Memory, Resistance, and Restitution: Injustice and Pain in the US and the Middle East
We continue the discussion from our June 12th Creative Conversation with Ali Abu Awwad and others, our Book Club chat on The Lemon Tree, and touch on topics raised with our panel featuring the artists of the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, as we welcome Michael McRay, author of I am Not Your Enemy, a travelogue exploring reverberations of racial oppression in the US with Palestinian and Israeli stories of injustice and resilience. With special guest artist respondents from communities here in the US and on the ground in the Middle East.
Join us @ 4PM on June 22nd at
https://zoom.us/j/93766522581?pwd=dkN0N3JFdWx3Z1Vwd1FIbllWQUMxdz09
Meeting ID: 937 6652 2581
Password: Change
Dialogue Is Not The Goal
(An excerpt from I Am Not Your Enemy by Michael T. McRay.)
...My request was simple: I’d like to visit her university in the West Bank to speak with her and some of her students about their thoughts on reconciliation efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.
I glance at the preview text and open the message to be sure there’s not more written. There’s not. Only sixteen words, her message contains a multitude of stories and frustrations and traumas and longings.
She’s written, “This is an inappropriate conversation. We are being occupied. We should talk about justice not reconciliation.” [read the chapter.]