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‘Yusra’s painting was inspired by ‘Ba Ayoon El-Akhbar’ by Ali Omar Ermes and features the same ‘Ba’ letter shape as in the work by Ermes.

a) The large figure in gold at the centre of Ba Ayoon by Ali Omar Ermes is the Arabic letter, Ba, equivalent to the English letter ‘b’. Yusra references this in top left of her work

b) Ba Ayoon contains poetic inscriptions by famous Arab poet, Abi Hemam al-Merri. The theme has to do with taking responsibility rather than blaming others. The poem in Yusra’s painting is her own and relates the message in Abi Hemam al-Merri’s poetry to her concern about protecting the environment.

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كوكبنا بين يديك

Our planet in your hand

By Yusra

Yusra’s commentary on her painting

The hand in my poster is meant to represent humankind as one and the reason why I decided to draw the hand reaching for the earth was to imply that the state of the planet is in our hands and that the more careless we become the more we will grow to regret it. The gap between the hand and the earth is to represent the time we have left and how rapidly the earth is dying. I decided to paint the background with the colours of the earth, blue representing the ocean, green representing greenery and plants and purple to link it with destruction. The reason why I decided to add a lot of purple was to show that the world is imbalanced and that the bad is overpowering the good.

اليد في اللوحة التي رسمتها ترمز للبشرية و لقد قررت ان ارسمها كي ابين ان حالة الارض في يدنا نحن البشر و اننا كلما تخاذلنا عن مساعدة كوكبنا فسوف نندم ندما شديدا. الفراغ الذي بين اليد و الكوكب يبين الوقت الذي لدينا على الارض و يبين كيف سوف تنتهي الارض قريبا و اذا لم يهتم الانسان بحاجياتها كإنقراض الحيوانات و التلوث و تدمير البيئة. قررت ان ارسم الخلفية بالوان الكوكب كالازرق الذي يرمز البحر و الاخضر للاخضرار و رسمت الكثير من البنفسجي الذي يرمز الى الفساد و يبين ان الشر يحيط بالخير.

Yusra’s background

Of Libyan Algerian background, Yusra Budraa, now aged thirteen, was born and grew up in the UK. She speaks Arabic at home with her parents, but English with her siblings. She has attended the Peace School for the past six years. Her level in Arabic is Higher GCSE level.

Note based on discussion between Fatima Khaled and Jim Anderson

The text in Yusra’s painting is in the form of a prose poem or ‘nathr’ as used in Ba Ayoon El-Akhbaar by Ermes. As Fatima Khaled discussed in class, this is a condensed, free verse form, lacking meter or rhyme, which uses various devices, such as repetition and rhetorical questioning to convey a powerful message. Yusra’s wrote her poem in Arabic before translating into English and drew on references to the holy Quran (saying what you do not do) and to well-known Arab proverbs (shame on you for what you did is unforgivable). The writing is vibrant, emotional and direct. It complements and reinforces the theme of taking responsibility for the state of the planet presented in the painting. The combination of visual art and poetry demonstrates emerging skills in the aesthetics of multimodal communication and shows how language learning can be enriched by making space for emotional and multisensory experience. It expresses a deep sense of outrage towards those who have allowed environmental destruction to happen and Yusra is clearly confident in making her voice heard on the subject.

Yusra’s poster about her personal story

The story, which arose from Yusra’s painting and poem (above) has been used as basis for work with classmates on a digital story .

Once there was a girl who dreamt of a world full of joy and peace, but she then realised that the world was filled with corruption leaving her filled with shock and disappointment. Yet rather than blaming it on others she reminded herself of Ali Omar Ermes’ poem giving her inspiration and hope. For this reason, Sarah decided to open a social media page to spread awareness about all that is happening leaving her endlessly hoping that someone will help her, something will change, and along the way she gripped onto her inspiration she held onto the one thing that kept her motivated.

في زمن قريب كانت شابة تحلم بالسعادة و الإ ستقرار في العالم الذي تعيش فيه و لكن لاحظتْ أنّ الواقع عكس ما تعلم به ذلك لانها وجدت العالم الذي تعيش فيه مليئا بالفساد مثل تدمير الشعوب بالحروب و الظلم و العنصرية بين الاجناس وحب المال و تدمير الطبيعة. فبدلا من ان تلوم الاخرين كما قال الشاعر في لوحة الباء للفنان و المفكر علي عمر ارميص “لم نفسا عليك ذنوبها و دع لوم نفس عليك تلوم تليم” و لهذا فكرت سارة ان يكون لها دورا إيجابيا في المجتمع بدل ان تلوم الاخرين. بعد تفكير طويل قرّرت ان تركز على مشكلة البيئة و بالذات تدمير الطبيعة ففتحت صفحة للتواصل الاجتماعي كي تنشر الوعي لهذه المعضلة. لقد كانت لوحة الباء عيون الاخبار للفنان على عمر ارميص الشرارة الاولى الى فتح باب التفكير في هذا الموضوع و كان للابيات النترية اثر ايجابي لمحاولة سارة و جود حلول لمشكلة البيئة و المحيط الذي تعيش فيه.