Dear Freedom

This is the eighth collaboration between Lebanese visual artist Hanan Kazma and American poet Richard Leach, pairing her images with his poems written in response. It features heavily manipulated images Kazma has created. Some are free expression, others are responses to Lebanon’s corrupt political leaders and ongoing crisis. In addition there are her self-portraits, images from Beirut walls, and a different version of the title image from their previous book, To Wrestle with the Angel--Art, with a new poem. Kazma is self-taught in several media and began a serious pursuit of photography in 2009. She lives in Beirut. Leach is a visual artist and poet in Stamford, Connecticut. He and Kazma met online in 2009 and published their first collaborative book, Unlike Things Must Meet, in 2011. Leach is also a Christian sacred poet whose words for hymns and anthems have been set to music by many composers and are widely published and sung.