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Speaker 1: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. This Pride Month, we're talking about wordsmiths, women who use language to create community, give a voice to change, and inspire future generations to do the same. Today we're talking about a woman who wrote in two languages and drew in a third. Let's talk about Attel Adnan. Attel Adnan was born in nineteen twenty five in Beirut. Her Syrian father worked for the Ottoman Empire until the empire fell. Her mother came from a city in Greece that had been burned to the ground. Attel's parents were both familiar with exile, and a Tel's own writing reflected that closeness with alienation and war. In Beirut, atl attended a French language school, where the teachers would punish children who spoke in any other language. Atl spoke and wrote mainly in French, and when she was twenty four years old, she left Beirut to study philosophy in Paris at the Sorbonne. She also began writing poetry in French. A few years later, a Tell moved to California and started studying at UC Berkeley. To a Tell moving from Paris to California was like changing planets. She fell in love with driving down American highways and reveled in the Bay Area's natural beauty. By nineteen fifty eight, she had secured a position teaching philosophy of art at a small college near San Francisco. Around the same time, Algerian revolutionaries were fighting for independence from their colonizer, France, thousands of miles away. At Tel had caught their revolutionary spirit. She dreamt of Arab independence in unity and began to resent the fact that the only way she could express herself was by speaking and writing French, the language of her colonizer. She was at a loss until one day a friend pointed out that someone who teaches the philosophy of art should also practice art. Suddenly, a Tell had a solution. As she put it, I didn't need to write in French anymore. I was going to paint in Arabic. She painted with a palette knife, creating works with flat, angular shapes and vivid colors. Then, in nineteen sixty five, a Tell published her first poem, written in English. It was called The Ballad of the Lonely Night in present day America and It was a staunchly anti Vietnam War poem. Soon after, she joined American writers against the Vietnam War. Around the same time, a Tell began working in a new medium for her art, lay perrellos, small folded books that expand like an accordion. A Tell would transcribe Arabic poetry into the folds of the book, then paint them with watercolor. A Tell couldn't speak or read Arabic, but she could paint it. In nineteen seventy two, a Tell returned to Beirut and began working for a newspaper. Three years later, the Lebanese Civil War began. Attel wrote, it was as if a galaxy of fire and death had been born and had started to churn, with no end in sight. As people began to flee the city, a Tel came to new understandings about what displacement and exile meant. She later wrote extensively about exile, connecting her experience with the experience of Muslim Bosnians, Palestinians, and indigenous Native Americans. Eventually, Attel was forced to flee Beirut and she moved to Paris. There she wrote her first and only novel, sit Marie Rose. It centered around a woman who was kidnapped and executed during Lebanon's Civil War. The novel was based on a true story and was hailed as one of the defining pieces of writing about the war. In nineteen seventy nine, she returned to California and settled into a house with her partner, Simon Fetal. She continued painting and writing, taking California's natural landscape as her inspiration. She lived near Mount tomil Pius and later described it as her best friend. It was to her a poem around which she oriented herself. In twenty ten, fifty odd years after Attel began painting, an art director saw some of her work and decided to include a Tel's paintings in a high profile exhibition. Suddenly, Attel's work began showing in places like the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. She lived long enough to see her work be entered into the Canon of Influential Artists. Attel died in twenty twenty one. She was ninety six years old. All month We're talking about Wordsmith's. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram. At Wamanica podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. This Pride Month, we're talking about wordsmiths, women who use language to create community, give a voice to change, and inspire future generations to do the same. Today we're talking about a woman who wrote in two languages and drew in a third. Let's talk about Attel Adnan. Attel Adnan was born in nineteen twenty five in Beirut. Her Syrian father worked for the Ottoman Empire until the empire fell. Her mother came from a city in Greece that had been burned to the ground. Attel's parents were both familiar with exile, and a Tel's own writing reflected that closeness with alienation and war. In Beirut, atl attended a French language school, where the teachers would punish children who spoke in any other language. Atl spoke and wrote mainly in French, and when she was twenty four years old, she left Beirut to study philosophy in Paris at the Sorbonne. She also began writing poetry in French. A few years later, a Tell moved to California and started studying at UC Berkeley. To a Tell moving from Paris to California was like changing planets. She fell in love with driving down American highways and reveled in the Bay Area's natural beauty. By nineteen fifty eight, she had secured a position teaching philosophy of art at a small college near San Francisco. Around the same time, Algerian revolutionaries were fighting for independence from their colonizer, France, thousands of miles away. At Tel had caught their revolutionary spirit. She dreamt of Arab independence in unity and began to resent the fact that the only way she could express herself was by speaking and writing French, the language of her colonizer. She was at a loss until one day a friend pointed out that someone who teaches the philosophy of art should also practice art. Suddenly, a Tell had a solution. As she put it, I didn't need to write in French anymore. I was going to paint in Arabic. She painted with a palette knife, creating works with flat, angular shapes and vivid colors. Then, in nineteen sixty five, a Tell published her first poem, written in English. It was called The Ballad of the Lonely Night in present day America and It was a staunchly anti Vietnam War poem. Soon after, she joined American writers against the Vietnam War. Around the same time, a Tell began working in a new medium for her art, lay perrellos, small folded books that expand like an accordion. A Tell would transcribe Arabic poetry into the folds of the book, then paint them with watercolor. A Tell couldn't speak or read Arabic, but she could paint it. In nineteen seventy two, a Tell returned to Beirut and began working for a newspaper. Three years later, the Lebanese Civil War began. Attel wrote, it was as if a galaxy of fire and death had been born and had started to churn, with no end in sight. As people began to flee the city, a Tel came to new understandings about what displacement and exile meant. She later wrote extensively about exile, connecting her experience with the experience of Muslim Bosnians, Palestinians, and indigenous Native Americans. Eventually, Attel was forced to flee Beirut and she moved to Paris. There she wrote her first and only novel, sit Marie Rose. It centered around a woman who was kidnapped and executed during Lebanon's Civil War. The novel was based on a true story and was hailed as one of the defining pieces of writing about the war. In nineteen seventy nine, she returned to California and settled into a house with her partner, Simon Fetal. She continued painting and writing, taking California's natural landscape as her inspiration. She lived near Mount tomil Pius and later described it as her best friend. It was to her a poem around which she oriented herself. In twenty ten, fifty odd years after Attel began painting, an art director saw some of her work and decided to include a Tel's paintings in a high profile exhibition. Suddenly, Attel's work began showing in places like the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. She lived long enough to see her work be entered into the Canon of Influential Artists. Attel died in twenty twenty one. She was ninety six years old. All month We're talking about Wordsmith's. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram. At Wamanica podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
