The “Street Poetry” project arose from two young men— Majd Mastourah and Amin Gharbi— who were united by their mutual adoration of spoken Tunisian dialect, and the preservation of its cultural heritage.   

“Street Poetry was spontaneously born from the womb of eagerness to abandon centralization; to be an artist is to be open to the outer space and to others however different they are,” Majd said.

The initiative’s first shows took place in the summer of 2012, followed by a Facebook invitation.

The “Street Poetry” project arose from two young men— Majd Mastourah and Amin Gharbi— who were united by their mutual adoration of spoken Tunisian dialect, and the preservation of its cultural heritage.   

“Street Poetry was spontaneously born from the womb of eagerness to abandon centralization; to be an artist is to be open to the outer space and to others however different they are,” Majd said.

The initiative’s first shows took place in the summer of 2012, followed by a Facebook invitation.

Some with texts written previously or for the occasion, and others driven by curiosity and love of exploration, flocked to “Pasteur Square” in Tunis on a warm summer day to take up a new artistic adventure.

Poems are recited under dim lights, music is played from time to time, creating a special merge between the written and the heard, and the people are all ears, refusing to miss one word of a coherently written text on papers scattered in the hands of the “narrator.”

“Street Poetry” events continued and after joining Majd, the team was keen on holding these shows in different places to provide Tunisian youths of various social and cultural classes with the opportunity to participate and interact.

Sidi Bouzid, Kelibia, and Menzel Abderrahmane are cities that warmly and eagerly received “Street Poetry” since interior areas and small cities are usually deprived of such cultural events.

A language for all

Writing in informal Tunisian is a precondition for participation in “Street Poetry” activities. This is not an arbitrary selection, nor can it be viewed as a sort of dwarfing standard Arabic or denying its eloquence or harmony; rather, it comes out of Amin’s and Majd’s belief that vernacular Tunisian is a poetic wonderful language where original vocabularies and borrowed words wonderfully and integrally intermix, reflecting the diversity and plurality of the Tunisian people as well as its tolerance.        

The Tunisian slang is a special language since it is a mixture of Arabic, Berber and French and other languages like Turkish, Italian, and English. The Tunisian lexicon can be found in the novels of Abdelaziz El Aroui and works of Ali Douagi.      

“Street Poetry” topics cover everything from love and life, unemployment, marginalization and oppression. Like a mirror reflecting the Tunisian living conditions, the presented works cynically tackle the issues of bribes, social hypocrisy, politicians’ corruption and other critical issue like sex, the relation to religion, and moral freedom.

 “Writing is a creative activity requiring talent as well as the need to write being felt exactly as the need to eat, sleep, or have sex, and in general implying the profound intellectual, knowledge and psychological qualifications,” Majd said.

Familiar on the streets

The initiative, though originally concerned with writing and presenting text is open to other genres like singing, dancing and playing different music instruments.       

Famous artists like Ghalia Ben Ali, Yasser Jaradi and Bendir Man have accepted the invitation of Tunisian youths addicted to “Street Poetry” shows, which has contributed to the popularity of the shows.

“At first, pedestrians were looking at us with eyes of anger and discontent as we occupied pavements or public gardens,” Majd remembered. “Some even threw stones and bottles; however, they now look at us spontaneously and eagerly.”

Independent funding

Only a leaflet written by “Street Poetry” participators advertises the events, which are still in need of funding to help pay for the required audio equipment and covering the costs of photography, filming, and documentation.

“Street Poetry” organizers, however, have committed to keeping the initiative far away from political conflicts. They feel that financial independence from the state is of utmost importance in realizing their goal of true, unconditional creativity.