This Death is Not One: A Bilna'es Book Launch

with Nasser Abourahme, Adam HajYahia, and Jasbir K. Puar

In 2017, the critical theorist Jasbir Puar published The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability. While the work offered a complex and rigorous anti-capitalist account of disability, as well as a scathing analysis of Israeli biopolitical policy, the book cohered a political logic in writing before it was visibly evident on the ground, and as such, the work has had something of a delayed reception in Palestinian contexts.

In 2026, the adisciplinary publishing platform Bilna’es is addressing this delay by releasing a new publication — “This Death is Not One”: Debilitation and Inhuman Biopolitics in Palestine — that includes the last chapter of Puar’s book alongside the first Arabic translation of the text, a new preface from Puar reflecting on her work from within this moment of genocide, an introduction by Nasser Abourahme reflecting on the book’s stakes in the present, and illustrations by Xaytun Ennasr. For this release event at The Poetry Project, Puar and Abourahme will be joined by Adam HajYahia for a conversation about the text, translation, the right to maim, the temporality of genocide, and living in death.

Accessibility Information

Indoors, masks required, livestream, CART, amplification, seating, and a wheelchair accessible, all gender bathroom provided.

This reading will take place indoors in the Parish Hall at St. Mark's Church (located in the back of the church, with the entrance to the right of the main Sanctuary doors) and seating is provided. CART and open amplification will be provided. The readers will conduct their own Audio Description as integral to the reading. A wheelchair accessible bathroom is located inside St. Mark’s Church.

The wheelchair accessible ramp to St. Mark's Church is on 10th St and 2nd Avenue. There is then another smaller ramp to get into the Parish Hall. Access support for this event will be provided by Alex Dolores Salerno and Poetry Project volunteers will be available to support in wayfinding and navigation as desired.

The event will also be livestreamed for free on The Poetry Project's Youtube channel.

Please feel free to email us at info@poetryproject.org with any questions or for more information on access to this event.

The event costs $10 but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.