Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile. Wikipedia

Thousand Oaks is an affluent city in southeastern Ventura County, California, part of the Greater Los Angeles Area in the United States. Thousand Oaks is located approximately 35 miles from Downtown Los Angeles and is also less than 15 miles from the Los Angeles city neighborhood of Woodland Hills. Wikipedia