!Our quieridx amigxs from Gato Negro Ediciones are in town from Mexico for the weekend to celebrate the launch of Zeden Xelef’s book of poetry “A Barcode Scanner”!

"A Barcode Scanner" explores themes of displacement, commodification of the displaced, and dehumanization of the displaced. The poetry is written in a contemporary style that bears the influence of the Êzîdî oral tradition. Translated from Arabic by Bryar Bajalan and Shook, the collection features a wide cast of characters, including IDP camp managers, UN representatives, and literary figures like Anne Sexton and pornstar Sasha Grey. The poems recount tragic camp fires, text message romances, and the everyday struggles faced by survivors of the Êzîdî genocide by Daesh in 2014.
Zêdan Xelef is a multilingual poet, translator, archivist, and culture preservationist. They grew up in the Êzîdî community in Shingal mountains, on Iraq-Syria borders, where they herded four goats with three other cousins. Their work previously appeared, among others, in LA Review of Books, Translation Review, World Literature Today, Tripwire, Conjunctions, and Poetry. They are the writer of A Barcode Scanner (Kashkul Books 2020/Gato Negro Ediciones 2022) whose title poem was adapted into a poetry film of the same title, by Shook, that received the Award for the Best Film for Tolerance at the 2020 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.

In addition to performance by the poet and the translator, the event will also include a screening of a film adaptation of the title poem, created by Shook, Zêdan’s longtime collaborator and the co-translator of the book. The film received an award for the best film for tolerance at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin in 2020.

Furthermore, this event would serve as the launch of a new book in the Avion Series at Medicine for Nightmares, following the successful celebration of the first book in the series by Victor Teran last year.