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Ramsey Hanhan

Freedom Begins with the Mind!

Published about 12 hours ago • 2 min read

Dear Reader,

“Freedom begins with the mind!” I write in the first of a three-part essay on mental colonization, or how culture leaves enduring traces of unhealthy attitudes that limit us and sabotage our quest for freedom.

Practically overnight after posting it on my Substack, the number of subscribers surged by 30%. I am grateful for all those who took the chance, and hope you will find the subscription worth your time.

Meet me at the Baltimore Book Festival Sunday, where I’ll have the honor of interviewing author Lenna Jawdat about her new poetry book, 70,000, an “embodied meditation on cultural displacement, memory, and resilience.” That will also be a good place to pick up your signed copy of my new book, Palestine Bleeds For You.

Enjoy the new poem, ‘Night’, which I am considering for an upcoming chapbook on the theme of love, loss, and nature. Below, you will also find a conversation with Susan de Groot Heupner for the Kritikos Institute, a newly formed think-tank based in Australia that strives to safeguard intellectual freedom. This succinct interview covers Palestinian liberation, silencing dissent, and decolonising the university.

Finally, as a shoutout to an outstanding volunteer organization that raises funds for education in Palestine (through United Palestinian Appeal), I share a photo from last weekend’s race prep with the Iqraa-DC running group. Though I am not running this year, your donations to the team are most welcome.

With love,
Ramsey Hanhan

EVENTS

Baltimore Book Festival

Conversation with Lenna Jawdat about her new book 70,000: Poems, an “embodied meditation on cultural displacement, memory, and resilience.”

Sunday, Sep. 20

1 PM

31st St. Stage

INTERVIEW

Kritikos Institute: Conversation Starter #2 with Ramsey Hanhan

on Palestinian liberation, silencing dissent, and decolonising the university

Thanks to Susan de Groot Heupner and Shannon Brincat.

CREATIVE WORKS

Poem: Night

If light is what you seek, you must fall in love with the darkness

Decolonize Your Mind! Can you?! – Part 1/3

How Colonialism still haunts us, and why mental colonization is the greatest impediment to Palestinian liberation

RECENT EVENTS

Palestine Bleeds For You

Fomite Press, 2026, 218 pages

The shrieks of warplanes on their way to bomb Gaza provoked Ramsey Hanhan to write. This collection of poetry and essays plumbs the depths of human thought, religion, history, and culture in search of hope amid the world’s criminal silence. In an authentic Palestinian voice, Hanhan sketches the workings of the global machinery of oppression, revealing the centrality of Palestine’s liberation to decolonization, social justice, and environmental justice struggles around the world. “The book I never wanted to write.”

Ramsey Hanhan is a father, scientist, and independent author of two books: Palestine Bleeds For You (2026) and the autobiographical Fugitive Dreams (2022). His short stories, essays, and poetry appear in The Harvard Advocate, Fikra magazine, Scene48, Mondoweiss and other publications. A former physics professor, Ramsey lives near Baltimore, and speaks on Palestine and literature.

Available to talk about Palestine and books.

PO Box 374, Simpsonville, MD 21150
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Ramsey Hanhan

Independent author and speaker. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter for events announcements, upcoming books and other written works, and more.

Ramsey Hanhan (رمزي حنحن) is a father, scientist, and globally-read author of two books: Palestine Bleeds For You (2026) and the autobiographical Fugitive Dreams (2022). His short stories, essays, and poetry appear in The Harvard Advocate, Fikra magazine, Scene48, Mondoweiss and other publications. A former physics professor, Ramsey lives near Baltimore, and speaks on Palestine and literature.

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