28 September 2011
Alice Walker speaks in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
TEDxRamallahI’m very excited and honored to be sharing the podium with Alice Walker at a Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) event in Oakland California next week. You’re invited!
Back in June, I interviewed Walker just before she joined others aboard the US Boat to Gaza, which like other international boats headed to Gaza, was thwarted by Greek government collusion with the Israeli siege.
Details of the event
Wednesday, October 5, 7pm: An Evening with Ali Abunimah, with Special Guest Alice Walker, at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. For info, 510-548-0542, www.mecaforpeace.org. Benefit for Clean Water for Children in Gaza. Wheelchair accessible, ASL interpreted.
If you can make it, please come. If you know others in the Bay Area who might be interested, let them know. There are not many opportunities to hear Walker speak in person.
Fighting against censorship
MECA has been at the center of the battle against the recent censorship of Gaza children’s art. As The Electronic Intifada reported:
On 8 September, just two weeks before the exhibition was set to open to the public, the board of directors of the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) announced that they had canceled “A Child’s View of Gaza.” The board shut down the show due to pressure from “constituents,” according to a statement made by Randolph Bell, the board’s chairman, in the San Francisco Chronicle (“Oakland museum cancels Palestinian kids’ war art,” 9 September 2011).
The show was curated in partnership with the Berkeley-based non-profit group Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), which has been working for 23 years to advocate for Palestinian, Iraqi and Lebanese children’s rights. Barbara Lubin, MECA’s executive director, told The Electronic Intifada that it was “upsetting and infuriating” that the show was canceled, but she wasn’t surprised.
MECA has decided to exhibit the art itself and the battle against heavy-handed censorship goes on.
Comments
about MECA
Permalink Frigga Karl replied on
Fighting against censorship is today one of the most important militant actions for Palestine. For this reason I will try, with my friends, to bring Alice Walker, Ali Abounimah and the exhibition "A Child's View of Gaza" to Europe, especially to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and eventually to Italy. I hope to be successful.
I will send my contacts as soon as people will work against censorship for Palestinian children (and even more for Children from Gaza) - already without a voice. Let's fight successfully!