Beau Beausoleil reads from his collection War News, a digital book published by AGITATE!

War News is a collection of 90 poems, written one a day since October 8, 2023. The poems in the collection reflect on what it means to bear witness to war, killing and destruction in Gaza, Palestine. It asks, ‘what does it means to be alive at a time when even the death and suffering of children fails to elicit a response strong enough to end the war.’ This collection of 90 poems is a witness testimony from afar. It is an archive of grief, mourning and solidarity. It is an accounting of the cost of war. Through these powerful and devastating poems Beau reminds us that we cannot turn away. In the poet’s own words, “[O]ur humanity, our collective morality, requires that we bear witness and then take some kind of action.”

Beau’s reading will be followed by a short break, and then an open mic hosted by Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz.

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist based in San Francisco, California. His two most recent chapbooks are: The Killing of George Floyd (Intermittent Press, 2023) and Poems for Ukraine (Barley Books, UK, 2023). He is the founder of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, a global arts response to the car-bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street (the street of the booksellers) in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007. It is a project of witness, memory, and solidarity with the Iraqi people by poets, artists, and writers.

War News is a fitting end of the year publication to mark the journal’s various publications in solidarity with Palestine since October. We are immensely honored that War News is AGITATE!’s first digital book offering. We hope you will read War News and share the book widely in your networks.

In Solidarity,
AGITATE! Editorial Collective