ISABELLA HAMMAD
GIVES THE STAGE TO
ISMAIL KHALIDI
Free, RSVP required
GIVES THE STAGE TO
ISMAIL KHALIDI
Free, RSVP required
Tuesday,
March 3, 2026
7pm
Doors
7:30pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
with:
John Early
Hind Shoufani
This evening doubles as a fundraiser for Omar Hamad's library project in Gaza. Donations are highly encouraged. Click here to donate.
March 3, 2026
7pm
Doors
7:30pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
with:
John Early
Hind Shoufani
This evening doubles as a fundraiser for Omar Hamad's library project in Gaza. Donations are highly encouraged. Click here to donate.
Set in the West Bank, Isabella Hammad’s novel Enter Ghost (2023) tells the story of a British-Palestinian actress who returns to Haifa to stage a performance of Hamlet in the West Bank. Isabella uses theater as a metaphor and as a narrative device to navigate the dilemmas of identity, homecoming, and the broader tensions of a Palestinian society living under occupation.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that she would be interested in the work of Ismail Khalidi, a Palestinian-American playwright and poet.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that she would be interested in the work of Ismail Khalidi, a Palestinian-American playwright and poet.
Ismail’s plays are brought together in his newest book, Until I Return: The Selected Plays of Ismail Khalidi (Bloomsbury, 2025). His early mono-dramas, as well as his newer plays, travel through Palestine’s history and tell stories about the defiant life-affirming practices of its people. He situates the Palestinian play as a register of life and a tool of storytelling able to transcend the limitations and blockades regularly imposed on Palestinian narration.
Ismail's collaborator, the playwright Naomi Wallace writes that “this collection of plays is original, disruptive, and pulls no punches when it comes to staging the human intricacies, not to mention intimacies, of colonialism and war… Here you have a body of work that refuses to trade in easy political rhetoric or clichés.”
In this event, Ismail asks the actor John Early and the filmmaker Hind Shoufani to animate the characters of his plays with a performed reading. Isabella then joins Ismail in conversation.
Co-presented by the Palestine Festival of Literature and the Center for Palestine Studies.
Ismail's collaborator, the playwright Naomi Wallace writes that “this collection of plays is original, disruptive, and pulls no punches when it comes to staging the human intricacies, not to mention intimacies, of colonialism and war… Here you have a body of work that refuses to trade in easy political rhetoric or clichés.”
In this event, Ismail asks the actor John Early and the filmmaker Hind Shoufani to animate the characters of his plays with a performed reading. Isabella then joins Ismail in conversation.
Co-presented by the Palestine Festival of Literature and the Center for Palestine Studies.
Isabella Hammad (b. 1991, London) is a British-Palestinian novelist. Her debut novel The Parisian (Grove Press, 2019), won a Palestine Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel Enter Ghost (2023) received the Encore Award and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her book-length essay Recognizing the Stranger (Grove Atlantic, 2024), was longlisted for the 2024 NBCC Award for Criticism. She lives in New York and London.
Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents and raised in Chicago, Ismail Khalidi (b. 1982) is a playwright and director. His plays include Tennis in Nablus (Alliance Theatre, 2010), Truth Serum Blues (Pangea World Theater, 2005), Foot (Teatro Amal, 2016-17), Sabra Falling (Pangea World Theater, 2017), Returning to Haifa (Finborough Theatre, 2018) and Dead Are My People (Noor Theatre, 2019).He co-edited Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora (TCG, 2015). He is currently a Visiting Artist at Teatro Amal in Chile.
Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents and raised in Chicago, Ismail Khalidi (b. 1982) is a playwright and director. His plays include Tennis in Nablus (Alliance Theatre, 2010), Truth Serum Blues (Pangea World Theater, 2005), Foot (Teatro Amal, 2016-17), Sabra Falling (Pangea World Theater, 2017), Returning to Haifa (Finborough Theatre, 2018) and Dead Are My People (Noor Theatre, 2019).He co-edited Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora (TCG, 2015). He is currently a Visiting Artist at Teatro Amal in Chile.
John Early (b. 1988, USA) is a comedian who wrote, executive produced, and starred in his own episode of Netflix's The Characters. He has appeared on TV in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, 30 Rock, Broad City, Difficult People, High Maintenance, Love, and Animals and in the films Other People, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Fort Tilden, and The Greggs. He lives in New York.
Hind Shoufani (b. 1978, Lebanon) is an Oscar-nominated Palestinian-American filmmaker, writer, and poet. She is the editor of the literary anthologies Nowhere Near A Damn Rainbow (xanadu*, 2012) and Uncommon Dubai (Uncommon, ltd., 2014). She's the contributing editor of the political journal Discontent and has worked as a director, producer and editor of documentaries for over 25 years. Her short film The Present won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. She lives in New York.
Hind Shoufani (b. 1978, Lebanon) is an Oscar-nominated Palestinian-American filmmaker, writer, and poet. She is the editor of the literary anthologies Nowhere Near A Damn Rainbow (xanadu*, 2012) and Uncommon Dubai (Uncommon, ltd., 2014). She's the contributing editor of the political journal Discontent and has worked as a director, producer and editor of documentaries for over 25 years. Her short film The Present won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. She lives in New York.
