On Wednesday, the Research Journalism Initiative (RJI) facilitated a videoconference between An Najah National University and Colorado Academy in the United States. The exchange featured three Palestinian poets who shared their poems and reflected upon their experiences. This event was the first videoconference between these two institutions, and part of RJI’s broader efforts to connect students of An Najah with their colleagues in US classrooms.Students in Colorado and the poets in Nablus met virtually to discuss the importance of poetry of witness. Falastine Dwikat, a graduate student in the Department of English Language and Literature and RJI’s Program Manager in Nablus, started the session by reading her poem "Identity," which explores themes of identity, its meaning and the quest of searching for it. When asked what ID meant to her, she replied "An identity, in the larger sense, is something we fight for and is important for us to know where we stand in this world. Nevertheless, in the ongoing situation in Palestine and with the Israeli apartheid, an ID has the worst connotation because it turned Palestinians into numbers and "security threats"."Ikhlas Shtayyeh, also a graduate student of the Department of English Language and Literature, read her poem "In Gaza" in which she voiced her feelings about the last Israeli war on Gaza. Students at Colorado Academy asked her about the images in her poem, to which she replied, "Although I was born blind and I don't see what goes around me, the pain I feel as a Palestinian living under the Israeli occupation is beyond physical sight, and it inspires in me the images I include in my poetry.”Saed Abu-Hijleh, a teacher of Palestinian geography, poet and long-time contributor to RJI, recited his poem "Messenger of Peace 2010," in which he states that the cradle of peace is violated everyday by the Israeli apartheid and occupation. When asked if he was optimistic, he replied, "If I wasn't optimistic, I wouldn't write poetry, and I hope to change hearts and minds with it. Fanaticism and bigotry make people blind and I want to break through these patterns with my poems."Students of Colorado Academy read some of the poems they wrote during their poetry of witness class and shared their thoughts as well. They also shared what poetry meant to them and their belief in its power to change the world.RJI’s program at An Najah National University in Nablus is designed to provide new opportunities for cooperation between Palestinian students and their counterparts across the world. RJI is a project of the Assistant to the President for International and Strategic Affairs at An Najah National University and is hosted as an independent global studies initiative at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute for Excellence. For more information, please visit us at http://www.RJIPalestine.net.