Since 2020, the Centre Pompidou has organized an annual “Poetry Day” dedicated to a remarkable and iconic figure in poetry.
In 2026, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish will be honored through a series of events organized in France and abroad by numerous cultural partners.
In Marseille, the Festival Actoral, the International Center for Poetry (CIPM), and the [MAC] Museum of Contemporary Art are joining forces to pay tribute to one of the leading voices in contemporary Arabic literature. Haunted by exile, uprooting, nostalgia, and memory, her work has become a manifesto for the Palestinian cause and has opened up a profound and intimate poetic space, filled with hope and resistance.
Evening Program
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Rachid Koraïchi and Louisa Babari—on Mahmoud Darwish
Discussion, lecture
– Auditorium
Algerian visual artist Rachid Koraïchi shared artistic ties and a friendship with the poet Mahmoud Darwish, amassing an archive over time that he now wishes to share during an intimate discussion and lecture. Blending collage, text, image, and sound, Louisa Babari’s artistic practice has for years explored possible ways of reactivating memory and rewriting history. By delving into the archives, Rachid Koraïchi and Louisa Babari will together weave together biographies, utopias, memories, and resistance.
8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.: Haidar Al-Ghazali and Asmaa Azaizeh
Readings in Arabic with French subtitles
– Auditorium
Asmaa Azaizeh, a Palestinian poet, performer, journalist, and curator, was born in 1985 in Dabburieh, in the Lower Galilee. She served as director of the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah. At the Mucem, she will read “Don’t Believe Me If I Tell You About the War,” as well as a previously unpublished text.
Born in 2004, Haidar Alghazali is a Palestinian poet from Gaza. His poems, collected under the title “While the City Collapses” has been translated and published in various journals and anthologies in Europe. He is currently studying international law at the University of Macerata in Italy. He will read a selection of recent poems as well as an unpublished text related to Mahmoud Darwish.
6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.: Babari Voix Publiques
Sound Installation
– Louisa Forum
“Voix Publiques” is a sound installation composed of recordings of poetic texts. Designed to be installed in public spaces, this project revives a tradition of popular literary dissemination at the heart of the city and its neighborhoods, showcasing poetry in various forms and languages. Artists, authors, and readers from the African continent lend their voices and breath to create a shared, living archive.
Voix Publiques, an evolving and collaborative program, is exploring—as part of the Mediterranean Season—the poetic output of the Maghreb countries, with a focus on Algerian poetry.
In conjunction with the AFRICA exhibition on view at the [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art
Since 2020, the Centre Pompidou has organized an annual “Poetry Day” dedicated to a remarkable and iconic figure in poetry.
In 2026, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish will be honored through a series of events organized in France and abroad by numerous cultural partners.
In Marseille, the Festival Actoral, the International Center for Poetry (CIPM), and the [MAC] Museum of Contemporary Art are joining forces to pay tribute to one of the leading voices in contemporary Arabic literature. Haunted by exile, uprooting, nostalgia, and memory, her work has become a manifesto for the Palestinian cause and has opened up a profound and intimate poetic space, filled with hope and resistance.
Evening Program
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Rachid Koraïchi and Louisa Babari—on Mahmoud Darwish
Discussion, lecture
– Auditorium
Algerian visual artist Rachid Koraïchi shared artistic ties and a friendship with the poet Mahmoud Darwish, amassing an archive over time that he now wishes to share during an intimate discussion and lecture. Blending collage, text, image, and sound, Louisa Babari’s artistic practice has for years explored possible ways of reactivating memory and rewriting history. By delving into the archives, Rachid Koraïchi and Louisa Babari will together weave together biographies, utopias, memories, and resistance.
8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.: Haidar Al-Ghazali and Asmaa Azaizeh
Readings in Arabic with French subtitles
– Auditorium
Asmaa Azaizeh, a Palestinian poet, performer, journalist, and curator, was born in 1985 in Dabburieh, in the Lower Galilee. She served as director of the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah. At the Mucem, she will read “Don’t Believe Me If I Tell You About the War,” as well as a previously unpublished text.
Born in 2004, Haidar Alghazali is a Palestinian poet from Gaza. His poems, collected under the title “While the City Collapses” has been translated and published in various journals and anthologies in Europe. He is currently studying international law at the University of Macerata in Italy. He will read a selection of recent poems as well as an unpublished text related to Mahmoud Darwish.
6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.: Babari Voix Publiques
Sound Installation
– Louisa Forum
“Voix Publiques” is a sound installation composed of recordings of poetic texts. Designed to be installed in public spaces, this project revives a tradition of popular literary dissemination at the heart of the city and its neighborhoods, showcasing poetry in various forms and languages. Artists, authors, and readers from the African continent lend their voices and breath to create a shared, living archive.
Voix Publiques, an evolving and collaborative program, is exploring—as part of the Mediterranean Season—the poetic output of the Maghreb countries, with a focus on Algerian poetry.
In conjunction with the AFRICA exhibition on view at the [mac] Museum of Contemporary Art
