London: Gaza Biennale, 6 March

The Gaza Biennale is a collective project of artists from Gaza that has grown into a global art event and protest. Since April 2024, artists from Gaza began to gather together under a single project, to find ways to utilize art to resist this genocide. Many artists in Gaza have been working throughout this war, defying the genocide to create works that remind us that art is essential to life.

On the evening of 6 March, the Biennale will convene the latest collective viewing of the work of these artists outside of The Horniman Museum and Gardens. This gathering is being held outside of The Horniman to protest the institution’s repression of pro-Palestinian art, their normalization of the occupation, and their financial complicity in the Israeli apartheid regime.

You can find out more about the Gaza Biennale at their website, and about their upcoming slate of events in London on their Instagram.

London: Ta-Nehisi Coates with Zena Agha, 3 April

We are thrilled to be bringing Ta-Nehisi Coates to London on 3 April for the UK launch of his new book The Message.

The Message is clear-eyed, honest reportage from one of the most influential American writers on race and politics. It is also a self-reckoning with regards to Palestine. Published in the US last October, the book was an instant best-seller and a media event, catalysing mainstream conversation about Black-Palestinian solidarity as well as US complicity in apartheid and genocide in the lead-up to the presidential elections.

As it launches in the UK, we will hear from Coates about his journey, his writing process and the maelstrom of the book’s reception. He will be in conversation with the brilliant Zena Agha.

You can find more details and reserve your tickets here.

New York: Time, Media, and the Politics of Producing Palestine, 12 March

The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU will be hosting a discussion with the co-editors and two contributors of the newly released edited volume, Producing Palestine: The Creative Production of Palestine Through Contemporary Media. Producing Palestine addresses the creative labor of producing Palestine in technological and media spaces, crossing genres of popular culture and disciplinary boundaries.

Editors Helga Tawil-Souri and Dina Matar will be joined by two contributors the volume, Hadeel Assali and Rayya El Zein.

The event is free and open to the public, with a reception to follow, but it requires prior registration. Find out more and register here.

Book of the Week

Parapraxis, a magazine of Left psychoanalysis, recently released a special issue of its print magazine, Palestine: From the River to the Sea. A call for abolition, transformation, and exit, this special issue places Palestine at the center of our psychic and material worlds alike.

The Palestine special issue features leading thinkers on and theorists of the social, political, and historical stakes of the struggle against Zionism and for Palestinian liberation: Nadia Bou Ali, Mary Turfah, Adam HajYahia, Rana Issa, Nial El Aasar, Jake Romm, Tad Delay, David Markus, Kaleem Hawa, Evan Goldstein, Donald Moss, Lama Khouri, and Yasmin El-Rifae.

All the proceeds of this issue will go to support the work of The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, where trying to understand and helping the victims of this ongoing catastrophe go hand-in-hand.

You can purchase your copy of Palestine: From the River to the Sea at the Parapraxis website.

Reading Roundup

Ramadan in Gaza: Ruins and Unshakable Faith – Esraa Abo Qamar describes the atmosphere that hangs over Ramadan for Gazans this year: a time of humble iftars and resilient faith amid the destruction.

The Notebook Beneath the Rubble – Bassam Emad writes of the uncanny experience of returning to Beit Lahiya after the ceasefire and finding his old journal beneath the rubble of his home, chronicling all the ordinary life that he lost.

Another Episode of Cultural Siege in The Time of Genocide – Ehab Bessaiso characterizes the recent raid on the Educational Bookshop as not just the latest manifestation of Israeli colonial repression, but in fact a ramping-up of surveillance and terror toward Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Idée Fixe – Jake Romm argues that “the Shoah was present for the early Zionist perpetrators of the Nakba both as the crime to be avenged and the model for the barbarity—and efficacy—required to carry that vengeance out.”

A Progressive Education Nonprofit’s Silence on Gaza – Alex Kane examines how a leading organization for anti-genocide pedagogy and curriculum has failed to speak out on Gaza and to support educators facing repression for taking a pro-Palestinian stance. 

The Gaza “Ceasefire” Is at a Crucial Crossroads – Jeremy Scahill appraises the status of the ceasefire deal as its second phase is supposed to begin, highlighting Israel’s noncompliance and the US threats of ethnic cleansing.

Germany’s Next Government Could Be Even Worse on Palestine – Ruairí Casey argues that the ascendance of the right wing in Germany in its recent election will only deepen the German state’s repression of Palestine solidarity. 

Gaza Redux: With 'Iron Wall', Israel Brings Carnage to West Bank – Mariam Barghouti reports on how Israeli airstrikes and tanks are destroying civilian and medical infrastructure across the West Bank as a rehearsal for annexing more Palestinian land.

Three Short Stories – Three pieces of flash fiction by the Gazan writer Omar Hammash: scenes of sudden grief and dreams of Jerusalem.

Scattered– A new poem from Asmaa Tayser Dwaima on the scattering of memory in the wake of loss, “like a flock of birds in the sky, / untouchable / like wind in air / yet stacked with emotions / and ready to burst.”

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