Art is a powerful form of storytelling, changemaking, visioning and resistance. It has always been an integral part of Palestinian society and movements to express our narratives. Yet, despite Palestinian art increasingly being programmed on screens and in galleries, attacks on Palestinian or allied artists for their public support for Palestinian human rights persist across North America and Europe. Palestinians and their allies are naming these incidents as anti-Palestinian racism; and are more often using an anti-racism lens to challenge attempts to silence, erase, exclude, dehumanize Palestinians in the public sphere.
This panel will discuss the manifestation of anti-Palestinian racism in the arts and its impacts on both artists and community. It will also explore lessons learned from experiences of anti-Palestinian racism and actions that build solidarity within the arts community.
Speakers
Amany Khalifa, feminist activist, member of The Question of Funding collective
Amany Khalifa is a feminist activist, organizer, and researcher. She is part of the collective Question of Funding (QoF). Amany holds a BA in social work and a master's in Cultural Studies. Currently, she is pursuing her MA in Performance Studies at NYU.
Rehab Nazzal, artist and filmmaker
Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her work deals with the effect of settler colonial violence on the bodies and minds of colonized peoples and on the land and other non-human life. Nazzal’s video, photography, and sound works have been exhibited across Canada and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Nazzal holds a PhD in Art and Visual Culture from Western University (London, Ontario).
Dania Majid, lawyer and festival programmer
Dania Majid is the co-founder and president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association and is the lead author of ACLA’s 2022 report “Anti-Palestinian Racism: Naming, Framing and Manifestations.” Dania is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto Palestine Film Festival; and she sits on the steering committee for the Hearing Palestine program at the University of Toronto. In addition to being a long-time advocate for the Palestinian and Arab community, Dania is also a human rights lawyer and housing advocate with a legal aid clinic in Ontario.
The panel will be moderated by Lubna Taha, writer, curator, research.
Lubna Taha is a Palestinian art writer, curator and a researcher in the field of Cultural Studies. Her studies are focused on the cinema of the Palestinian revolution, music education in occupied Palestine and community projects based on escaped letters written by Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. She also has worked for cultural organizations in Palestine and in Canada including Khalil Sakakini cultural center in Ramallah, the Palestinian Art Court in Jerusalem, and the Isabel Bader Center in Kingston. In Kingston, Lubna is collaborating with local artist Don Maynard and assisted in the Sky Project and in Aqua Nova collective. She is now working on here first curatorial debut with the Canadian/ Portuguese artist Fernando Monte.