Elegy for Susan


Elegy for Susan by Sara Hughes I printed this broadside after a colleague forwarded me an email about the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project. The email was a call for submissions, asking that 130 letterpress printers create broadsides in memory of the 130 people injured or killed in the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, Iraq, in March 2007. This street was the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community, and the group of broadsides were printed in protest and commemoration of this tragic event. I asked my sister Sara for a poem that would fit this project, and together we decided that "Elegy for Susan," which was written for her friend and graduate professor Susan Atefat-Peckham, was the perfect choice. Susan truly embodied the ideals of al-Mutanabbi Street. Each printer donated at least 15 copies of his or her broadside to the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project, which will be sold to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. In addition, all 130 broadsides will be presented to the Iraqi National Library in Baghdad. This broadside has been letterpress printed from 12, 14, and 18 point Centaur metal types and reduction linoleum on Mohawk coverstock paper in 2009. 30 copies printed 11 x 14 inches NFS

Elegy for Susan
by Sara Hughes

I printed this broadside after a colleague forwarded me an email about the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project. The email was a call for submissions, asking that 130 letterpress printers create broadsides in memory of the 130 people injured or killed in the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, Iraq, in March 2007. This street was the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community, and the group of broadsides were printed in protest and commemoration of this tragic event.

I asked my sister Sara for a poem that would fit this project, and together we decided that "Elegy for Susan," which was written for her friend and graduate professor Susan Atefat-Peckham, was the perfect choice. Susan truly embodied the ideals of al-Mutanabbi Street.

Each printer donated at least 15 copies of his or her broadside to the Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project, which will be sold to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. In addition, all 130 broadsides will be presented to the Iraqi National Library in Baghdad. This broadside has been letterpress printed from 12, 14, and 18 point Centaur metal types and reduction linoleum on Mohawk coverstock paper in 2009.

30 copies printed
11 x 14 inches
NFS