Written To Not Remain

When the Silphium plant was discovered in ancient Cyrenaica (East Libya) after heavy rains and floods that hit the Mediterranean, it became a pillar of the economy and expansion of The Greek and Roman colonies until it was overharvested, heavily exploited, and documented as the first extinction of a species in our natural history. Centuries later, the Silphium returned as a symbol of the fascist reign on the Italian coat of arms when they colonized Libya in 1911, followed by establishing more than seventeen concentration camps where a third of Cyrenaica’s population was exterminated; yet, their poetry survives, and so does the memory of the Silphium.

The performance “In Yesterday’s Forecasts” explores connections between the first documented extinction and the mass-extermination of the Libyan people during the Libyan genocide (1928-1942). The lost Silphium plant and Fascism hidden histories become intertwined in a composition of recitations, soundscapes, visual worlds of the archival and the imaginary, testimonial poems and oralities based on Tamazight and Bedouin poetry. In sonic dialogue with the ancient tradition of millstone grinding known across North Africa as Al Raha.