Join us for an evening of poetry and readings to raise money for vital mutual aid efforts in Gaza. As the zionist occupation - backed by the US, Britain and their allies - announces plans to openly ethnically cleanse and seize Gaza City, while forced starvation of Palestinians across Gaza rages on, we ask you to please donate what you can to provide food, water and essential supplies. These donations can save lives.

This event is organised by Books Against Borders, with collaboration from the White Kite Collective, Haymarket Books, and the long list of authors, poets and performers* who have contributed to this fundraiser. See below for the full lineup and speaker bios.

We are acutely aware that raising funds is not enough to stop this genocide, and as always encourage you to participate in any and all actions available to you to disrupt the system that has allowed us to get to where we are. But we are also aware of the material difference that these funds can make, and we ask you to please donate what you can in this moment to help us fight against the realities of weaponised starvation.

The title of this event comes from the poem 'When Silence Starves' by Gazan poet Ruba al-Faleet, a member of the Ga`zan Poets Society. You can support the group's work by purchasing digital poetry collections here.

*We plan on holding more of these events going forward - if you are an artist, performer or author who would like to contribute, or you have a fundraiser you would like us to promote or include, please get in touch at [email protected]

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About the fundraisers:

All funds raised will go to urgent fundraisers in Gaza. Half of ticket sales will go to Bridge of Solidarity, an anti-capitalist mutual aid organisation set up by Yazan, a young Gazan poet, challenging the genocide through mutual aid and the distribution of food, water, and funds. A quarter each of ticket sales will also go to fundraisers for friends in Gaza who are dependent on this money to support their families in the face of starvation, including our friends Iman and Raed. We will also be amplifying other projects and fundraisers here and throughout the event.

Bridge of Solidarity is an anti-capitalist mutual aid organization founded in Gaza by Yazan, in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, focused on the most marginalized in Gaza most at risk of dying: people without phones, English skills, social media, wealthy relatives, outside support, and living relatives. You can donate directly to this fundraiser here.

Iman and her family, from her young niece and nephew to her elderly parents, have been displaced multiple times and had their homes and neighbourhood destroyed. We are raising money to support them to access basic needs and supplies in the face of starvation and serious health problems, and to raise funds for her and others in her family to evacuate when it is safe to do so. You can support Iman and her family directly here.

Raed and his family have narrowly survived multiple horrific attacks, including the Al-Ma’madani massacre and strikes that have taken the lives of relatives. Their home was destroyed and they have lost everything. This fundraiser is to support them access basic supplies, with food and other necessities at extreme prices and difficult to access. You can support Raed and his family directly here.

We would also like to direct people to Shadows, an independent, non-profit artistic collective based in Gaza, established in 2020, and their ongoing campaign to develop a permanent children's performing arts club in Gaza. Please donate what you can to support this important work to foster expression, psychosocial support, and cultural resistance amongst communities in the Gaza strip.

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About the speakers:

Kamila Shamsie is the author of eight novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. Her novels include Home Fire (2018) which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, Burnt Shadows which won the Premio Boccaccio in Italy, and A God in Every Stone which won the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

lisa minerva luxx is a poet, playwright, essayist and long-time grassroots organiser of British Syrian heritage. Their poetry, essays and fiction have been published internationally including by Poetry Review, Magma, New England Review, BBC Radio 4 and their short film ‘Lesbian.’ was produced by Channel 4. Their written work includes the poetry collection, Fetch Your Mother’s Heart (2021), multiple plays, and the forthcoming short story collection Sun Son (Comma Press, 2025).

Dr. Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and Associate Lecturer based in the Design School at University Arts London: London College of Communication. Her work focuses on the utility of the political imagination in the textual and visual cultures of radical social movements, examining the role cultural production plays in materialist resistance and collective conceptualisations of futurity. She is author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power (Pluto Press, 2020), Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Hajar Press, 2021), the forthcoming Against Literature (2026) and a member of 'bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective. She occasionally curates and is a member of the organising team at the Feminist Library based in Peckham.

Rachel Spence is a poet and arts writer based in the UK and Italy. Her latest poetry is Daughter of the Sun (The Emma Press, 2025). Her non-fiction book Battle for the Museum (Hurst 2024) explores the relationship between art, power and money including the censorship and cancellation of pro-Palestinian expression in the western culture sector from October 2023 onwards. Of Jewish and Christian heritage, she believes in a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a poet, writer, playwright and educator whose work confronts racism, empire and Islamophobia, while imagining liberatory futures rooted in sacred revelation. She is the author of Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia (Pluto Press, 2022) and Seeing for Ourselves and even stranger possibilities (Hajar Press, 2023). Her debut poetry collection, Postcolonial Banter (2019), established her as “one of Britain’s most promising young voices” (Priyamvada Gopal). Suhaiymah also co-founded The Nejma Collective, supporting abolitionist solidarity with Muslims in prison.

Tasneim Zyada is a Palestinian writer and international performer. Her work documents the generational stories that rise to the surface within her own. Described as a calm storm, Tasneim’s writing touches on memories, mental health, home and faith. Her accolades include facilitating sold out creative writing workshops and performing on international stages - notably: AWAN Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, You Belong Here Festival at the Southbank Centre and the Athen’s International Video Poetry Festival in Greece.

Tom Branfoot is a poet and critic from Bradford, and the writer-in-residence at Manchester Cathedral. He won a Northern Writers' Award in 2024 and the New Poets Prize 2022. He organises the poetry reading series More Song in Bradford. Tom is the author of This Is Not an Epiphany (Smith|Doorstop) and boar (Broken Sleep Books), both published in 2023. His poem ‘A Parliament of Jets’ is shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Volatile, his debut collection, is forthcoming with the87press.

White Kite Collective is a group of artists and culture workers formed in urgent response to the genocide on Palestine. They organise events to bear witness and galvanise to action through testimony, literature and collective discussion. White Kite Collective stand in solidarity with all peoples seeking liberation from global systems of oppression. We are pleased to be joined in this event by:

Heba Al-Agha

Hanan Habashi

Zainab Hasan

Sirine Saba

Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso

Julia Choucair-Vizoso

Ruth Lass

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Books Against Borders is an abolitionist, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist political education collective. We view collective education as fundamental to our organising, and aim to bring together theory and practice to ensure that we approach our work with clear principles, working towards socialist and abolitionist futures. Find readings, events, and fundraisers linked here.

Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher that seeks to contribute to struggles for social and economic justice and the education and development of a critical, engaged, and internationalist Left. Find out more and support their work here.