Introducing the latest addition to our zine catalogue. Written by Mariam Khateeb and illustrated by Billy Ruffian, The City’s Memory is a poetic recollection of Gaza’s living inheritance, shared and multiplied among its inhabitants. The memories of the author, although personal, are testimonies of the city, the land, the people, the persistence of a place that refuses to be erased. Sights and sounds, the day-to-day rituals of people, are proof that Gaza lives.
“Every city carries a memory within its body, but Gaza holds an archive that splinters—hiding in alleys, in the sea, in the weary house.”—prologue excerpt
Khateeb’s narrative wanders to the shore, remembering the corn seller whose voice mingles with the sound of the waves and the peanut seller shaking his bags for the children. Their voices greeted the author as a child, greeted every other child playing on the shore, and they greet us, the readers, including us in Gaza’s collective archive.
The street has its own cadences and rhythms, recollected by Khateeb. Vendors, laughter, the hum of machines are threads in a tapestry of sounds, which only the call to prayer—announced in chorus across neighborhoods—can rise above.
“Gaza remembers itself through its people,” Khateeb writes. “And I, in remembering, am only one voice echoing in a chorus.”
The idea of capturing personal memories only to offer them back to the city and its residents is repeated often throughout the zine. “What I thought was mine was always ours.”
From cover to cover, Khateeb’s innovative language is matched with a buoyant visual layout and illustrations. Billy Ruffian’s cloudy skyscapes, street scenes, and sea views have just the right amount of chaos and hospitality to honor Gaza’s coastal atmosphere.
Congrats to the whole team!
—Editor, Coastal Lines Press
Get a copy of Mariam’s zine by donating to her fundraiser.