New News
Old News
Events
Watch ListenPressroom
View iWord Survey results
View Intifada Litmus Test Results
Saturday, May 30, 12:15pm
Textile Design for Social Justice
Learn how to use textile stenciling as a tool to promote a social justice campaign. Bring your own t-shirt, scarf, (or whatever) to print on. Check it out!
Tuesday, May 5, 7pm
David Teague's "Intifada NYC" new York Premier
Check out the film's new website for more information and the trailer: www.intifadanyc.com
"Scene: Brooklyn" Festival website: http://scenebrooklyn.bside.com/2009/films/intifadanyc_scenebrooklyn2009
The program (featuring a few other Brooklyn-themed documentaries) runs 89 minutes total. Tickets are $5 and are only available at the door the night of the show-- box office opens at 6pm. The show may sell out, so you might want to try to get there a little early to make sure you get tickets.
I hope to see you there!
"Intifada NYC"
Brooklyn Arts Council's "Scene: Brooklyn" Festival
part of the "Brooklyn Current" program
7pm, Tuesday, May 5th, $5
Galapagos Arts Space
16 Main Street at Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
Total program running time: 89 minutes
Brooklyn Love | Chris King 2008
Intifada NYC | David Teague 2009
Subprimed | Kahil Skhymba, Sarah Friedland, Nayo Joy Simmons 2008
Brooklyn Boondoggle | 2008
http://www.galapagosartspace.com/
Saturday, October 18 2008
Challenging Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Racism in Our Public Schools
Join us at the CUNY Social Forum
11:20-12:50
at CUNY, 160 Convent Avenue
NAC Building Room 5/111
Panelists: Paula Hajar, educator and writer on Arab Americans; Mona Eldahry, AWAAM: Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media; Edwin Mayorga, New York Collective of Radical Educators and Graduate Center at CUNY: Debbie Almontaser, founding principal, KGIA; Donna Nevel and Perla Placencia, Center for Immigrant Families
Moderator: Adem Carroll, Muslim Consultative Network
The panelists will briefly share the history of KGIA; the connections between the attacks on KGIA and the challenges facing the Muslim and Arab A,merican communities; the organizing that has taken place; and how the issue of KGIA fits into the larger struggles for justice in public education. The majority of the time will be devoted to a discussion among the panelists and audience about how we can best move forward to address and respond to the critical issues raised by what happened to KGIA. We will consider CUNY's responsibility to take action on these issues, especially given that a member of the CUNY board of trustees was a leading voice attacking the school and its founding principal. What is the role and responsibility of a public university like CUNY to respond to anti-Arab/anti-Muslim attacks from a member of its board? How can the CUNY community, CISKGIA, and other concerned New Yorkers organize together to insure that bigotry will not be allowed to influence which public schools should exist and who should lead them? How can we join together to make sure we have a public education system that is accountable to all our communities?
Communities in Support of KGIA (CISKGIA) (www.kgia.wordpress.com) is a coalition of individuals and organizations from a multitude of communities, who have come together to support NYC's first Arabic dual language public school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, and its founding principal, Debbie Almontaser, and to speak out against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. As a result of a smear campaign against her and the school, the Mayor and Department of Education (DOE) forced Debbie Almontaser to resign from her position at KGIA and then declined to fairly consider her application for the position of permanent principal. From the outset, it has been clear that the attacks on Debbie Almontaser and KGIA have been part of a larger coordinated right-wing attack in NYC—and nationwide—on Muslims and Arabs in America.
Had the school and its principal received the support they deserved from the Department of Education (DOE), the Mayor, New Visions for Public Schools, and the President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and had the parents, community members, and teachers been part of the decision-making process, rather than the decision being handed down by the Mayor, voices of racism and bigotry would not have prevailed.
http://www.awaam.org
Join together, in real time, with participants of the Americas Social Forum in Guatemala, for a simultaneous workshop on collaborative democracy and the Internet. This workshop is a unique opportunity for those of us in New York to attend the forum, interact directly with Latin American activists and organizers, and contribute to building a collaborative and democratic agenda on the Internet.
Date: Thursday, October 9
Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm America/New York time
Locations: New York City, Brecht Forum / Guatemala City, San Carlos University
The Americas Social Forum (ASF) is happening in Guatemala City October 7 - 12. It is part of the World Social Forum (WSF) process initiated in 2001 which has become the largest space for the articulation of social initiatives, the development of critical thinking, and the construction of alternatives to the neoliberal order, under the common belief that Another World is Possible.
Several of MF/PL member organizations are attending this year's ASF and MF/PL itself is being represented by co-director Jamie McClelland and member Maritza Arrastia.
The workshop will be based on our Internet rights workshop, presented at the US Social Forum and several other conferences since then, in which we use the Internet itself to collaboratively build a common document. However, for the ASF, will introduce several key, new features:
* The goal will be to come to an agreement on our Internet agenda, rather than focusing on Internet rights
* We will run the workshop over the Internet, with one session in Guatemala, one in New York
* We will operate in both Spanish and English
To RSVP, please email mallory@mayfirst.org.
Why attend?
The Social Forum of the Americas is taking place in Guatemala starting October 7 and we can't think of a moment when an event of this type was more appropriate. Internet work is no longer a field pursued only by technical people. It has become one of the most critical areas in use by all organizers. Developing a common agenda, hemisphere-wide, on how to develop, organize and expand the Internet is critically important for the left. This workshop is designed for activists of all technical capabilities to collaboratively build a common, hemispheric, agenda for the Internet.
The workshop usually attempts to put together a statement of Internet rights through collaborative discussions using Internet technology. This time, we're going to do an agenda for Internet users throughout the Hemisphere and think about ways to work to push for and realize this agenda.
And the workshop itself will reflect that hemispheric approach. It will be held in two locations simultaneously: San Carlos University (the site of the Social Forum of the Americas) and the Brecht Forum in New York. This isn't two workshops in two places; this is one simultaneously conducted workshop, over the Internet, with participants in those two places.
It's an attempt to start working on a model for collaboration among the people, movements and organizations of the Americas: to grapple with the differences in perceived Internet needs and rights (and how those are prioritized) as well as culture and language and the basics democratic collaboration. Many of the planners are hoping that this "model" can help contribute to collaborations of this type in many areas.
Above event is for individuals ages 21 and over :(
Friday, May 16 2008
COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF AL-NAKBAH
The Palestinian and Arab Communities of New York and New Jersey
call upon all supporters and solidarity groups to join us
On May 16, in New York at Dag Hammarskjöld Park 1:00 PM
Organized by the Steering Committee of the 60th Commemoration of Al-Nakbah
Endorsed by:
Arab Muslim American Federation, National Council of Arab Americans, Palestinian American Congress, Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition-NY
For more information, visit http://www.nakbah1948.org
Monday, April 28 2008
ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE ATTACK ON DIVERSITY AT CUNY
An Urgent Conversation
Debbie Almontaser
Professor Susan O Malley
Mona Eldahry, AWAAM
Adem Carroll, CISKGIA
Monday April 28; 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Room 5414 (DSC Lounge)
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue (34 St)
Around the country, Islamophobic and Anti-Arab attacks on professors have
increased, most notably at Columbia and Barnard. This movement to attack
and discredit dissent has been called "the New McCarthyism" --shutting down
reasoned debate on important issues. Unfortunately this hurtful trend is
also significantly **represented at CUNY** at its Trustee level, in the
person of Jeffrey S. Weisenfeld, who is also head of the Stop the Madrassa
Coalition.
With no factual basis, Weisenfeld's STM coalition has been waging a relentless
attack on Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy, a dual language
public school, depicting it as an "Islamist vocational school...with an Arab
supremacist mindset in the mold of KGIA'S principal Dhabah Almontaser."
Forced out of her job by right wing tabloids & with no push back from the
Bloomberg Administration, Founding Principal Debbie Almontaser has been
fighting for her rights. She has been defended by educators, community
groups and parents in coordination with Communities in Support for the
Khalil Gibran International Academy: see www.kgia.wordpress.com.
Ms. Almontaser will appear on this panel along with CUNY Professor Susan O'
Malley and others working to expose the attack on academic freedom across
the nation.
PLEASE JOIN US: There is some urgency here as these attacks are one tip
of a vast ideological iceberg that is also threatening to impact the current
election campaign.
What does this mean for CUNY students and faculty?*
Co-sponsored by MESO (Middle East Students Organization) at CUNY GC and
CISKGIA (Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy)
For more info, please visit: www.kgia.wordpress.com.
Saturday, March 15 2008 at the Left Forum
THE BACKLASH AGAINST DISSENT ON ISRAEL - STRATEGIES FOR RESPONSE
Drawing upon their own experiences, panelists will address how dissenting voices on Israel have been suppressed or silenced, and ways to respond politically to the backlash that is taking place against dissent on Israel.
Joel Kovel – Author, Overcoming Zionism, Founding Member, Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism (CODZ)
Debbie Almontaser – Educator, Founding Principal, Khalil Gibran International Academy, New York City
Mona Eldahry -Founding Director, AWAAM: Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media
Donna Nevel – Community Psychologist and Educator
Alison Weir – Journalist, Founder of If Americans Knew
Moderator: Esther Kaplan – Investigative editor at the Nation Institute, Author of With God on Their Side: George W. Bush and the Christian Right
Sunday, March 16 2008 at the Left Forum
RACIAL JUSTICE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
Panelists will discuss the ways in which different communities are addressing the challenges they face fighting for justice in public education, how they have resisted and organized, and how their particular struggles, such as communities in support of the Khalil Ghibran International Academy, speak to the larger political climate of the US.
Priscilla Gonzalez – Center for Immigrant Families
Donna Nevel – Center for Immigrant Families
Mona Eldahry – Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media
Adem Carroll – Muslim Consultative Network
Fatin Jarara – Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media
Moderator: Makani Themba-Nixon – Executive Director, The Praxis Project
Register
Members contact us for free or discounted tickets.
Sunday, February 2 2008 Handala Takes Aim
Print T-Shirts with AWAAM at the Grassroots Media Conference