art.

I am honored and thrilled that the book, written by the brilliant Palestinian author Ibtisam Barakat and illustrated by the talented Lebanese illustrator Sinan Hallak, is now published and is being translated into other languages around the world.

Have you traveled to Greece?

I have visited Greece three times, and I took my children there too. My family loves Greece. It’s beautiful and inspiring. Ismail and I exhibited artwork in Greece too.

You’re almost 87 but actually look much younger! Where do you owe this youthfulness and vitality? To painting?

I think this is due to the lifestyle that I have lived with all of its details. Also, the fact that I don’t use make up at all, only traditional Palestinian natural olive-oil based soap. It’s the only soap I have ever used. The results are clear!  

Where do you plan to have your work stored and exhibited when you will no longer be physically around?

I have three sons, and nine grandchildren. They will be the custodians of the artwork.

Our home in Palestine, the one I fled from in 1948, has just been turned into an art gallery for Israeli art. I think this is symbolic and I think to myself that it’s a preparation for my artwork to go home again. There will be a gallery ready!

I warmly thank Tamam el-Akhal for engaging with my questions and for personally selecting the photos of her paintings featured in the article, which represent different stages of her artistic evolution.

I also thank Ibtisam Barakat for translating my questions to Tamam el-Akhal into Arabic and then transcribing/translating her responses into English.

The central photo of the article comes from the book launch in Jordan and has been offered by Ibtisam Barakat.

The Lilac Girl is published in Greece by Strange Days.