This week, we performed at schools for adult learners in Arendal and Kristiansand. It left a deep impression on us.
Mansur Rajih’s poetry carries a universal tone that resonates with us exactly where we are.
It was powerful to sing about identity, freedom, longing, loss, love, and the connection to one’s homeland for an audience where the majority have been forced to flee their homes.
And just as powerful to sing “Waiting for you is the hope that never dies” to a room where almost every person has experienced being torn away from someone they love.
The last time we performed «Yet They Sing,» Norway was celebrating Liberation Day while Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and launching its ground invasion of Rafah.
This week, Trump gave Netanyahu the green light for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—with full backing from the U.S.
Our mother tongue is the language of the heart. It feels so powerful and important when Mansur reads his poetry in Arabic—for Syrians, Yemenis, Somalis… in exile. Faces and hearts open, eyes light up, body language shifts, tension rises, phones come out, people lean forward in their seats…