Rafeef Ziadah - Hadeel

RAFEEF ZIADAH: Hadeel

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian spoken-word artist and activist. She received an Ontario Arts Council Grant from the ‘Word of Mouth’ program to create her debut album Hadeel. Rafeef started performing poetry in Toronto in 2004 with the spoken word collective Pueblo Unido and is the winner of the 2007 Mayworks Festival Poetry Face-Off. Rafeef’s poetry speaks to the struggle of immigrants to “make it to/in Canada” and the politics of exile. Being Palestinian she reflects on the realities of her homeland today, to which is not allowed to return.

Rafeef’s debut ablum Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel over Gaza.

Review
"Incorporating Arabic rhythms, dub poetry, politics, and spoken word hip-hop, Ziadah's is a courageous new voice speaking about exile, the immigrant experience, and Palestine. From the title track "Hadeel", about a little girl killed in Gaza, to the closing "Trail of Tears" about Canada's First Nations, the album moves to the background sounds of a brilliant ensemble of musicians as the poet turns her eye to corners of our world and our hearts we sometimes fear to see."
--Palestine House, New York