Slate: Volume 1

A book of remembrance, of light in the darkness, of hope against all odds. A chant to stoke your sacred flame, a song to remember your name. The duality of growing pains and silver linings. The second installment of a chronological series of Kanaan’s lived experience through poetry, this book is largely reflective of her headspace and inner growth during 2022-2025. This season has been anything but easy, yet there’s beauty in the bleak and healing, even at the weakest points. It’s harder to choose love--grittier, messier--but always worth it. Love is the answer; community is the antidote. While originally intended to be released in the same seven-year period it took the author to create Gold, due to deeper awakenings to the magnitude of the forces plaguing and profiting off suffering beings across the world, patterns have been interrupted, and Kanaan is certain this book must be released now. Atrocity no longer has anywhere to hide; the free people of the world scream for justice and unite across all perceived barriers. This is indigenous reclamation, dreaming without limits, and willing a better world through conscious embodiment.

Aenea Kanaan is a mixed Palestinian poet, artist, and storyteller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She uses her degree in communication and rhetorical studies from Syracuse University to build worlds through her imaginative writing and channel her deepest, most intimate feelings into art. Following her first published work (Gold), Slate is the second installment of a lifelong dedication to sharing her headspace through poetry.