Writing for Arab America in October 2018, its president Warren David remembered a conversation with the journalist Jamal Khashoggi — one that turned, unexpectedly, to Kahlil Gibran and his effect on the literary awakening of the Arab world.
Kahlil Gibran Collective · after Warren David, Arab America
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KAHLIL GIBRAN COLLECTIVE
By the Kahlil Gibran Collective · Kahlil Gibran Collective · 2018 · kahlilgibran.com
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On Wednesday 17 October 2018, Warren David, president of Arab America, published a short reflection on his acquaintance with Jamal Khashoggi — a colleague in the media, and a man he describes as one of principle and integrity.
In the middle of that recollection sits a moment David has not forgotten. Khashoggi looked him in the eye and asked:
Did you know the impact Kahlil Gibran had at the turn of the last century on the literary movement in the Arab world?
It is a small exchange, but a telling one. Gibran and the writers of the Pen Bond set out to break the Arabic language free of centuries of formal convention, and to write in a voice that could carry both the East they had left and the West they had arrived in. A century later, that project was still live enough for two Arab-American journalists to find themselves discussing it.
Read the full piece at Arab America.
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Originally published by Warren David, president of Arab America, 17 October 2018. Summarised here with acknowledgement to the author and publication.
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