Illuminated Cities

Highlights | Poetry of the Camps | March 7, 2026 • Dearborn

On March 7, we held an event for Poetry of the Camps in Dearborn, in collaboration with Palestinian poet and to center the voices of our students from Gaza and Rohingya refugee camps. We followed it with a community discussion about the role of art in resistance.

It was a beautiful night bringing people together to listen, share and sit with stories from our students in Gaza and Rohingya refugee camps. Grateful for everyone who showed up, and to our vendors who generously donated food for the evening.

Still thinking about the words we heard and the conversations that followed ❤️

Highlights | Poetry of the Camps | March 7, 2026 · Dearborn

On March 7, we held an event for Poetry of the Camps in Dearborn, in collaboration with Palestinian poet and to center the voices of our students from Gaza and Rohingya refugee camps. We followed it with a community discussion about the role of art in resistance.

It was a beautiful night bringing people together to listen, share and sit with stories from our students in Gaza and Rohingya refugee camps. Grateful for everyone who showed up, and to our vendors who generously donated food for the evening.

Still thinking about the words we heard and the conversations that followed 💛

✨Eid Mubarak from the Illuminated Cities team!✨

This Eid, we are sharing reflections from our Rohingya students who shared glimpses of what the month of Ramadan means in their lives.

📸 by Jaitun Nara, 2024 Poetry of the Campa-Rohingya Fellow
✍️ Umme Kulsum, Jaitun Nara, Parves Mosharf

Ramadan Reflection || This Year Feels Different

Ramadan used to feel warm in a very simple way.

Our home would be full before Maghrib. The table was crowded with food, laughter, and familiar faces. Someone would be in the kitchen rushing the last dish, someone setting plates, someone making du’a softly before the adhan. The noise, the light, the togetherness — that was Ramadan for me.

This year is different.

The table is smaller. Some chairs are empty. We lost people who used to sit with us, who used to say “Ramadan Mubarak” with a smile we can still remember. Their absence is louder than any sound.

And instead of walls that held our memories, we are now in a tent. The wind replaces the quiet comfort of our old home. The atmosphere is not the same. There are no decorations, no familiar corners, no usual traditions.

But even here, Ramadan still arrives.

We still wait for the adhan.
We still break our fast together.
We still raise our hands in du’a.

Maybe the joy looks different now. Maybe it’s quieter. Maybe it carries grief. But it also carries strength.

This Ramadan feels heavier — but also deeper.

It reminds me that faith is not in the lights or the table or the house. It is in the hearts that remain patient.

And even in a tent, under a sky that has witnessed so much, we still say:

Alhamdulillah.

✍🏽 Reflection by Haneen Abu Gharara .ghrara75

📷 Photography by Ali Skaik ._.skaik

—

Celebrating our Gaza students this Ramadan! 🌙✨

We shared their incredible work at this year’s Ramadan Night Market at Boston City Hall on Feb 27–28 and launched our brand-new collection of Ramadan and Eid postcards. 💌

Join us for a two-hour leisurely walk and poetry reading through the Botanical Gardens of Coimbra, Portugal.

Along the way, hear poems by young Palestinian poets in Gaza, read aloud by participants.

Poetry from Gaza and “Flowers of Palestine” cards will also be available for purchase, supporting Poetry of the Camps — a poetry course for students in Gaza offered by Illuminated Cities.

This is a donation-based walk (no minimum donation).

✨Come meet our team at Ramadan Night Market in Boston City Hall for some festivities! We will have a display of our students’ work as well as Eid and Ramadan cards!

💕 May we never forget our students in Palestine, Rohingya Camps, and all corners of the world impacted by violence holding onto hope.

✨Join us on Saturday, March 7th in Dearborn, Michigan for an iftaar evening of poetry, reflection, and community centered on student voices from Gaza and Rohingya refugee camps.

This gathering will feature original poems written by students living through displacement and violence, offering attendees an opportunity to witness how art becomes a form of survival, testimony, and resistance.✨

🗓️ Saturday, March 7
⏰ 4:30 - 8:00 pm
📍 Dearborn, Michigan - Please register for exact location!

Co-sponsored by

Join us for an evening of poetry, art, and community in solidarity with our Poetry of the Camps students in Gaza. A collaboration between Illuminated Cities and Palestine House.

✨REGISTRATION LINK: https://tinyurl.com/poetryofthecamps2026

🗓️ Date: Saturday, January 10
⏰ Time: 6 pm
📍 Location: Palestine House, London

You will have the opportunity to support the students directly by purchasing their poetry as well as Illuminated Cities merchandise, helping sustain and expand this vital creative work.

✨✨COME THROUGH AND SUPPORT! ✨

Two years ago, on December 6, 2023, Dr. Refaat Alareer was targeted and killed by an Israeli air strike. He was a teacher and mentor to many, including some of our students at Illuminated Cities. We remember him today in the words of our student Eman Alastal.

Through students like Eman, Dr. Refaat’s legacy lives on, including his vision for a free Palestine.

Asmaa Al-Banna is a writer from Gaza who graduated in 2021 from the Islamic University of Gaza, Faculty of Education, majoring in basic education.

⭐️Asmaa was Illuminated Cities’ inaugural Fall 2024 Poetry of the Camps fellow. ⭐️

******

Dear homeland,

I speak to you from the spirit of my displacement, about my longing for every corner of the city I love, and my many attempts to return after the occupation prevented it, the obstacles it placed, and the threats of no return.

Isn’t it unfair that I live in a country other than your embrace?

However, my faith and the hope that you planted in me since childhood remain as long as olives and thyme remain.

I have repeatedly tried to rearrange my papers to comprehend the woes of war that accompany you, my homeland, and I could not. My only consolation is that the things that are happening now are not by my will, and my options have become limited like any other person who will meet his death in this war, but my love for you, my homeland, is engraved and will remain immortal.

Your love, Asmaa