Suheir Hammad rapping her poem "Of Refuge and Language," on dislocation from Palestine to New Orleans.
I went to two screenings this week. The first was a "Palestinian Lord of the Flies" (honestly, I was on the fence) called Secret World, where Ramallah children wake up one morning to find all the adults have disappeared. So they run around their school (an Evangelical school in Ramallah) and make their own little societies. The occupation isn't a major topic, but one girl wanders over to Jerusalem and back along the apartheid wall....I wouldn't call it an uplifting film, but it was fun for me to watch because the kids were around the ages of the kids I teach; I really have a soft spot for middle schoolers now. It was fun to imagine how they would all get along, and what they would find in common.
The second screening was footage from a Suheir Hammad poetry reading and interview. Audience member: how do you reach diverse audiences?
Suheir: When you can talk to a grandmother, and talk to a grandchild, and know that they understand your message, you're on the right track...
When she performs for incarcerated youths she encorporates modern hip hop into her routine. I've been thinking the same thought today, after our history teacher asked the class what a "boo purse" was. Everyone erupted, because they knew that Lil Wayne raps about hiding a gun in his "boo purse," his girlfriend's purse. I need to do a little homework and start turning on the radio, if anything to understand why they have trouble with the possessive.
This common ground thing also applies to the Palestine project. New Orleans is so diverse, my own community so diverse, that I can't approach this issue in the same way when I talk to my church, my school, my co-workers, my co-volunteers, my Kappa sisters, my relatives, fellow activists...I'd say the most enjoyable would be strangers on the streetcar or at a bar...it's so easy to pretend that the Pro-Palestine movement is mainstream and see how they react. One time the groom at a bachelor party argued with me over Israel's security needs for an hour then confessed to having played the "devil's advocate," he actually thought it was all bullshit. It was exhausting, but I appreciated the practice.
Anyways, I made a great contact at the second screening, a rep from LifeSource, which works for Palestinian water rights in Ramallah. Hoping to pay a visit while I'm over there....
