Date: Saturday, February 15
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Maison Française, Buell Hall, 515 W 116th St
Organized by The Platform, a Columbia University-based initiative dedicated to promoting discussion and reflection on contemporary global issues. Co-sponsored by The Middle East Institute.
This series focuses on Palestine and the arts, aiming to historicize the enduring legacies of poetry, literature, music, art, and theatre, while also showcasing new works that address themes of displacement and settler-colonial violence. Focusing on Columbia’s Morningside campus, Harlem, and the broader New York community, the series invites audiences to engage with artistic representations of Palestine—not as a counter to war imagery but as a lens to understand why art is a threat to empire. Second, the series itself is a way of reclaiming space - to speak about Palestine. Even as we celebrate the ceasefire and scenes of return in Gaza, we are sobered by the prospects of rebuilding and lasting peace. We offer this platform as a way of convening around these ideas, and healing.
"Records of Presence: Palestine in Artistic Practice" is second in this series, focusing on music and the visual arts. The first, "Remembering Refaat: Palestine and the Poetic Imagination" was focused on poetry and storytelling.
Convened by: Mahmood Mamdani and Shayoni Mitra
Photo Credit: Rania Matar
If you are registering different individuals, please make sure to use a unique email address for each person. Registration closes 24 hours in advance. For non-CUID holders, please check your emails for QR codes sent by Columbia Public Safety, which you will need to enter campus. Space is first come first served, per capacity.
Program
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM: Portraits Against Ruin: Photographing Place
Rania Matar, 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, photographer, Beirut/Boston
Dean Majd, photographer, Brooklyn
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Encountering Culture: The Palestinian State of Mind
Haifa Bint Kadi, mosaicist, curator, archivist, New York
Ridikuluz
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Workshop: Memory Matters
Layal Srouji, artist, memory worker, Brooklyn
Jenna Hamed, artist and artworker, faculty Parsons School of Design, Brooklyn
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Folk Modern: Palestinian Bands in Practice
Firas Zreik, Kanun player, music educator, Queens, New York
Batiniyah, folk musicians, New York
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM: tea
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM : Archives of Storytelling: The Materiality of Popular Music
Sama’an Ashrawi, writer, filmmaker, music producer, Houston
Mo’min Swaitat, Majazz Project, filmmaker, archivist, music label, London
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Dinner
7:30 PM - 10:00 PM: Celebrating ceasefire and returns – Radical joy listening circle and dance party
Dj Momin, Majazz Project, London
DJ Sama’an, Houston