Dana Dajani: Poetry, Exile & Palestinian Memory | Sumud Podcast

🎙️This week on the Sumud Podcast, we’re joined by Dana Dajani—award-winning Palestinian-American poet, actress, and humanitarian. Known for her fusion of spoken word and theater, Dana uses performance as a form of resistance, remembrance, and radical love.

In this powerful conversation, Dana reflects on what it means to choose to be Palestinian—as an identity, an inheritance, and a calling. She shares the story of her grandmother Aida, whose exile became Dana’s compass. She opens up about the deeply personal project The Poor Millionaires, an archival film and fashion journey born from family footage, memory, and loss.

From navigating third culture identity to coping with survivor’s guilt, Dana brings rare emotional honesty to questions of creativity, trauma, and legacy. This episode is a tribute to the storytellers who came before—and the stories we must carry forward.

🔑 In this conversation, we explore:

➡ What it means to choose to be Palestinian in diaspora

➡ Preserving her grandmother’s dresses, films, and history

➡ Theater as embodied resistance and poetic healing

➡ The mental and emotional toll of witnessing genocide

➡ How art creates space for empathy, conversation, and transformation

This video is for educational purposes only. It provides historical, cultural, and political insight to inform and inspire viewers.

📌 Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction: Theatre Roots & Being a Narrator

06:26 – Childhood, Pursuing a Fine Art Degree & The Human Spirit Project

11:17 – Choosing Art Over Expectations, Third Culture Identity & Discovering Family History

24:50 – The Poor Millionaires, the Legacy of Aida Dajani & Love Letters to the Land

38:39 – Dana’s Creative Process & Trauma

50:37 – Creating Space for Justice & Finding Purpose Again

01:00:47 – Legacy, Loss & Carrying the Stories Forward

01:06:47- Final Message & Performing

🇵🇸 Follow Dana: @DanaDajanipoetry

🎙 Follow our host: @dredhasan

Dr.Cornel West episode: https://sumudpod.com/episodes/dr-cornel-west/

🌐 Learn more at: https://sumudpod.com

#Palestine #SumudPod #FreePalestine #Gaza #Poetry #PerformanceArt #Resistance #Storytelling #Artivism #HumanRights #CeasefireNow

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