A 24-hour online event featuring 100+ Global Artists and Activists for a Free Palestine, including performances and presentations honoring the Palestinian people and their steadfastness in the face of genocide, and discussions of how to build solidarity in the global movement for Palestinian liberation.
Title inspired by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish
Organized and produced by Golden Thread Productions, co-produced with Art2Action, in partnership with the MENA Theatre-Makers Alliance (MENATMA), Ashtar Theatre, The Freedom Theatre, Zoukak Theatre Company, Noor Theatre, Donkeysaddle Projects, and Dunya Productions; hosted by HowlRound Theater Commons.
No registration required. Livestream on HowlRound.
View the Digital Program here.
10:00 AM Pacific | 1:00 PM Eastern | 8:00 PM Palestine
Title: The Freedom Theatre: Making Art in the Midst of War Description: This session will present the work that The Freedom Theatre continues to produce amidst the worst circumstances the theatre has faced in history. Artistic Director Ahmad Tobasi will discuss the current circumstances at the theatre and in Jenin Camp. Two student actors will present their perspectives, and Alla Sheheda, actor, comedian and graduate of the TFT Acting School will perform a selection of his one man play, “The Horse”.
Moderator: Gary M. English (Former Artistic Staff, The Freedom Theatre; Distinguished Professor of Drama, UConn; Visiting Professor Al Quds University, Palestine).
Speakers: Ahmad Tobasi (Artistic Director), Alaa Shehada (Actor), and Ranin Odeh and students Chantel Rizkalla, Aya Samara and Naqaa Sammor
Duration: 80 minutes
11:30 AM Pacific | 2:30 PM Eastern | 9:30 PM Palestine
Title: Palestinian Artists in the Global Diaspora
Description: A conversation with Palestinian theater and film artists and activists Raeda Taha, Aliya Khalidi and Eyas Younis, following a short presentation of original work by Raeda Taha titled “The Significance of the Palestinian Narrative in Collective Memory Through Theatre.”
Moderator: Catherine Coray, (Arts Professor, NYU and Producing Associate, Noor Theatre)
Speakers: Raeda Taha, Eyas Younis, Aliya Khalidi
Duration: 90 minutes
1:00 PM Pacific | 4:00 PM Eastern | 11:00 PM Palestine
Title: Gaza Now: Witnessing the Witnesses
Description: A reading of found testimonies and words by witnesses and survivors of the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza, Palestine which started on October 7 and is still ongoing. The reading will be followed by a conversation with Youmna El Sayed, a journalist and a correspondent for Al Jazeera English, and Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian, both from the Gaza Strip.
Presenter: Sahar Assaf (Executive Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions)
Actors: Nora el Samahy, Hadi Tabbal, Maya Nazzal, Hiba Sleiman
Speaker: Youmna El Sayed (Journalist) and Mosab Abu Toha (Poet)
Duration: 60 minutes
2:00 PM Pacific (July 20)| 5:00 PM Eastern (July 20) | 12:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: The Revolution’s Promise
Description: A reading of excerpts from The Revolution’s Promise, a collection of testimonies from artists across Palestine. The monologues celebrate cultural resistance while highlighting censorship and attacks on artists.
Moderator: Kate Moore Heaney (Artistic Producer, Noor Theatre)
Actors: Waseem Alzer, Heather Raffo, Najla Said, Victoria Nassif, Haneen Rafat, Haneen Arafat Murphy, Rudy Roushdi.
Duration: 60 minutes
3:00 PM Pacific (July 20)| 6:00 PM Eastern (July 20) | 1:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: Creating free Palestine through song, dance, and stories from the diaspora
Description: Exploring the work of artists including electro-dabke band 47Soul, musical theatre writer Fouad Dakwar, songwriter Naima Shalhoub, and more, we will discuss the role of these artists in activating the diaspora through song and dance.
Moderator: J.J. El-Far (Independent Creative Producer) and Kate Moore Heaney (Arts Manager)
Artists: Fouad Dakwar and Naima Shalhoub
Duration: 60 minutes
4:00 PM Pacific (July 20) | 7:00 PM Eastern (July 20) | 2:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: From Kars to Gaza
Description: Armenians experienced genocide in 1915 and forced displacement as recently as 2023. How does this history inform our understanding and response to the atrocities in Gaza?
Moderator: Torange Yeghiazarian (Founding Artistic Director Emeritus, Golden Thread Productions/Founding Board Member, MENA Theater Makers Alliance)
Speakers: Raffi Wartanian (poet & performer), Ojig Yeretsian (community builder), SEVAN SEVAN (playwright & performer), Nancy Agabian (author)
Duration: 60 minutes
5:00 PM Pacific (July 20) | 8:00 PM Eastern (July 20) | 3:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: Shared Struggles and Resilience
Description: A discussion with Afghan artists exploring the common struggles between their life experiences and those of Palestinians, focusing on how the war against Palestinians has impacted their activism and artistic expression. The panel aims to shed light on the resilience and creativity that emerge in times of conflict, fostering a deeper understanding, allyship, and solidarity between communities with shared struggles and histories.
Moderator: Humaira Ghilzai (Cultural Producer and Co-Founder Afghan Friends Network)
Speakers: Matin Maulawizada (Co-founder of Afghan Hands and Human Rights Advocate), Gazelle Samizay (Multimedia Artist), Zelikha Shoja (Filmmaker), Alexandra Millatmal (Writer and Unionized Software Engineer)
Duration: 60 minutes
6:00 PM Pacific (July 20) | 9:00 PM Eastern (July 20) | 4:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: A Moon Will Rise from Darkness: Poetry for Palestine
Description: Internationally acclaimed poets from Palestine, Lebanon, and the diaspora in the United States come together for a special reading of their poetry, which has for decades uplifted the stories, voices, resilience, beauty, and resistance of the Palestinian people. Poetry for Palestine illuminates the soul of a people, tells the truths of lived experience, and celebrates the rising global movement toward liberation, even in these darkest hours. (Title inspired by Mahmoud Darwish.)
Moderator: Andrea Assaf (Artistic / Executive Director, Art2Action)
Poets: Naomi Shihab Nye, Suheir Hammad, Deema Shehabi, Mosab Abou Toha, and Zeina Hashem Beck
Duration: 90 minutes
7:30 PM Pacific (July 20) | 10:30 PM Eastern (July 20) | 5:30 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: “As We Near The End”: Play Reading and Conversation
Description: “As We Near The End (or What Adorno Said)” by Yussef El Guindi focuses on the speaker’s attempt to grapple with whether or not art is useful during a time of dire conflict. The discussion to follow will expand on that theme and wrestle further with the question of art’s effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) to resist the machinery of war. Can art be of any use at such a time? Is it a distraction, or can it move the needle on anything?
Director/Moderator: Torange Yeghiazarian (Playwright, Director)
Speakers: Sholeh Asgary (Interdisciplinary artist, electroacoustic composer, performer, and educator.), Roberto Varea (Founding Faculty, Performing Arts and Social Justice Program, University of San Francisco), Heather Raffo (Playwright and Actor), and Yussef El Guindi (Playwright)
Duration: 60 minutes
8:30 PM Pacific (July 20) | 11:30 PM Eastern (July 20) | 6:30 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: Palestinian Art & Queer Resistance
Description: A walk-through history of Palestinian queer resistance until present time. How we continue challenging the empire through Palestinian queer expression.
Moderator: Nida Liftawiya, Palestinian Activist, Artist & Educator
Presenter: Mama Ganuush, Drag Artist & Activist
Duration: 60 minutes
9:30 PM Pacific (July 20) | 12:30 AM Eastern (July 21) | 7:30 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: There Is A Field: Screening & Discussion
Description: In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed 17-year old Asel Asleh. His story is tragically familiar for Americans, but Asel was not killed in Ferguson, New York City, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. Asel was a Palestinian teenager who was murdered by Israeli police as he participated in a demonstration, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and settler-colonization. There Is A Field began as a play about Asel, told from the perspective of his older sister, Nardin. Through Nardin’s struggle to cope with the murder of her brother, the play offers a uniquely personal lens for learning about intersecting systems of oppression, including Zionism and white supremacy—root causes of state-sanctioned violence and structural racism. Donkeysaddle Projects filmed a performance-reading of There Is A Field, performed by activists, artists and organizers from the Movement for Black Lives. There Is A Field film weaves together their performance with archival footage of Asel, and the activists’ own realizations of the parallels they see between Asel’s story and the experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities in the United States. The film, set in Palestine and performed by BIPOC artists and activists in the US, builds solidarity across intersectional struggles for liberation and decolonization, and is sure to spark conversation and connection.
Moderator: Aejay Mitchell (Actor)
Speakers: Jen Marlowe (Founder, Donkeysaddle Projects), James Klynn (Performer-activist), Anyssa Mahmoud
Duration: 90 minutes
11:00 PM Pacific (July 20) | 2:00 AM Eastern (July 21) | 9:00 AM Palestine (July 21)
Title: Silencing Voices for Palestine in Hollywood
Description: Los Angeles based artists in the entertainment industry talk about the challenges of advocating for Palestine in an incredibly Zionist environment.
Moderator: Edward Hong (Actor + Watermelon Club Member)
Speakers: Rolla Selbak (Filmmaker), Myriam Ali-Ahmad (Actor), Sarah Alami (Actor)
Duration: 60 minutes
12:00 AM Pacific | 3:00 AM Eastern | 10:00 AM Palestine
Title: Feminism & Palestine: How Our Liberation is Mutual, Collective & Intertwined
Description: A discussion with regional feminist activists on political feminism, colonization & the patriarchy and how they intersect with the Palestinian struggle
Moderator: Nadia Ahmad (Activist and Managing Director of LOYAC Lebanon
Speakers: Hayat Mirshad (Feminist Activist, Executive Director of FEMALE and Editor in Chief, Sharika Wa Laken), Farah Deibes (Feminist Activist and Senior Program Manager, Political Feminism (MENA), Rula Jebreal (Journalist, Author)
Duration: 60 minutes
1:00 AM Pacific | 4:00 AM Eastern | 11:00 AM Palestine
Title: Palestine Censored; an international Siege on Art & Culture
Description: Censorship can be bold and visible. It can also be subtle and sly. In all cases, suppressing words, ideas, and images reflects the lack of confidence of a society in itself. The recent Israeli war on Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Lebanon activated censorship in several countries including European countries and the United States of America, which had proclaimed themselves as defenders and proponents of freedoms, specifically freedom of expression. Artists, scholars, academics, journalists, students, employees are constantly being canceled, silenced, or challenged whenever they directly or indirectly reference Palestine or the current atrocities unfolding before our eyes in Palestine and Lebanon. This conversation brings together Lebanese artists who have witnessed or have had to deal with censorship or attempts of censorship since October 7th, 2024, to reflect on their experiences, the different faces and forms of censorship today, and how to handle it to protect and to practice freedom of expression across borders.
Moderator: Mohamad Hamdan, Theatre Maker, Trainer in Nonviolent Communication, Zoukak Theatre Collective
Speakers: Hanane Haj Ali (Theatremaker, Activist, Researcher), Joseph Junior Sfeir (Musician, Frequent Defect Collective), Junaid Sarieddine (Theatre actor, director, dramaturge, Zoukak Theatre Collective) and Randa Mirza (Visual Artist).
Duration: 90 minutes
2:30 AM Pacific | 5:30 AM Eastern | 12:30 PM Palestine
Title: A conversation with Palestinian Journalists
Description: This session offers a discussion of the challenges and responsibilities of being a Palestinian journalist today and the importance of unbiased reporting. The discussion will highlight the barriers to reporting in Palestine and the impact of restricted access on global awareness and understanding of the genocide in Gaza.
Moderator: Vera Sejrawi (Journalist) Journalists: Jamileh Tawfiq, Shuruk Asad
Duration: 60 minutes
3:30 AM Pacific | 6:30 AM Eastern | 1:30 PM Palestine
Title: A Roundtable with Palestinian Artists in the US
Description: A roundtable exchange between interdisciplinary Palestinian creatives throughout the diaspora sharing what it means to make art in the United States.
Moderator: Alyssa Haddad-Chin (Playwright, educator, arts administrator) and Adam M. Kassim (Director and Arts Administrator),
Speakers: Waseem Alzer (Actor and Writer), Haneen Arafat Murphy (Actor), Jon Akkawi (Filmmaker and Producer), and Grace Canahuati (Actor and Comedian).
Duration: 60 minutes
4:30 AM Pacific | 7:30 AM Eastern | 2:30 PM Palestine
Title: Reading Excerpts from Dalia Taha’s Fireworks
Description: In a small act of solidarity, students from the AUK Theatre Honor Society (APO) are reading excerpts of Fireworks, a 2015 play, by the Palestinian writer Dalia Taha. Fireworks follows two families living in an abandoned building in a Palestinian town. The Guardian review of the play reads: “This is a compelling example of the power of theater to transport us deep into the human reality of a conflict from which, packaged on our television screens, it is far too easy to turn our minds.” The reading will be followed by a discussion.
Moderator: Q-mars Haeri, Lecturer of Theatre and Drama - American University of Kuwait
Student Actors: Taiba Al-Husain, Khalifa Bunashi, Sami Fouad Abou Saleh, Nimra Riaz, Nusaybah Al-Menaii, Farah abu Alrub, Mariam Hassan, Farida Amr Hassan, and Seifalla Elgamal.
Duration: 60 minutes
5:30 AM Pacific | 8:30 AM Eastern | 3:30 PM Palestine
Title: Letters from Palestine & Loved Ones: Excerpts from Zoom Productions
Description: During the height of COVID, Dunya Productions compiled testimonials from people in Palestine and weaved them into two verbatim theatre pieces that were performed by the company on Zoom. Adapted and directed by Hanna Eady and Ed Mast.
Performers: Manal Alsharif-Hanna, Hanna Eady, Jenna Eady, Jen Marlowe, Edward Mast, Nabra Nelson, Annette Toutonghi, Juju Alhader, Meg Savlov, Lia Fakhouri, Alyza DelPan-Monley, with Camella Cooper.
Duration: 60 minutes
6:30 AM Pacific | 9:30 AM Eastern | 4:30 PM Palestine
Title: Arab Jewish and Sephardi Artists for a Free Palestine
Description: We are a motley crew of Sephardi, Arab Jewish and J-SWANA arts + culture workers organizing for a Free Palestine. Some of us organize with JVP, others of us organize in our local communities and arts organizations and beyond. Our Jewish tradition teaches: justice, justice, you shall pursue it; and, to save one life is to save a world. Creation stories from across the Levant teach that the world was spoken into being. We are convening to show up as vocal manifestations of the intersection of Jewish, Arab, Sephardi and SWANA identities to demonstrate our active presence as partners and allies towards a Free Palestine.
Moderator: Arielle Tonkin (interdisciplinary artist, SF Bay Area)
Speakers: Danny Bryck (Playwright and Actor), Sivan Battat (Director, NYC), Coral Cohen (Director, NYC), Lena Sibony (Actor, SF Bay Area) with contributions from Mazal Etedji (drama therapist, mizrahi herbalist, Philadelphia) and Shirly Bahar (author, Documentary Cinema in Israel-Palestine: Performance, the Body, the Home)
Duration: 60 minutes
7:30 AM Pacific | 10:30 AM Eastern | 5:30 PM Palestine
Title: From Birch & Cedar to Olive Trees: Native Artists in Solidarity
Description: This session is a Native American-led conversation in solidarity with the Palestinian people, about lineages of displacement, and tending and caring for ancestral homelands. It will explore the intersections of indigeneity, the genocide happening right now in Gaza and parallels with Native history in the U.S., and share examples of Palestinian and Native American collaboration.
Moderator: DeLanna Studi (Director, Actor, Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry)
Speakers: Marisa Carr (Playwright, Actor), Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Actor, Writer, Director, Producer), Ryan Victor Pierce (“Opalanietet,” Actor, Educator, founder of Eagle Projects)
Duration: 60 minutes
8:30 AM Pacific | 11:30 AM Eastern | 6:30 PM Palestine
Title: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions: A Call to Action
Description: This session will discuss the importance of Boycotting, Divesting, and Sanctioning (BDS) Israel as a means of exerting pressure. We will explore what BDS entails in practical terms, including its goals, methods, and the impact it seeks to achieve. Join us for an in-depth examination of how BDS serves as a non-violent strategy to support Palestinian rights and promote justice.
Moderator: Mei Shigenobu (Journalist, Producer, Researcher)
Speakers: Mustafa Barghouti (Palestinian physician, activist, and politician), Nadya Tannous (General Coordinator of the Palestinian Youth Movement), and Khalid (student)
Duration: 90 minutes
10:00 AM Pacific |1:00 PM Eastern | 8:00 PM Palestine
Title: Letters to Gaza by Ashtar Theater
Description: This closing session of the 24 Hours for Palestine will feature members of ASHTAR Theatre’s community in Ramallah, as they come together to read a collection of messages received from the global community in response to ASHTAR’s campaign, “Letter to Gaza.” Letters to Gaza is a continuation of ASHTAR’s Gaza Monologues call that received responses from more than 400 institutions and groups across 60 countries, reaching thousands of audience members. These letters, filled with solidarity and hope, reflect the international outcry against the genocide in Gaza and the unwavering human spirit that connects us all.
Speakers: Iman Aoun
Duration: 45 minutes