Author: mara.ahmed

laurie anderson at mass moca

yesterday we spent the afternoon at mass moca (one of my favorite museums in the world). always so much to enjoy and absorb, but i will never forget TO THE MOON, a virtual reality experience by laurie anderson and hsin-chien huang.

“to the moon uses images and tropes from literature, science, science-fiction space movies, and politics to create an imaginary and dark new version of the moon. during the 15-min experience, the viewer is shot out from earth, walks on the surface of the moon, glides through space debris, flies through DNA skeletons, and is lifted up a lunar mountain.”

after i put on my headset, the walls around me began to fold and the floor started to disintegrate. it was a wtf kinda moment. soon i was in space with stars falling around me. i was able to fly to the moon by extending my arms which i could see in front of me, wearing a spacesuit. the seat i was in could pivot 360 degrees so i could look everywhere around me. my shadow (again clothed in a spacesuit) was below me, replicating all my movements as it would have in real life. on the moon i saw ancient sailing ships, dinosaurs, polar bears, and strands of numbers coming at me. at one point my arms turned into giant floppy plush snakes. later they became crystalline amalgamations of numbers. i decided to fly into a rock formation and liked how it shattered. debris hit my helmet, there was dust and the sound of breakage. towards the end of the 15 min, my body seemed to separate – the astronaut part of me peeled itself off and was now hurtling thru space. then laurie anderson’s voice in my ears:

“you know the reason I love the stars is because we can’t hurt them, we can’t burn them, we can’t melt them, we can’t make them overflow, we can’t flood them—so we keep reaching for them.”

if only that were also true of other human beings.

Statement by Birzeit University

We consider it our duty not to expose the bloody barbarism of Zionism; their actions as a fascist state and a ruthless army are more than sufficient to undertake this task. It is our duty to record this moment not as its victims but as the people who will remember, record, survive, and resist it.

Our history will tell the story of these acts not only as a record of colonial brutality but also as a record of our boldfaced determination to live and resist it. We remain attached to our land and to our humanity as Palestinian Arabs – no need to prove our humanity to those who have lost theirs.

…We in occupied Palestine — and all Palestinians — have no illusions in the poetic dreams of the triumph of the pen over the sword because the sword has cut too deeply into our flesh at the hands of an enemy who has been granted by the hypocritical international community and the destiny of imperial history to claim a monopoly on both the sword (that which acts to kill) and the pen (that which narrates the acts of killing). As intellectuals and academics working in occupied Palestine, we have to use our words, however futile they may feel in such critical times. We also have faith in the bold souls of our people, our resistance and the triumph of freedom, and in our inalienable rights. We recognize and proclaim that at this critical and urgent historical juncture, we shall overcome – justice shall overcome. We are not your passive victims; we have been murdered, maimed, and displaced by a settler state driven by an ideology of insane hatred and bloody violence, but we will not be silenced. Our resistance shows us the path forward, and we remain steadfast, and we shall triumph.

clark art institute

it’s rainy today so we spent the day at the clark art institute. first up their exhibition on human ecology and the work of carolina caycedo: “ancestral knowledge and environmentalism are at the core of caycedo’s work, which pays homage to community leaders and native elders, often female, who care for the natural world. she also depicts medicinal traditions of the mohican people native to the land the clark now occupies.”

then a visit to the clark’s permanent collection. was quite taken by the work of frederic remington and winslow homer.

my review: killers of the flower moon

last night we watched ‘killers of the flower moon’ by martin scorsese at images cinema, a wonderful independent film theater in williamstown, massachusetts. it’s an important film about a piece of history that has been deliberately erased. it shows how european settler colonialism comes sheathed in duplicity and death and how indigenous peoples are constantly harmed and betrayed by the very systems they are asked to accept and integrate into. i couldn’t help but think of palestine and the genocidal bombing and starvation of its native population. the violence, pathological lies, greed and treachery we see in the film become an apt metaphor for colonialism itself. a powerful film, a nasty bit of american history. lily gladstone, who plays an osage woman in the film, is stunning.

Read ‘Minor Detail’

Longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature, Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail is an absolute masterpiece.

Palestine-born novelist and essayist Adania Shibli was due to be awarded the 2023 LiBeraturpreis, an annual prize given to female writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab world on Oct 20th.

However, on Oct 13th, the LitProm association (which is sponsored partly by the German government and the Frankfurt Book Fair) that hands out the prize announced it would postpone the award ceremony “due to the war started by Hamas, under which millions of people in Israel and Palestine are suffering”.

Prominent authors and publishers from around the world have accused the Frankfurt Book Fair of “shutting down” Palestinian voices.

I met Adania in Lahore earlier this year, at the Lahore Literature Festival. She is as brilliant and uncompromising as one would expect. Minor Detail is a slim book (about 100 pages) but it “slices through one’s heart” and is unlike any book I’ve read.

Resist censorship and read the book. More about Minor Detail below:

“A haunting meditation on war, violence and memory, Minor Detail cuts to the heart of the Palestinian experience of dispossession, life under occupation, and the persistent difficulty of piecing together a narrative in the face of ongoing erasure and disempowerment.”

colonialism never left us

more than 500 people have been killed in the bombing of a hospital in gaza, where thousands were taking shelter or being treated. this is a nauseating war crime. people describe apocalyptic scenes: headless bodies, charred remains, human fragments everywhere. in a hospital full of children, women, men. old and young. sick people, the wounded, doctors and hospital staff. their collective murder is incomprehensible. heinous.

so is israel’s arrogance. the hubris of committing genocide in full view of the world, with the powerful justifying and aiding their bloodlust.

then there is the vertiginous inversion of reality. the frightful corruption of language. the orwellian dictums that we are hearing are surreal: ethnic cleansing is self defense, genocide is some kind of justice, the killers are victims whose feelings take precedence.

after whining about free speech and ‘je suis charlie’ for a lifetime, france has banned pro-palestinian protests. so has germany. the UK says palestinian flags & slogans are illegal, msnbc has suspended all three of its muslim anchors, and US immigration is harassing palestinians in the diaspora.

in rochester, the palestinian film festival, which had been going on for more than a decade, has been postponed due to pressure from the jewish federation and security concerns.

it’s morally repugnant, violent, unreal.

we can only understand what’s happening around us if we look at it thru the lens of racism and colonialism.

think india’s independence war in 1857 and how spectacular the punishment. a common punishment was to tie so-called mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon.

think the mau mau rebellion (1952-1960) in kenya and its aftermath. the british colonizers used concentration camps, unspeakable torture, and rape as punishment.

think the algerian war of independence (1954-1962) which lasted 8 years, and in which the french butchered 1.5 million algerians, because how dare they.

closer to home, think of all the indian wars (as they were called) and how indigenous people were subjected to campaigns of terror while their land was being stolen.

as the hampton institute said:

oppressed people who fight back against their sadistic oppressors are ALWAYS demonized, dehumanized & labeled “terrorists/animals” by the oppressor nation. nat turner, mandela, assata shakur & the black liberation army, george jackson & the black guerilla family… the list is endless.

good old colonialism never left us. it’s always been in our face.

enough is enough.

A Palestine reading list from Black Women Radicals

There is no excuse, absolutely none, for being uneducated on Palestine. A brilliant reading list from Black Women Radicals ????

Repost from @blackwomenradicals:

We, who believe in freedom, we as Black feminists who believe in freedom –– freedom from white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, transphobia, queerphobia, ableism, and other oppressions –– unabashedly believe in and stand in solidarity for a free Palestine.

We created a reading list that offers a brief primer on the radical Black feminist political mandate, which is solidarity with Palestine.

viva palestina

hundreds, possibly thousands, at the long island rally for palestine in mineola today, organized by the muslim community of nassau county. as one of the imams said, the US, with its own problems of settler colonialism and systemic racism, should recuse itself from any form of arbitration/ participation and withdraw all its arms, military personnel, and money. end the bombing. end genocide now.

viva palestina!

first real time genocide in human history

what’s happening in gaza is the first real-time, live, in full-view-of-the-world genocide in human history. if u are praying for israel, the settler colony perpetrating this genocide, and harping on hamas attacks, then u are not human (as one of my palestinian friends wrote). it’s physically painful for us (the non-white/non-western people of the world) to see your callous posts and inane bothsidism. u don’t know that much about palestine? that’s not an excuse. if u are an adult, educate yourself. i see social media as a place to create community, not to butt heads with people. the real world is ugly enough. i will say goodbye to any form of colonialism or racism i encounter.

Stop the genocide in Gaza

CNN: At least 1,799 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza from Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. The death toll includes 583 children and 351 women. An additional 7,388 people have been injured, including 1,901 children and 1,185 women.

Ali Harb: Israel has informed the UN that 1.1 million people have 24 hours to leave the northern Gaza strip. You know how you read about ethnic cleansing and genocide in history books and wonder, how could it happen? That’s how: Drumming up anger to achieve full dehumanization.

The United Nations reports that 423,000 Palestinians have already been internally displaced within Gaza, and “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

What can Americans do to stop this ethnic cleansing and genocide?

Pls see comments: a list by JVP, a tool/script by uscpr.org, also pls support the Palestinian Red Crescent Society:

“Despite the occupation’s threats to shell; the decision has been made. We did and will not leave. Our medics will carry on their humanitarian duties. We won’t leave people to face death alone.”

Devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

On October 7 2023 at around 11:00 local time, a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 25 miles west of Herat City in Herat Province, western Afghanistan. Following the initial quake, several aftershocks rippled through the region, affecting neighboring provinces of Badghis and Farah as well.
Four days after the initial earthquake, a second 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Herat, Afghanistan.

The latest official reports paint a grim picture: over 1,200 lives lost and 1,663 people injured across eleven villages of Zindajan district, Herat Province. More than 12,000 people have been affected.

Entire communities have been razed to the ground, leaving behind a trail of destruction and despair. In the immediate aftermath, many families fled their homes, leading to a significant displacement towards Herat city center.

A dire situation unfolded within the first 24 hours since the earthquake struck. Hundreds of homes and critical infrastructure were obliterated. Now, thousands of people find themselves grappling with the harsh reality of their circumstances.

Nights are bitterly cold, with temperatures plummeting to around 50 degrees fahrenheit. Families are forced to sleep under the open skies, battling freezing conditions, lack of essential supplies, and looming threats to their safety.

Adding to this crisis is the pre-existing vulnerability of the region. Afghanistan was already reeling from the aftermath of recent floods and political instability even before this earthquake. A staggering 29 million people were in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Please help as much as you can.