Poetry Reading with Shlomi Hatuka and Merhav Yeshoron

Activist and Poet Shlomi Hatuka comes to Duke for a poetry reading with fellow poet and author Merhav Yeshoron. A writer, poet, editor, teacher and activist Hatuka has published the poetry books "East Moon", "Island" and "Land". He is one of the founders of the Amram Association, which aims to further Mizrahi culture and has taken on the issue of the "Yemenite babies" - hundreds of healthy babies community members believe were stolen from new immigrants in the early years of the State of Israel and given to Ashkenazi families for adoption. Hatuka also presents the radio show "Word Alliance" ("Brit Milah") - conversations with poets - for the Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Merhav Yeshoron is a poet and scholar. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D in literature from Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan University. His research integrates Hebrew literature and Jewish Philosophy, exploring intertextuality within the Hebrew tradition. He is interested in how modern Hebrew poetics resonate with ancient myths and traditions. His dissertation portrayed the modern Hebrew writer S.Y. Agnon as an author who perceived his own writing as an act of Tikkun. His research is based on the linguistic investigations found in Maimonides' "Guide of the Perplexed," where a group of names is identified as central metaphors used in the Bible to describe God and demonstrates how these same names continue to dominate the metaphors that shape the metaphysics of modern Hebrew.