Pandemic: 100 Days, 100 Poems

Rania Mamoun, an author from Sudan, and Diane Samuels had a daily pandemic practice.  Each day for 100 consecutive days, starting on March 21, 2020, Rania Mamoun wrote a poem in Arabic.  At 4 PM each day, they Skyped or Zoomed.  Mamoun read her poem in Arabic, then loosely translated it into English.

Rania Mamoun’s poems address exile, loneliness, isolation, the circle/cycle of life, day and night, family, FGM, activism, friendship, and current events. The poems range from one line to several pages.

Samuels made a 97” (diameter) circle comprised of 100 sectors, plus the title. Each sector holds the date, the poem in Arabic, the poem translated into English by Yasmine Seale, and tally marks, as well as the number in digits, of the Coronavirus deaths worldwide on that day.

“Something Evergreen Called Life,” a selection of Rania Mamoun’s “Pandemic: 100 Days, 100 Poems,” translated by Yasmine Seale, will soon be published by Action Books.

Title: Pandemic: 100 Days, 100 Poems 

Size: 97” circle (diameter)
Materials: Twinrocker Handmade paper, Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay ink, silk, Gampi, Golden acrylic
Date: 2023
Photographed by: Thomas Little