Blurbs

"This book of poetry was devastating to pick up and impossible
to put down. Remi Kanazi has graced use with poems that are 
an antidote to cynicism and a searing call of urgency for the 
human rights struggle of our time."
Dave Zirin, The Nation 

"Remi Kanazi is one of the most courageous voices of this 
generation. Before the Next Bomb Drops is a beautiful but 
urgent clarion call for freedom, justice, and resistance in every
pocket of the world, from occupied Palestine to gentrified 
Brooklyn. Read this book and prepare to be inspired, 
enlightened, and emboldened."
Mark Lamont Hill, CNN commentator 
and host of BET News. 

"Remi A poetic, and very accessible, personal journey into
into the past and present of Palestine that will resonate with
anyone concerned with the land and its people."
Ilan Pappe, bestselling author of 
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine  

 

 
“Remi’s verse is a series of indignant letters to the passersby of our 
historical moment who thought they were minding their own business 
but who, in fact, are perpetuating the problem with their privileged 
complicity. Each verse made me sink deeper into my chair and helped 
unleash a cascade of relieving tears: in anger, in mourning, and in hope.”
–Noura Erakat, George Mason University 
and Human Rights Attorney
 
“Kanazi's haunting poems are not written to be consumed; they 
reserve a place in one's conscience, in one's memory, and–hopefully
in one's praxis.”
–Omar Barghouti, Palestinian human rights activist 
and cofounder of the BDS movement
 
“This is by far Remi Kanazi's best and most mature work. It is also 
his funniest, saddest and most uplifting. His poems evoke places 
from Brooklyn to Gaza, and he travels in time from 1948 to a 
present sometimes experienced through images on a smartphone 
flitting past desensitized eyes. Writing the lyrics of a movement, 
Kanazi aims upwards at the powerful and inwards, challenging our 
own complacency. His rhymes and rhythms, filled with sharp wit, 
irony and deep empathy, are a great joy to read even as they tackle 
some of the most urgent political struggles of our day.”
–Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada 
and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine

"You want to hear a voice which refuses to be silenced, and only 
such voices carry the deep truth about what's happening these 
days, about what's happening in Gaza or Iraq or East Jerusalem? 
Ok. If you do, listen to Remi Kanazi and the lucidity of his anger."
John Berger, novelist and Booker Prize winner

"Remi Kanazi's poetry, full of defiance and longing, allows us to feel 
the power and pain of Palestine's struggle." 
John Pilger, award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker 

"Back from Gaza, Remi Kanazi's poems make tears come to my eyes. 
Poetry more than any other means communicates what is deepest in 
man, what gives us hope beyond crime and despair."
Stephane Hessel, French ambassador, former French resistance 
fighter, and participant in the drafting of the Universal Declaration 
of Human Rights

"In Poetic Injustice, Remi Kanazi lines up his word soldiers and marches 
into the battle of identity, occupation, loss, and exile. Stripping the spin 
and gloss from policies and politics, Kanazi volleys truths from his own 
life as a Palestinian-American and as a witness to the oppression and 
occupations, state terrorism and racism. A poet with immense power and 
bravery, he underlines each phrase, word and line with devotion."
Elmaz Abinader, author, poet, and PEN Award winner

"I am proud to have Remi Kanazi as a partner-in-rhyme in our global 
struggle for peace and justice...his words resonate on paper as much as 
his unforgettable delivery does in person!"
Omar Offendum, Syrian hip hop artist and producer