The Poet Salim Al-Naffar hosted by “Effective Writers” in Gaza
Effective Writers – Gaza
Social Development Forum-SDF has organized a literary meeting with the Palestinian poet Salim Al-Naffar on Monday in Laterna Restaurant in Gaza City as a part of “Effective Writers”- Promote the abilities of young writers with disabilities Project within SOUTHMED CV Program/working together for the public value of culture in the southern Mediterranean that is funded by the European Union. Effective Writers project’s team and a group of young writers with disabilities in Gaza Strip has participated in the meeting.
This meeting is one of series of meetings with Palestinian writers which are implemented in West Bank and Gaza Strip to motivate young writers with disabilities on creative writing, and deepen dialogue and cultural exchange among the participants through transferring the personal experience of the successful writer to take advantage of his expertise in the field of literary writing.
Salim Al-Naffar biography
The poet Al-Naffar presented his autobiography, He was born in Gaza City in 1968, he emigrated with his family to Jordan in 1968, then he moved to Syria in 1970, the poet started writing in an early age at 17 years old, he published his poems in Arabic newspapers and magazines, he established the Young Writers Palestine Festival in Tishreen University at Latakia, he returned back to home in 1994.
He published his first poetic collection in 1996, also a second collection in 1997; many Palestinian writers and poets considered that this was a distinctive step, and many critical essays were written about it.
Recently, Palestinian Ministry of Culture issued his literary work in Shubbak cultural café in Ramallah.
Talent is the base
Al-Naffar said “The talent is the basic base to the writer, but it is not enough by itself so that the writer have to expand the horizon of reading in all fields of history, philosophy, thought and culture in general.
He added that the poetic text does not hold the knowledge, but knowledge signs, indicating that when the text carried a high level of knowledge, it loses its influence.
As Al-Naffar stated that there is no satisfaction in the world of creativity, so when someone claims any personal satisfaction, he will lead himself to stop writing, pointing to the words of the poet Mahmoud Darwish, “the most beautiful poem is the one that have not been written yet.”
In the context of talking about disability and creativity, Al-Naffar confirmed that there is no persons with disabilities, where he says, “You are not persons with disabilities, you have wills,” and the real disability is the inability to do something while the real challenge is the community response to PWDs potential and energies.
He pointed to the need of including PWDs in the community and vice versa to bring out their creativity because they are an integral part of this community.
It is worth mentioning that the “Effective Writers” project is one of the distinctive projects in improving cultural participation in the Arab region and including PWDs as creative resources who have their activities and existence in the cultural and community level.