Mahmoud Al-Shaer is a Palestinian editor, curator, poet, and cultural organizer. He is an active and influential member of the cultural field in Gaza, founding and leading initiatives such as Majalla 28 and Gallery 28, and coordinating the cultural program at Al-Ghussein Cultural House. Both Gallery 28 and Al-Ghussein Cultural House have since been destroyed, and Mahmoud and his family were displaced multiple times. He recently left Gaza for Bilbao, with his wife Hadil and his three-year-old daughter Nai. His young son, Majd (the twin brother of Nai), had to be evacuated to Turkey with his grandmother, Mahmoud’s mother, for emergency medical care.

On November 8, 2025, he wrote:

My words have died and fallen from me like rubble upon the rubble of my house, my city, Gallery 28, and the historic Al-Ghussein cultural house. My words have died and fallen from me like rubble upon the rubble of sidewalks and streets we once knew by name, by our footsteps. My words have died and fallen from me like rubble swallowing my shadow, turning my memory into dust I now carry within me as though it were air.

Read his ‘I Don’t Want to Forget Who I Am’, ed. Wiam El-Tamami and contribute to his fundraising campaign here.