Poetry forged in war: Palestinian exile and social media sensation Plestia Alaqad leaves Sydney audience in tears

‘Only in Gaza, you sleep counting rockets rather than stars’: Plestia Alaqad at Sydney Town Hall on Monday night. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

At the Bankstown Poetry Slam, there was poetry – and there was Plestia.

The spoken word grand slam drew an audience of more than 2,000 people to Sydney’s town hall on Monday night, many wearing keffiyeh in solidarity with the Gazan star act, Plestia Alaqad, whose sudden rise to global prominence has been set against the most brutal of backdrops.