There is one genre of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry that is dominated almost exclusively by women: marthiyya (blood lament). Brief and simple in form the marthiyya is typically divided into two parts: a lament for a fallen hero followed by a list of his virtues. This genre of poetry has traditionally been given a second place standing to forms such as the qasida. One scholar, Suzanne Stetkevych, has stepped forward to study and explain marthiyya. Stetkevych argues in The Mute Immortals Speak that marthiyya was not intended to be a complicated or lengthy piece of poetry but rather to fulfill a ritual obligation. This genre, therefore, should be studied within its own context and on its own terms. This paper, which I intend to publish later in the form of an article, will examine three marthiyyas of the female poet, al-Khansa, one of the most renowned composers of marthiyya in the seventh century, written for her brothers, Sakhr and Mu‘awiya. Taking Stetkevych’s assumptions regarding ritual obligation as a starting point I will use performance theory to analyze these three marthiyyas to demonstrate al-Khansa’s artistic virtuosity and the poems’ impact on the audience. Al-Khansa aimed for more than a charming poem; as a poet she engaged her audience, who by their reaction validated and influenced her poetry. The marthiyya both performed a ritual obligation and helped shape society as poet and audience engaged in and reacted to it. By reading the marthiyya poetry of al-Khansa as a performance between poet and audience and looking at its social impacts we can better place the genre within the field of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and within the broader humanities in general. Al-Khansa’s poetry is exemplary of the entire genre of marthiyya. She showed that the marthiyya was more than a poem, more than a ritual obligation: in her hands it became a catalyst by which society was shaped and molded.