"Opening Ourselves Like a Book": Contemporary Poetry of the Abrahamic Religions

Originally presented in conjunction with Laurie Wohl’s Birds of Longing: Exile and Memory, this exhibit presents a small selection of contemporary poems and books by writers who identify with or in some way write directly about Judaism, Christianity, or Islam—the Abrahamic religions, which share common ancestry despite varying beliefs. Common themes recur: prayer, longing, comingled doubt and faith, family, traditions kept, traditions lost, and traditions adapted. "We pray best by opening ourselves like a book," writes Kazim Ali, and the writers presented here follow this suggestion, laying open themselves, their faith and struggles, and their shared and divergent histories. 

The physical exhibition was originally displayed at the Poetry Center in spring 2020.

Credits

Curated by Julie Swarstad Johnson and Leela Denver