Thank you. Palfest, Mizna, thank you everyone for coming.

Thank you, Tim, for being with me, for giving me some strength.

If I must die, if I must die, you must live to tell my story, to sell my things.

To buy a piece of cloth and some strings, make it white with a long tail,

so that a child somewhere in Gaza, while looking even in the eye,

awaiting his dad who left in a place,

and bid no one farewell,

not even to his flesh, not even to himself,

seize the kite.

My kite you made, flying up above and things for a moment

an angel is there bringing back love.

If I must die, let it bring hope.

Let it be a tear.

The I'm Sadi ASEAN, and I'm a Palestinian American journalist.

I've been curating events for the Palestine Festival of Literature here in the United States.

It's an honor for us to be here in Minneapolis for the very first time.

And I would like to thank Mizna and the Parkway Theater for being wonderful partners through this process.

You can clap.

Thank you.

So I want to start off by telling you a little bit about Palifest.

Historically, it's been a traveling literary festival, and what it did was it took well-known

writers, artists, and culture workers across cities in Palestine. It was founded in 2008 by

...