Online panel discussions, films, exhibitions, and books … TMR World Picks run the gamut…
We welcome your suggestions: editor@themarkaz.org
TMR
Call for Documentaries by IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) and the PFI (Palestine Film Institute)
Deadline: 1 September 2025 – more info
PFI, in partnership with IDFA, will present the 5th annual Palestine Showcase at IDFA’s Market (November 15–20, 2025). This event supports Palestinian filmmakers and ensures that their stories reach international audiences, funders, and decision-makers. Palestinian documentary filmmakers and producers from around the world, as well as film projects centered on Palestine, are invited to submit in-progress feature documentary projects for consideration. Filmmakers will have the opportunity to pitch selected projects to a curated audience of leading industry professionals, festival programmers, and potential financiers.
Gaza: The War on Press Freedom
Sept. 2, The Conduit, London — more info
In a rare joint statement, more than 35 press freedom organisations, including RSF, WAN-IFRA and CPJ, are calling for urgent international action, including the suspension of EU-Israel trade agreements until protections for journalists and media access are upheld. With Gaza now facing famine, this urgent discussion brings together frontline reporters and press freedom advocates to examine the deliberate targeting of journalists, the impact of media blackouts during wartime, and the consequences of reporting, or failing to report, on war crimes in real time.
Virtual Book Discussion: Reconstruction as Violence in Assad’s Syria
Sept. 8, AUC Press, Online — more info
Join the online conversation with Aya Musmar, Nasser Rabat, and Deen Sharp, co-editors of Reconstruction as Violence in Assad’s Syria, as they discuss the book’s critical examination of post-war rebuilding as a tool of political control and social re-engineering in Syria.
Prosecuting the Powerful, a Conversation with Steve Crawshaw
Sept. 9, On Front Line, London, UK — more info
Steve Crawshaw, a long-time advocate with Freedom from Torture, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, joins Paul Van Zyl to discuss the critical chance to hold war criminals accountable. Through recent accounts from the justice front lines in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, and at The Hague, along with his past experiences with war criminals such as Slobodan Milošević, Crawshaw will delve into the narratives of those who have sought protection for civilians and accountability for war crimes during a crucial time for the future of international law.
Book Discussion: Murjana by Ghada Karmi
Sept. 9, Rainbow Theatre, Amman, Jordan — more info
Join Amwaj Abu Hamda as she engages in a discussion with Ghada Karmi for the launch of her latest novel, Murjana: A Novel of Medieval Baghdad (Interlink Books, 2025). Set against the backdrop of unrest between Sunni and Shia factions in ninth-century Baghdad, Karmi’s novel tells the story of a middle-aged caliph who becomes increasingly enamored with a younger woman— the title character, Murjana.
The Gaza Biennale
September 10–14, New York, US — more info
Recess in Brooklyn is one of three North American galleries hosting the Gaza Biennale, a global exhibition by Palestinian artists making art throughout this time of genocide and starvation in Gaza. The artist-led biennale will span five days from September 10 to 14, 2025, and then followed by an abbreviated three-month showing, from September 18 to December 20, 2025. The Gaza Biennale brings together artworks that speak across borders that Gazans and West Bank Palestinians are prevented from crossing. Launched in 2024 by artists working in and beyond Palestine, this decentralized exhibition takes place in cities around the world. Works of 22 artists will be previewed at Recess in the New York Pavilion. The opening reception will take place on Thursday, September 11, 6–9 p.m., and a hybrid Artist Talk on Saturday, September 13, 12–2 p.m.
ARAB POP ART: Between East and West
Sept. 12 — Jan. 23, 2026, Middle East Institute, DC, US — more info
Arab Pop Art: Between East and West, co-curated by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah & Lyne Sneige, features the work of fourteen artists from the Arab world and its diaspora, drawing on global pop culture to express a vibrant, evolving, and cosmopolitan Arab identity. The 35 works on display blend everyday symbols, regional motifs, and cultural commentary with imagery reminiscent of Western pop art icons like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
No Longer Staying Silent: Together for Palestine concert, London
17 September OVO Arena/Wembley – more info
“I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the world’s most remarkable artists for over 50 years,” writes Brian Eno on the concert website. “But I regret that during that time so many of us have remained silent about Palestine. Often that silence has come from fear — real fear — that speaking out could provoke a backlash, close doors or end a career. But that’s now changing — partly because some artists and activists have lit the path, but mostly because the truth of what’s going on has become impossible to ignore. What we are witnessing in Gaza isn’t a mystery, and neither is it a blur of competing narratives making it “hard to understand.” When dozens of non-partisan organisations like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders describe it as genocide, the moral line is clear. We can’t remain silent.”
The avant garde musician and president of Stop the War Coalition, Eno has been a long time advocate for Palestine. He has been working on the concert “Together for Palestine” for the past year. One of the participating musicians Damon Albarn told the Guardian: “Pacifism is an action. Peace is an action. To live peacefully requires vision and commitment … I am grateful for this opportunity to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people.” Other musicians to play on the night include Palestinians Adnan Joubran, Faraj Suleiman, and Nai Barghouti; UK artists — Bastille, Cat Burns, Greentea Peng, Hot Chip, James Blake, Jamie xx, King Krule, Mabel, Obongjayar, Paloma Faith, Rachel Chinouriri and Sampha; and guest artists Rina Sawayama, PinkPantheress and Riz Ahmed.
Boycotting Israel has been a contentious issue for some musicians like Nick Cave and Radiohead which have played concerts Israel. Then there is an impressive list of US musicians from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to Springsteen and Lauren Hill who refuse to play in Israel. The Together for Palestine concert represents a line up of musicians who speak out against genocide and starvation of the people in Gaza.
THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY by Naeem Mohaiemen
Sept. 21 – Nov. 9, 2025, Albany House, London, UK — more info
Naeem Mohaiemen’s film, THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY, explores the troubled 1970s, focusing on moments when American students protesting against racism and wars faced state violence in May 1970. The film highlights the contrasting media coverage of the Kent State and Jackson State shootings, revealing issues of racial violence and class. Mohaiemen brings together perspectives from political figures, student activists, and veterans to shed light on the lasting effects of these events.
Past of a Temporal Universe exhibition
Sept. 23 — Jan. 18, 2026, NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE — more info
The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery is presenting Ala Younis’ first comprehensive exhibition in the Arab region, showcasing two decades of her artistry. Her work exists at the confluence of research and artistic creation, integrating found objects, historical records, and personal stories into meticulously designed installations. Some pieces are new commissions explicitly created for this exhibition, while others are significant works from earlier phases of her career, revisited, reinterpreted, and engaged in dialogue with one another.
Dana Awartani: Standing by the Ruins
Ongoing — Sept. 28, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK — more info
Palestinian-Saudi multidisciplinary artist Dana Awartani’s inaugural institutional solo exhibition in Europe, titled Standing by the Ruins, combines existing pieces with a significant new commission, offering a poignant exploration of themes such as love and loss, destruction, and the passage of time. Through her work in painting, installation, textiles, performance, and film, she highlights both the human endeavors of creation and the experiences of loss, contemplating the impacts of conflict in the Middle East as well as the architectural modernization shaped by colonial histories. The exhibition showcases key works, including “Come, let me heal your wounds. Let me mend your broken bones” (2024), created for the 2024 Venice Biennale, alongside the new piece Standing by the Ruins III (2025). Drawing its title from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory For Forgetful, the installation weaves together the fundamental themes of the exhibition— the significance and anguish of remembrance, healing, and forgetting.
Books To Look Forward to in September:
NON-FICTION
Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital/Settler-Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle by Omar Zahzah, Seven Stories Press, Sept. 23, 2025.
This new book by Omar Zahzah shows how U.S.-based digital platforms and technology companies support the Israeli settler-colonial project through censorship. Terms of Servitude explains how social media platforms, like X, Google, and Meta, have become a new tool for suppressing Palestinians, even though these platforms initially helped advance their struggle. It features an introduction by Steven Salaita, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo.
You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: A Memoir of Palestine and Writing in Dark Times by Saeed Teebi, Simon and Schuster, Sept. 30, 2025
In his memoir, Teebi explores what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion —a book that Omar El Akkad says “so perfectly contextualizes and humanizes so much of what has led us to this awful moment, and one that will be remembered long after.”
POETRY
Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance, edited by Naseer Aruru & Edmund Ghareeb, Seven Stories Press, Sept. 16, 2025.
This collection of Palestinian poetry, first published in 1970, captures the essence of liberation and civil rights struggles globally. It has been refreshed with new translations by Edmund Ghareeb, making it a relevant and inspiring read for today’s audience.
FICTION
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine, Grove Atlantic, Sept. 2, 2025.
Described as both wickedly funny and deeply poignant, The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible unfolds a tragicomic tale set against the backdrop of Lebanon. A National Book Award finalist and recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award, Alameddine’s sharp wit navigates through themes including the Lebanese Civil War, the upheavals brought on by Covid-19, Lebanon’s banking crisis, and the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion. This modern narrative explores the complexities of family, memory, and the often outrageous bond between a son and his mother over the span of six decades.
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad, Simon & Schuster/Marysue Ricci, Sept. 23, 2025.
This is the eagerly awaited sequel to the viral hit Bunny, a brilliantly crafted novel set in the Bunny-verse—a realm that Margaret Atwood has praised as “soooo genius.” Awad’s fairy tale slasher delves into the depths of dark academia and the awe and terror of creativity itself, while also celebrating the transformative nature of love and friendship.
