janan alexandra's 'come from' with Alana Dao

In her debut poetry collection, COME FROM, janan alexandra weaves from English into Arabic, exploring the joint projects of longing and belonging.

Part , part grief song for ongoing postcolonial loss, this book reaches for, around, underneath, and through language—feeling for its limits and possibilities.

Drawing on both narrative and lyric impulses, alexandra invites readers into a world bristling with family, memory, home, and inheritance—all in the wake of dislocation and fracture. In one section of the book, we follow the speaker “back home” after years of separation; later, we encounter a series of , through which the speaker recovers parts of her mother tongue. Here, alexandra probes the gifts and wounds of language, invoking personal and communal histories marked with the longue durée of empire.

ABOUT THE WRITERS

janan alexandra is the author of the poetry collection (BOA Editions). The recipient of support from the Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright program, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, janan is a 2025 Djanikian Scholar in Poetry and won the 2023 Adrienne Rich Award for her poem, “.” Since 2015, janan has taught creative writing in schools, libraries, youth centers, zoom rooms, and carceral spaces. Along with language work, janan has facilitated restorative movement classes; nannied for families; welded ice cream scoops; tied oyster nets; tended land and animals; built furniture; baked bread; painted houses; and busked to make a living. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Indiana University and at the Monroe County Correctional Center, edits poetry at The Rumpus, and helps curate MONDAYS ARE FREE, a Substack collaboration between BFF poets Ross Gay and Pat Rosal.

Alana Dao is a mother, multidisciplinary writer, and worker whose creative practice most often explores contemporary culture, food, and identity in the form of artists' books, zines, and essays. She received a BA from Smith College and an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is Co-Director of A CLEARING, a collaborative artistic practice based in Maine. Born in Texas, she resides in Portland with her two children and tuxedo cat.

PARKING & TRANSPORTATION

Mechanics’ Hall is located at 519 Congress Street. Our main entrance is between Loquat Shop and the Art Mart. The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by .

Parking is available at the , which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.

ACCESSIBILITY

To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step or use a . There is a wheelchair-accessible elevator to the third-floor ballroom.

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