What I Will

“I will not dance to your war drum,” declares poet and activist Suheir Hammad, an American of Palestinian descent, in her poem “What I Will.” “I know that beat. It is lifeless.”

This short video was published in 2013, an excerpt and alternative kind of trailer for Johan Grimonprez’s Shadow World, based on Andrew Feinstein’s eponymous book on the global arms trade. Hammad recites her poem in the piece, a powerful expression of dissent that ends with a glimmer of hope. Grimonprez accompanies it with archival footage of the sabre-rattling of military parades and anti-aircraft guns.