What is to Give Light by Yahia Lababidi
Egyptian poet Yahia Lababidi, a Facebook contact, shared the text of his poem at The Idler just after I discovered that Al Jazeera has a cache of Creative Commons-licensed videos available for remix. So with Lababidi’s blessing I pulled this videopoem together, using some of that Egyptian street poetry for a soundtrack. I did the reading myself because he was having internet-connection problems and wasn’t able to send me his own reading.
Videos in the film/animation category at YouTube don’t seem to attract too many views, so I identified it as “News & Politics” instead. We’ll see if that makes a difference. In any case, it needs to be watched by people with an interest in the uprising.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Dave Bonta is a poet, editor, and web publisher from the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania.
Wow. Left me a little shaken – powerful footage, poetry. Egypt is on all our minds, in all our prayers at this time. What you have collaboratively produced is far more than a newscast.
Hello. Lovely piece. Great use of Creative Commons-licensed footage. I didn’t realise Al-Jazeera had this archive. You’ve made me realise there is a world of possibilities out there with the use of CCLicense stuff. All the best.
Thanks for commenting. Yes, I often use CC-licensed music from http://jamendo.com or http://dig.ccmixter.org/ for soundtracks, but up until now, the only free film footage I’ve used has been old U.S. government documentary material at http://archive.org.
Thank you, Brenda, LaKlop and, of course, Dave for your heart-warming responses and warm wishes. Egypt and the Egyptians are one step closer to Freedom and Human Dignity with such sympathy and good will on their side.
Wow. What a terrific poem and well-put together video. Truly haunting.
Thanks, James. I’m glad the video stands up to scrutiny by your more knowledgable eye.