Brown, RISD, and Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapters are excited to announce that we’re hosting a series of events as part of a collaborative Palestine week of action! Liberatory Politics: Palestine & Everyday Resistance will be a virtual panel on Friday, February 26th from 3:30-5:30 pm EST with Leila Abdelrazaq, Mohammed El Kurd, and Sumaya Awad. This panel discusses Palestine within a framework of embodying liberatory politics in everyday life and work.
Description of speakers: Leila Abdelrazaq is a Palestinian author and artist. Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi (Just World Books 2015) was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards and has been translated into three languages. She is also the creator of a number of zines and short comics. Leila’s creative work primarily explores issues related to diaspora, refugeehood, history, memory, and borders. She earned her MA in Modern Middle Eastern & North African Studies from the University of Michigan in 2020, where her research focused on Palestinian futurist art and post-national imaginaries. Leila is currently interested in exploring the intersections between abolitionist frameworks and no-state liberations. Mohammed El-Kurd is a nationally-touring poet and writer from Jerusalem, Palestine. His work has been featured in The Guardian, This Week In Palestine, Al-Jazeera English, The Nation, and the forthcoming Vaccuuming Away Fire anthology, among others. His debut book RIFQA will be published in 2021 by Haymarket Books. Mohammed graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a B.F.A. in Writing, where he created Radical Blankets, an award-winning multimedia poetry magazine. He is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in poetry from Brooklyn College. His poetry-oud album, Bellydancing On Wounds, was released in collaboration with Palestinian musical artist Clarissa Bitar. Mohammed has spent his undergraduate weekends performing poetry at cultural centers across the United States and hopes to continue in the post-COVID-19 era. Sumaya Awad is a New York-based Palestinian activist and writer. She is the co-founder of the Against Canary Mission Project, which is a platform that defends student activists who have been targeted by blacklists due to their advocacy for Palestinian human rights. She is also the Director of Strategy for Adalah Justice, a U.S.-based Palestinian Advocacy organization that works to shift public discourse and policy on Palestine. Sumaya is the co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, a highly recommended book to read. Open to all. We hope to see you there!