Hend Jouda
Hend Jouda is a Palestinian poet born in 1983 in the al-Bureij refugee camp who has lived and worked in Gaza her entire life. She is currently a refugee with her family in Cairo.
The author of poems and short stories published on numerous websites, she has written many documentary scripts for which she provides voiceovers. As a radio producer, she collaborates with Workers Radio in Gaza. She produced and presented the program ood Morning, Homeland for Radio Al-Hurriya in Gaza. She is editor-in-chief of Magazine 28 in Gaza.
She received the Appreciation Prize from the Youth Ideas Association for her short stories and the Golden Prize at the Arab Youth Gathering Festival in Cairo. She has published two collections of poems, Always Someone Leaves (2013) and No Sugar in Town (2017)
Gaza ô ma joie, an anthology in French translation including the poems from the show, will be published in September 2025 by Héros Limite, Geneva.
She regularly publishes poems on her Facebook page.
bilingual Arabic/English oratorio with Hend Jouda (poems in Arabic), Soukaina Habiballah (poems in French), Zouheir Atbane (sound and lighting design), Henri jules Julien (stage direction)
What does it mean to be a poet in wartime?
It means to apologize
To abound in apologies
For burnt trees
For birds without nests
For pulverized houses
For the long cracks in the sides of the streets
For the pale children before and after death
And the face of every mother sad
Or killed
What does it mean to be safe in wartime
It means to be ashamed
Of your smile
Of your warmth
Of your clean clothes
Of your off-peak hours
Of your yawn
From your cup of coffee
Of your peaceful sleep
Of your living loved ones
Of your satiety
Of water available
Of drinking water
Of the possibility of a shower
Of the chance of being alive
Oh my God
I don't want to be a poet in wartime