24 Hours for Palestine: A Moon Will Rise from Darkness

We come together, from North America to the Middle East and across the world, to speak out against genocide, forced displacement, cultural erasure, the murder of civilians, and the systematic silencing of Palestinian voices, narratives, and heritage. We call for an immediate and permanent end to Israel’s genocidal military campaign against the Palestinian people, funded by United States tax dollars. We call for an end to Israel's apartheid system and its illegal occupation of Palestine. We call for the complete and unequivocal liberation of the Palestinian people, including the right of return. And we call on our global theatre community to stand with us, and to speak out with us, against genocide and for justice and liberation. We call on you to stand on the right side of history. 

For a full program of the event with speaker schedules and bios, click here.

Organized and produced by Golden Thread Productions, co-produced with Art2Action and in partnership with the MENA Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA), Ashtar Theatre, The Freedom Theatre, Zoukak Theatre Company, Noor Theatre, and Donkeysaddle Projects.

This twenty-four hour event ran from Saturday 20 July at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 20:00 EEST (Palestine, UTC +3) to Sunday 21 July 2024 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) /  1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 20:00 EEST (Palestine, UTC +3).

Session #1: The Freedom Theatre: Making Art in the Midst of War

This session presents the work that The Freedom Theatre continues to produce amidst the worst circumstances the theatre has faced in history. Artistic director Ahmad Tobasi discusses the current circumstances at the theatre and in Jenin Camp. Two student actors present their perspectives, and Alla Sheheda, actor, comedian, and graduate of the TFT Acting School performs 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/performers: Ahmad Tobasi (artistic director), Alaa Shehada (actor), and Ranin Odeh and students Chantel Rizkalla, Aya Samara, and Naqaa Sammor
 

Session #2: Palestinian Artists in the Global Diaspora

A conversation with Palestinian theatre 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

Session #3: Gaza Now: Witnessing the Witnesses

A reading of found testimonies and words by witnesses and survivors of the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza, Palestine which started on 7 October 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 
Speakers: Youmna El Sayed (journalist) and Mosab Abu Toha (poet)

Session #4: The Revolution's Promise

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 Arafat Murphy, Rudy Roushdi

Session #5: Creating free Palestine through song, dance, and stories from the diaspora

Exploring the work of artists including electro-dabke band 47Soul, musical theatre writer Fouad Dakwar, songwriter Naima Shalhoub, and more, we discuss the role of these artists in activating the diaspora through song and dance. Click here to listen to the 47Soul track mentioned in the video, and visit their website at this link.

Moderator: J.J. El-Far (independent creative producer) and Kate Moore Heaney (arts manager)
Artists: Fouad Dakwar and Naima Shalhoub 

Session #6: From Kars to Gaza

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 Theatre Makers Alliance)
Speakers: Raffi Wartanian (poet & performer), Ojig Yeretsian (community builder), SEVAN (playwright & performer), Nancy Agabian (author) 

Session #7: Shared Struggles and Resilience

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 (artist & gallery director), Zelikha Shoja (experimental filmmaker), Alexandra Millatmal (writer and unionized software engineer)

Session #8: 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 Abu Toha, and Zeina Hashem Beck

Session #9: As We Near The End: Play Reading and Conversation

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)

Session #10: Palestinian Art and Queer Resistance

A walk-through history of Palestinian queer resistance until present time. How do we continue challenging the empire through Palestinian queer expression?

Moderator: Nida Liftawiya, Palestinian activist, artist, and educator 

Presenter: Mama Ganuush, drag artist and Activist

Session #11: There Is A Field: Screening and Discussion 

In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed seventeen-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. The 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 United States, builds solidarity across intersectional struggles for liberation and decolonization, and is sure to spark conversation and connection. 

Moderator: AeJay Antonis Marquis (Actor)

 Speakers: Jen Marlowe (founder, Donkeysaddle Projects), James Klynn (performer-activist), and Anyssa Mahmoud 

Session #12: Silencing Voices for Palestine in Hollywood 

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 and Watermelon Club member) 

Speakers: Rolla Selbak (filmmaker), Myriam Ali-Ahmad (actor), Sarah Alami (actor) 

Session #13: Feminism and Palestine: How Our Liberation is Mutual, Collective, and Intertwined

A discussion with regional feminist activists on political feminism, colonization, and 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 Daibes (feminist activist and senior program manager, Political Feminism (MENA), Rula Jebreal (journalist, author)
 

Session #14: Palestine Censored: An International Siege on Art and Culture

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 7 October 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 (theatremaker, 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).

Session #15: A Conversation with Palestinian Journalists

This session offers a discussion of the challenges and responsibilities of being a Palestinian journalist today and the importance of unbiased reporting, especially by international media. 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 (freelance journalist, writer, and photographer), Shuruk Asad (journalist and television presenter and member of the general secretariat of the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate) 

Session #16: A Roundtable with Palestinian Artists in the United States

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). 

Session #17: Reading Excerpts from Dalia Taha's Fireworks

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, Seifalla Elgamal, and Mahdi Almahdi

Session #18: Letters from Palestine and Loved Ones: Excerpts from Zoom Productions

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, and Camella Cooper.

Session #19: Arab Jewish and Sephardi Artists for a Free Palestine

We are a motley crew of Sephardi, Arab Jewish and Jewish-South West Asian and North African (J-SWANA) arts and culture workers organizing for a free Palestine. Some of us organize with Jewish Voice for Peace (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.

Moderators: Arielle Tonkin (interdisciplinary artist, San Francisco Bay Area)
Speakers: Danny Bryck (playwright and actor), Sivan Battat (director, New York City), Coral Cohen (director, New York City), Lena Sibony (actor, San Francisco Bay Area) with contributions from Mazal Etedgi (drama therapist, mizrahi herbalist, Philadelphia) and Shirly Bahar (author, Documentary Cinema in Israel-Palestine: Performance, the Body, the Home)

Session #20: From Birch & Cedar to Olive Trees: Native Artists in Solidarity

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 United States, 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)

Session #21: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions: A Call to Action

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 (Palestinian Youth Movement), and Khalid (student) 

Session #22: Letters to Gaza by ASHTAR Theatre

This closing session of the 24 Hours for Palestine features 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, Letters to Gaza. Letters to Gaza is a continuation of ASHTAR's Gaza Monologues call that received responses from more than four hundred institutions and groups across sixty 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

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