<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;">Commemorating the 62nd Anniversary of the Nakba in Palestine, <br>please
join us for an evening of readings from the work of Palestinian writer <span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_0">Ghassan Kanafani</span><br><br><span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_1">Thursday May 20th, 2010<br>7:00 PM</span><br>Lewis
Room<br>Cambridge Public Library, Central Square<br>45 Pearl St,
Cambridge<br>accessible by bus and red line, Central Sq stop, wheelchair
accessible<br>This event is free.<br><br>Featuring: <br>Sameer
Abu-Alsaoud<br>Laila Murad<br>Nada Samih<br>Dara Bayer<br>Lana Habash<br>Spiritchild<br>Viviane
Saleh-Hanna<br>Gina Rodriguez <br>and <br>Ashanti Allston, former
political prisoner<br><br>There will be readings of Kanafani's work,
musical performance, a photo exhibit, and <br>Palestinian food.<br><br><br>From
Ghassan Kanafani's "Returning to Haifa", 1969: <br><br>"What happened
to you, Said?"<br>"Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just asking. I'm
looking for the true Palestine, <br>the Palestine that's more than
memories, more than peacock feathers, more than a son, <br>more than
scars written by bullets on the stairs. I was just saying to myself: <br>What's
Palestine with respect to Khalid? He doesn't know the vase or the
picture <br>or the stairs or Halisa or Khaldun. And yet for him,
Palestine is something worthy <br>of a man bearing arms for, dying
for.... Tens of thousands like Khalid won't be stopped <br>by the tears
of men searching in the depths of their defeat for scraps of armor and
broken flowers. <br>Men like Khalid are looking toward the future, so
they can put right our mistakes and the <br>mistakes of the whole
world..." <br><br>
<br>History: <br>This May marks the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba
(Arabic for "catastrophe") in Palestine in 1948 when over 935,000
Palestinians (85% of the indigenous population of Palestine at that
time) were forced off their land, in some cases at gunpoint, in
other cases through massacres or threats of massacres like the massacre at
<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_2">Deir</span> Yassin. As a
result, 530 of an estimated 550 total villages were completely destroyed
or depopulated. "<span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_3">Israel</span>"
was founded on the racist ideology of zionism. It has followed the
expansionist and genocidal logic of white supremacy and colonialism
for over sixty years. Today, the genocide in Palestine continues: from
the planned expulsion of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, to
the demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied Al Quds (<span style="cursor: pointer; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_4">Jerusalem</span>),
to the continued siege of the people of Gaza-- deprived of food, water,
electricity, and medicine-- to the mass detention of over 11,000
Palestinian political prisoners. <br><br>Ghassan Kanafani, beloved
Palestinian writer, was murdered by Zionist forces in 1972. His work
reminds us of the spirit of resistance that has sustained the <span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1273869243_5">Palestinian people</span> for
generations. <br><br>Please join us.<br><br>**The Cambridge Public
Library is not a sponsor of this event.</div><br>
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