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Schedule

Thursday, June 9th : 5.00 - 7.30 pm

Welcome ceremony (911�����������, Tangier)

Art and book exhibition: Mostafa Naffi

MC: Dr. Khalid Amine (International Center for Performance Studies)

Welcome remarks: Anouar Majid (Director of the Tangier Global Forum, 911�����������)

Opening remarks: Abdelkader Jamoussi (Organizer of the Symposium)

Inaugural remarks: A Foreign Language, a Foreign Land: Hassan Hami

The Center for Cross Cultural Learning: Farah Sharif Wazzan

The Kerouac Project of Orlando: Mona El Alaoui - Janet Benge

Overview on the UCF – Moroccan collaboration and partnership: Mirvate El jerdi

Tea ceremony: poetry readings with music (El Habib Louai / Ahmed Ouahid)

Friday, June 10: 5.00 - 7.30 pm

Plenary session: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and the American haiku

MC: Abdelkader Jamoussi (100 Haiku for Kerouac)

The Kerouac Project of Orlando: Kerouac’s legacy: Janet and Geoff Benge

Kerouac and the Beat Generation writers in Tangier:  Ali Al -Kassimi

The Haiku Be-Bop of Jack Kerouac & the Beats: Stanford M. Forrester

Kerouac Haiku, a reading: Idriss Issa

Kerouac, A Restless Quest for Freedom of the Spirit: El Habib Louai

The question of the Prose poem and haiku: Nouri Al Jarrah

Poetry readings: Idris Issa, Nouri Al Jarrah, Mouna Ouahid, Stanford M. Forrester, Houda Eletr

Saturday, June 11

Session 2: Creative Writing Workshop

Morning: 11.00 am - 12.30 pm

Moderator: Mbarek Sryfi

Stanford M. Forrester (American Haiku Poet)

Rochelle Hurt (University of Central Florida UCF)

Youssouf Amin Elalamy (University of Ibn Tofail)

Mokhtar  Ait Omar (cinema and film critic) 

Evening: 5.00 pm - 7.30 pm

Session 3: The Haiku Poem: For A New Rhetoric?

MC: Abdelhai Moudden (The Center for Cross Cultural Learning)

On the road with Kerouac: Mbarek Sryfi

The Haiku and the Modern Arabic Poetry: Youssef Naouri

The art of Haiku according to Eisenstein theory of editing: Azedine El Ouafi

Moroccan haiku (field and context): Abdelkader Jamoussi

Poetry readings: Idriss Issa, Mouna Ouahid, Stanford M. Forrester, Nassima Raoui, Saleh Zamanan

Closing Ceremony: 9.00 - 11.30 pm.

Speaker Bios

(in alphabetical order by last name)

Mona El Alaoui. Moroccan–American expert. Graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Her professional experience includes both non-profit and private sector positions with such multinational and world-renowned organizations as UNICEF, Procter & Gamble, Beiersdorf, and Johnson Wax. She has lived in over 14 different countries and created sustainable, lasting relationships with men and women from over 75 countries as a true citizen of the world. Mona’s work with UNICEF provided her the opportunity to create marketing and business development strategies that heightened the organization’s profile and offerings on a global scale. Her professional training is extensive, her business experience runs deep, and she brings a coach’s heart to the Kerouac Board. 

Khalid Amine. is Senior Professor of Performance Studies, Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tétouan, Morocco. He has been Research Fellow at the International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures” at Freie Universität Berlin, and is now Member of the Advisory Board. He is the winner of the 2007 Helsinki Prize of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). He was Friedrich Hölderlin Guest Professor at Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M., Germany (2017/18). Since 2007, he has been Founding President of the International Centre for Performance Studies (ICPS) in Tangier. He was member of IFTR Ex-Com (2011–2018), head of Jury at the Arab Theatre Festival (6th Edition, Sharjah 2014), and Advisor at Saudi National Theatre (2020/2023). His books include: Beyond Brecht (1996), Moroccan Theatre between East and West (2000), Fields of Silence in Moroccan Theatre (2004), Dramatic Art and the Myth of Origins (2007), Dancing on the Hyphen: Essays on Arab Theatre (2019). Amine is co-author with Distinguished Professor Marvin Carlson of The Theatres of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia: Performance Traditions of the Maghreb (2012); he is the Co-Editor of Performing Transformations (2012), The Art of Dialogue: East-West (2014), Intermediality, Performance and the Public Sphere (2014), Memory and Theatre (2015), Across Borders and Thresholds: Performing in Zones of Contact and Friction (2020).

Geoff Benge. Born and raised in New Zealand, Geoff Benge holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy from Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. He has been writing books commercially for the past 36 years. Geoff, along with his wife Janna, are a writing team and together they have ghostwritten numerous books before beginning their own series of biographies of interesting people for middle and high school students. There are currently 82 books in this series, with more than 10 million copies in print. Geoff began attending literary events at the Kerouac House eighteen years ago and today serves as the V. P. of the Residency Program for the Kerouac Project. As well as managing the day-to-day operation of the residency program, he oversees the yearly process of selecting the next four people to become writers-in-residence at the Kerouac House. He is delighted with the way the residency program has grown and matured over the years. He also enjoys talking with the residents and other writers in the local community and beyond, encouraging them and imparting some lessons he’s learned about writing and publishing throughout his career.

Janet (Janna) Benge.  Joined the Board of Directors of the Kerouac Project in 2010 and has served as President of the organization since 2016. She lives and works in Winter Park, Florida. She was born and raised in New Zealand and started her career as a public-school teacher, though she quickly transitioned to being a fulltime writer. She has lived in the Philippines, Tonga (South Pacific), throughout the United States, including Hawaii, Texas, Montana, and for two years on a Native American reservation in Washington State. She loves cross cultural exchange along with the process of writing and reading. Her involvement with the Kerouac Project of Orlando provides a perfect blending of these interests. Janna and her Geoff have ghostwritten numerous books before beginning their own series of biographies of interesting people for middle and high school students. There are currently 82 books in this series, with more than 10 million copies in print.

Farah Cherif D’Ouezzan founded the Center for Cross-Cultural Learning (CCCL) in 1995.  She is presently its General Director as well as a Founding member of Thaqafat Association. She has directed the organization since, trained the staff throughout the years, developed and designed its various programs and activities. Her academic interest lays in research in Comparative Religion with a focus on teaching Islam from a cross-cultural perspective.  She conducts modules, seminars, courses and workshops on religion and culture, women and gender issues, Islam and Human Rights as well as Sufism in Morocco. As a founding member of Thaqafat association, she became interested in volunteerism, internships as well as career development and youth employability. 

Farah Cherif D’Ouezzan holds a degree in comparative Literature from Mohammed Vth University in Rabat and a certificate on Women and Gender Issues from the University of Hanover, Germany. She finished writing her very first book about 25+ years in cross-cultural education from the hosting perspective and plans to publish soon. She has been lecturing and conducting seminars worldwide and in Morocco for the CCCL participants and others, as well as offering live webinars or virtual classrooms.

Youssouf Amine Elalamy. A full university professor at Ibn Tofaïl University in Kenitra, Morocco, where he teaches Literature, Arts, Media and Communication. He holds a PhD in communication. In 1991, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study the aesthetics of commercial culture. Affiliated to N.Y.U. and the New York Institute for the Humanities, he also took courses on advertising copywriting and advertising promotion techniques at the F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology) and the Parsons School of Design. He is the winner of the 2001 “Grand Atlas” literature Prize and the 2010 “Le Plaisir de lire” Prize for his novel Les Clandestins. He is also the winner of the first edition of the British Council literature Prize for English writing held in 1999 and the Orange Prize for best African francophone novel 2020 for his book C’est beau, la guerre.

Youssouf Amine Elalamy is the author of 13 books (9 novels). Initially written in French. His books have been translated into several languages, including Arabic, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and Greek. Two of his works, A Moroccan in New York and Sea Drinkers have been published in the US in one volume under the title: Two Novellas by YAE (Lexington Books, Nov. 2008). His novel, Amour Nomade, has also been published in English translation by US publisher Lavender Ink (2014) and in German translation by Osburg Verlag. Some of his books have been adapted on stage and street theatre. Elalamy’s art exhibit “Miniatures” was held in January 2007 at the Free Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, Holland, and in June 2007 at the De Levante Art Gallery in Amsterdam.

Houda Eletr. Born in South Carolina but raised in Florida. She is twenty years old. She has been writing poetry since she was twelve years old. Since writing has been a passion of hers for years now, she has decided to go to school for journalism. Attended the University of Central Florida in the fall of 2022 to continue her education. She writes haiku and short poems.

Stanford M. Forrester/sekiro. Haiku poet, past president of the Haiku Society of America, and editor of bottle rockets, a leading haiku magazine for the past 24 years in the United States. His haiku have appeared in Haiku in English: The First 100 Years published by Norton, as well as, in Haiku: An Anthology, published by Knopf. In 2003, he won 1st place in the 57th Annual Bashō Contest in Ueno Japan. In 2004, he was one of the top prize winners of the Haiku International Association 6th Annual Contest. In 2018 one of poems was a awarded a top prize in the English division of the Ito-en Tea International Haiku Contest where over 28,500 haiku were entered. In 2008 he was a featured presenter in Bangalore, India, as well as, being honored at the meeting for a lifetime achievement by the World Haiku Festival. He is the author of 11 books and chapbooks with still more to come. Forrester's haigo (his Japanese pen name) is sekiro which means "dew on a stone" or "stone dew." His last haiku book A Tea Ceremony is published in English and Arabic in collaboration with Moroccan poet Abdelkader Jamoussi.

Hassan Hami. Born in Morocco, Hassan Hami holds a PhD in Political Sciences. He is a career diplomat. He previously worked as a freelance journalist and as a part-time adjunct. As a diplomat, he served in Africa South of the Sahara, Europe, East Asia, North America, South Caucasus and Central Asia. Polyglot, he manages to write in Arabic (his mother language), French and English. He has a good working knowledge of Norwegian and Russian. So far, he has published, seven novels in French, three novels in English, three books of poetry in Arabic (some are translated into Azerbaijani and Russian languages) and three textbooks of International Relations Theory in French. He has also published articles in various magazines and journals dealing with international politics in French and Arabic. His publications in English include Sparkling Ashes over the Rainbow (novel, 2014), Scratches Never Heal (novel, 2015), Twisting Toward the Rolling Stones (short stories 2016).

Rochelle Hurt. Professor of creative writing at the University of Central Florida and a member of the Jack Kerouac Project Board. She is also author of three poetry collections: The J Girls: A Reality Show (Indiana University Press, 2022); In Which I Play the Runaway (Barrow Street, 2016), which won the Barrow Street Poetry Prize; and The Rusted City: A Novel in Poems (White Pine, 2014). Her work has been included in Poetry magazine and the Best New Poets anthology, and she's been awarded prizes and fellowships from Arts & Letters, Poetry International, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel, and Yaddo. Haiku in the Writing Classroom: Teaching Haiku as a Contemporary Form in English.

Idriss Issa. A Moroccan poet, translator and art critic who was born in 1956 in Kenitra, Morocco. He received his bachelor’s degree in Arabic Literature and a Diplome des Etudes Superieures Approfondies from the Faculty of Letters in Rabat. He joined the Moroccan Union of Writers in 1990. He has published his poems in many Moroccan and Arab newspapers and magazines. His poetry collections include: A Woman from the Farthest Wind (1990) which was awarded the prestigious literary prize of Al-Naqid Magazine in London. In haiku poetry, he is a co-founder of The International Haiku Symposium in Morocco since 2015. He wrote articles and lectured on Haiku. He translated Shadow of a Tree on a Wall, a haiku collection by the Bulgarian poetess Zlatka Timinova. His poetry appeared in many Arabic, French and English anthologies such as Deborah Kapchan’s Poetic Justice, and Anthology of Contemporary Moroccan Poetry (2019).

Abdelkader Jamoussi. Born in Kenitra in 1969. As a diplomat, he has served in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. Currently resides in New York. As a poet, he has published five collections of poetry: Two Knots and One Poem (2006), The Land of the Kangaroo (2014), A Flute to Save the Rose-Haiku Poems (2016), Alphabet 29 haiku (2019) and Tea Ceremony, Haiku and Senryu, a bilingual edition in collaboration with Stanford M. Fo