Showing posts with label America. Show all posts

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Rima

Rima Najjar in a traditional Palestinian Embroidered Thobe

Rima

Rima- connected

by family and Palestine.

She travels the world online and on foot,

following the art and the history

of and for Palestine.

Rima's goodness

(her greatness)

has a reach far beyond

the leap of literary awareness

and books, far beyond

the rainbow colors and hues of paint

and tile and trees and flowers in spring

all for and of Palestine.

Rima shares, shares the beauty she finds,

shares the challenges and routes

whereby humans connect

over and over through the years.

Rima shares knowledge and facts

and empathy and compassion

and character

Rima is as exquisite

as the roses her sister tends.

Where music and art for Palestine might be

she is there, in body or spirit

she is there for and of Palestine.

Monday, February 22, 2021

"These little seeds hold the DNA of my culture—a culture that’s being attacked, eliminated and destroyed,” says Sansour, a Palestinian artist, scholar and conservationist.

A Palestinian artist, Haya Kaabneh, designed the yakteen seed labels

for the Hudson Valley Seed Co.

"“These little seeds hold the DNA of my culture—a culture that’s being attacked, eliminated and destroyed,” says Sansour, a Palestinian artist, scholar and conservationist. “And so, when I share it, it becomes literally part of somebody else’s body and psyche. And in this way, we are not alone in our struggle.”

The Hudson Valley Seed Co. and its co-founder, Ken Greene, were in many ways natural partners for Sansour, who was dubbed “The Seed Queen of Palestine” by Al Jazeera back in 2018 when her seed library first started to gain international attention. Greene also runs a non-profit focused on seed justice. His company prides itself on selling unique varieties in a sustainable way and also on telling the story behind each hard-to-find seed...."

PLEASE GO TO THE ORIGINAL LINK TO READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL https://modernfarmer.com/2021/02/palestinian-seeds-come-to-america-stories-and-artwork-included/?fbclid=IwAR2n2lvc-QQXPcQAwZeJkPVQfxAvOvIVJVSs9fkkWZk-ftY6sm46Il3bhZA

Palestinian Seeds Come to America, Stories and Artwork Included

Vivien Sansour is bringing yakteen to the United States.

Photo by Samar Hazboun

Gardeners please note this company, the Hudson Valley Seed Co., has many wonderful seeds and also some good gardening tools. This is the direct link to the Yakteen https://hudsonvalleyseed.com/products/yakteen-1

Monday, January 7, 2019

Amman-based artist Nasser Jafari: #TweetYourThobe !

"Look at this beautiful image by Amman-based artist Nasser Jafari!!! I LOVE THIS!!! It says "Gharidi biThowbek," or TweetYourThobe in Arabic." Susan Muaddi Darraj , creator of the marvelous #TweetYourThrobe" pro-heritage campaign

Sunday, January 6, 2019

"The world will never be broken, because we will always stitch it back together & make it beautiful." Susan Muaddi Darraj: #tweetyourthobe

2019 #TweetYourThobe creator Susan Muaddi Darraj

Codebreaker! From the initiator of the marvelous #TweetYourThobe Twitter/Facebook campaign, Susan Muaddi Darraj:

"Wondering what all the symbols mean on Palestinian thobes? The 2nd half of Leila ElKhalidi's book has a "dictionary"!..."

Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of A Curious Land & The Inheritance of Exile

Susan Muaddi Darraj:"Every thobe is a dress embroidered with the stories, the loves, the tragedies of Palestinian women. The world will never be broken, because we will always stitch it back together & make it beautiful."

#TweetYourThobe. "I was raised in a Palestinian-American family that celebrated the strength of women," Darraj told the Institute of Middle Eastern Understanding. "Seeing Rashida Tlaib wear her thobe today is a powerful affirmation of that strength. I started #TweetYourThobe to celebrate her achievement and educate our fellow Americans about our culture."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tatreez & Tea & Rashida Tlaib & #TweetYourThobe : "Today... she was all of us"

Wafa Ghnaim: "I was interviewed by the New York Times today to discuss the significance in the first Palestinian-American congresswoman @rashidatlaib wearing a traditional Palestinian thobe to her swearing in ceremony today. Palestinian women and their artistry have long been invisible in history and today our maternal ancestors were seen in the halls of Western power. Rashida’s decision to wear her thobe to a significant moment in her life is one Palestinian women naturally think to do for any momentous achievements in career, life and family. Today, Rashida’s thobe stood for all Palestinian women. She was all of us."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Palestinian Village Embroidery Designs

KEEP CALM and TWEET YOUR THOBE !!!

IN HONOR OF RASHIDA TLAIB #TweetYourThobe ...Beautiful Palestinian Christian Women from Bethlehem, Palestine

Palestinian traditional costumes infographic map #America #TweetYourThobe #Heritage #Beauty #Palestine #History

Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout #TweetYourThobe

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Putting a Face on the Facts... An Easy to Understand Essay by Nancy Harb Almendras outlining a Global Controversy: The conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinians.

A Christmas poem... Star Street Bethlehem Palestine 2014

Ibrahim's Estate .... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

The Promised Land: In Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
& Peace Day

Little Golden Bell... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Tiny 2,000-year-old golden bell found in Jerusalem: A tiny golden bell which was lost in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago during the Second Temple period has been found among ruins near the Old City, Israel's Antiquities Authority has said

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace....

Ask a Name... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Darwish & Dickinson

Ibtisam ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Freedom to me is ... (a poem)

...To be True

...Universal Echo

Embroidered keepsakes (2008)

Mosaics : "I like that websites everywhere are growing a positive paper trail not only introducing West to East, but also proving Palestine- and showing at least a bit of its beauty. And I like that people bother to add into Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, information that used to be impossible to find or even know unless you were a scholar with a huge library of reference books.

And so in growing a private personal garden for Palestine today, I think it is important to spend some time exploring and enjoying treasures that can be found on the Internet. Capturing ideas and colors and shapes that can be used in our gardens."

Planning a garden is one step towards planting it and making it real:

Growing Gardens for Palestine
The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"WHEREAS recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

Saturday, April 11, 2015

April: Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month with Ibtisam Barakat's Tree Day Celebration

For this poem and 155 more (all in English AND Spanish), order your own copy of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations HERE and for more Poetry Celebrations fun, click HERE. And for more on National Poetry Month, click HERE.

http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2015/04/april-celebrating-arab-american.html

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine (& America)]

April: Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month

In The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations, we feature DAYS, WEEKS, and whole MONTHS of celebration, too. We've already showcased December 10: Dewey Decimal Day; April 2: International Children's Book Day; and 2nd Week of February: Random Acts of Kindness Week. Today, we're featuring Arab American Heritage Month-- the month of April.

We're so pleased to feature poems by Palestinian American poet, Ibtisam Barakat, who has her own YouTube channel of poem readings here. Here is her original poem in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. You can listen to her read the poem aloud by clicking here and see it translated into Arabic here. Cool, right?

For a lovely note with more information and details from Ibtisam, click here.
And here are the Take 5! activities that accompany this poem in the book:

Introduce the idea that tree-planting traditions are found around the world from Arbor Day to Christmas to the Tree Day Celebration in Arab countries, India, and elsewhere. Then read the poem aloud with a pause between stanzas.
Work with children to plan a dramatic interpretation of the poem, with two volunteers (one as child, one as tree) pantomiming the planting, measuring, sleeping, and sharing stories while you read it aloud again.
Share planting experiences (of trees, bushes, flowers, etc.) and talk about the steps involved....READ MORE

Pomelo Books is Poetry PLUS!

The Poetry Friday Anthology series helps teachers and librarians teach poetry easily while meeting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Texas TEKS for English Language Arts (ELA)/Poetry and Science & Technology. Celebrate Poetry on Fridays—and any day—with The Poetry Friday Anthology!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Darwish & Dickinson

Mahmoud Darwish
& Emily Dickinson
side by side
on my shelves
Alphabetically
aesthetically matched
loner by loner
into a happily ever after
of commingling

Poet to poet
meeting in me

in turn in time
book by book
and page by page

libraries build character

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ibtisam ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Ibtisam

Her long brown hair
holds lines
check points
and spelling bees
young America
and old Palestine

Deir Yassin
remembers
the sound of children
growing up- all ages
and moods
... and the massacre

and the refugees...

Her long brown hair
holds lines
of poetry
lifting in the breeze...
shoes get lost
on moonless nights
but memories don't.

Monday, April 5, 2010

The American Task Force on Palestine

Hallway leading towards Dr. Ziad Asali's office

The American Task Force on Palestine

"With the turbulence surrounding diplomacy and the Middle East peace process, it is more urgent than ever for civil society to unite around the obvious reality that a conflict-ending solution can only be attained through the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security.

The two-state solution became official US policy under President George W. Bush, and it is today seen as a national security priority under President Barack Obama. It has been adopted internationally by the United Nations, the Middle East Quartet, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Arab League and by successive Israeli governments." Build a partnership for Middle East peace within the United States By Ziad Asali

Dr. Ziad Asali of ATFP in his office

This past Saturday my husband Jaffar and I had a delightful visit with Dr. Ziad Asali the founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, his fascinating wife Nailia, and the brilliant Hussein Ibish, having arranged to stop by to see their 7th floor offices in Washington DC and to have a chat.

Dr. Hussein Ibish & Nailia Asali of ATFP

I went with trepidation- and I left totally impressed. These people really do know how to listen and speak to America, they know how the system works and how to influence policy in positive ways for Palestine AND America.

Impressive views from ATFP office windows

I feel honored to have been in their 7th floor offices, to have seen the intriguing artwork on the walls, gazed out the big windows to the busy city below- and sat in comfort in Dr. Ziad Asali's office as we spoke easily about awkward and difficult topics.

Ziad & his wife Nailia are charming, kind, compassionate, thoughtful, well informed, well educated people... both are very bright and experienced- seasoned but not cynical- obviously modest and interesting people indeed.

Hussien Ibish in his office

Dr. Ibish told me privately that "in all their work with the Arab-American community over decades, and for the past seven years at ATFP both Ziad and Nailia have been completely volunteers and have never taken a penny of compensation for their efforts. On the contrary, they've devoted a good deal of their private resources to helping to found and sustain this organization." (Visit their webpage to help keep them going- click on KEEP ATFP INDEPENDENT if you want to donate online or to find information on how to make a donation via mail, wire, fax or phone)

Dr. Ziad Asali has a knack for attracting and valuing the best and the brightest and he has assembled a highly competent team of articulate people, right in the heart of Washington DC where they can confer and do the most good.

They have compelling priorities: They believe in a healthy and serious debate to define and defend the national interest. Not long ago Dr. Asali testified before Congress (ATFP Press Release), and Dr. Hussein Ibish has been very busy with speaking engagements on college campuses. Ibish wrote a book, published this past year, patiently explaining what is wrong with the one-state agenda

The ATFP is dedicated to "advocating that it is in the American national interest to promote an end to the conflict in the Middle East through a negotiated agreement that provides for two states - Israel and Palestine - living side by side in peace and security".... furthermore the "ATFP is strictly opposed to all acts of violence against civilians no matter the cause and no matter who the victims or perpetrators may be. The Task Force advocates the development of a Palestinian state that is democratic, pluralistic, non-militarized and neutral in armed conflicts." http://www.americantaskforce.org/about_us

ATFP's website is a treasure trove of up to date, highly relevant information, news and opinion concerning Palestine. They don't use cheap tricks- they use hard work, careful analysis and diplomacy to do what they can to help end the contentious Israel/Palestine conflict...for every one's sake.

They are Golden Rule people through and through: By wisely nurturing a totally civilized, reasonable and sustainable conversation they are creating real respect for a real Palestinian state.

The Palestinian State and Institution Building Program
Documents detailing the state and institution building program of the 13th Palestinian Government, including the overall plan and priority interventions for 2010.

Need the facts on Palestine?

FOLLOW IBISH & the ATFP

"The fact is that the one-state argument completely lets Israel off the hook with regard to settlements. First, if it's one state, it hardly matters where people live (it might be a civil tort about payments for expropriated lands, at most). Second, if it's a single state, they're not settlements, because there is also no occupation. Third, it allows the Israeli right to say that the occupation is defensive and legitimate and so are the settlements because all forms of Palestinian nationalism are antithetical to the continued existence of Israel, a member state of the United Nations. All arguments about settlements and occupation immediately go right out the window. People who advocate a single state need to understand this clearly." Hussein Ibish