Through prayers, music, and spoken word, people showed support for the people of Palestine at “The New Orleans Palestinian Resistance Fair: A Celebration of Mass Movements, Popular Struggles and the Cultures that Created Them” which took place on the evening of Sunday, September 22 at Art Conscious Gallery and Zeitgeist Theatre in St. Claude.
The fair featured live music from local bands, vendors from local artists, local food stands, speakers, film screenings, and sign up sheets for workshops. The space offered a vibrant and communal atmosphere. Families gathered while their children danced to the music, couples persued different tables, and several circles of local communities came together to support a global cause.
This event was put on by @nola.artists4palestine; when looking for volunteers via instagram, they proudly noted that “as culture workers, our art is our weapon!” The purpose of this event was to use the hope and community that art creates as a form of resistance.
Lana Murad, a young Palestinian artist and a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement helped organize the event. The idea for this event emerged last October, according to Murad. It was worked by volunteers after solidifying ideas early this year. The event’s execution was a collaborative effort between different art circles according to Murad, who used her heritage from Palestine’s West Bank to impulse her work.
Aware that this event needed to be a crossover between curation and personal lived experience, Murad collaborated with a curator who reached out to her. “She actually has experience in curating,” said Murad. “We tag teamed it. She filled in where I wasn’t too experienced, and I filled in the cultural norms, and what this means, if this is appropriate, the theme, stuff like that. I am an artist. I’m Palestinian, so I brought in more of a Palestinian perspective on things.”
To Murad, local ways of contributing to a global pro-Palestine cause came from taking inspiration. In reference to the artists, she states: “I hold inspiration from what other people are doing and what I wanted to represent from New Orleans because all of these people are from here,” said Murad, about the artists at the event. “They’re local. They have such a strong community that’s so pro-Palestinian.”
In terms of continuing to grow these spaces and communities, she mentioned feelings of fatigue and burnout. She admitted that although people in her community are still very active, “everybody’s kind of stretched thin.”
“We’re almost a year into the genocide,” Murad said. “Everyone that has been an activist since the beginning is still using a lot of their efforts.”
Burnout is common within active members of the community, according to Murad. “A lot of my family members are pretty active, and they’ve experienced burnout,” Murad said, “You have to meet people were they’re at.”
The perseverance is strong in terms of both community and artistry turnout. “We’re reaching more people, and seeing more people that I haven’t seen before,” said Murad, “I’m noticing how big the community is growing.”
“It’s amazing to see how much humanity people have, and how willing people are to wanna help, so I think that’s beautiful,” said Murad.
