A white person attending the Bernie Sanders' rally in Seattle last week probably understood what was happening as an unwelcome, uninvited interruption of Bernie’s attempts to speak on social programs. But in the world of Marissa Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford, the two Black Lives Matter activists who took the stage, they weren’t just interrupting Bernie Sanders—they were interrupting white supremacy.
Sara Z.E.Hughes works as AFSC's social media specialist. Sara is an artist, filmmaker and cultural worker who uses art for social change, a tool AFSC uses in our program work in many places including two recent traveling exhibits, Boycott: The Art of Economic Activism and All of Us or None: Responses and Resistance to Militarism. This piece explores several artists who effectively use different media to work for social justice.
Sara Zia is a curator of film, visual art and new media and for over a decade has produced film screenings and exhibits in the Philadelphia area. She has worked as a consultant with Independent Television Service (ITVS) and with individual independent filmmakers on their engagement and outreach campaigns.
Though this piece, an exploration of working within an anti-racist framework in all work against oppression, but particularly in the movement to end the occupaton of Palestinian territory, is a personal statement by Mike Merryman-Lotze, it does reflect AFSC's organizational position with regard to this issue. Update, Sept.
In this piece Sahar Vardi reflects in journal form on the recent stabbing of a young woman at a Gay Pride protest in Tel Aviv (the young woman has subsequently died) and the arson attack on a Palestinian home that left a toddler burned to death. Sahar is AFSC's Israel program coordinator based in Jerusalem. - Lucy
July 30th