ضياء الدين حامد

Lebanese poet and visual artist Yamen Saab discusses his practice of combining poetry, Arabic calligraphy, painting, and portraiture. He views poems as speaking paintings and paintings as silent poems, while treating the Arabic letter as both a visual form and a carrier of cultural identity. Saab explains his portrait project, which merges influential figures’ faces with their notable quotations, and reflects on Beirut as a resilient cultural inspiration. He also discusses the themes of love, life, revolution, Arab identity, and humanitarian concerns in his poetry, arguing that writers should support oppressed people and just causes without becoming confined to narrow political agendas. His forthcoming collection in spoken Lebanese Arabic aims to use concise, emotionally direct poems with strong imagery and musicality.