Flowers Blossomed Out Of Broken Concrete By Nada Sehnaoui

Flowers Blossomed out of Broken Concrete was created after August 4, 2020, in a studio shattered by the Beirut blast—no glass intact, no door standing, no window left whole.

Those who lived in this building, and I who worked in it, were spared; at 6:07 p.m., no one was inside. The building absorbed the blast alone.

Others were not as fortunate.

Hundreds died.
Children died.
Thousands were injured.

Five years later, I still find shards of glass in the studio, tucked into the most unexpected corners.

Five years later, flowers blossomed out of broken concrete.