Date/Time
Date(s) - 2 Mar 2017
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Thursday 2 March 2017 at 6pm
University of Sussex campus at Falmer
Lecture Theatre Arts A01
Join campaigners in the Movement for Black Lives in the United States, South Africa and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for a discussion on the Palestinian struggle for justice.
The Palestinian people have been struggling against settler-colonialism for 100 years. How can we support their struggle for liberation and build powerful movements against racism and oppression?
Speakers:
– Aja Monet, poet and activist with Dream Defenders, part of the broader Movement for Black Lives
– Farid Esack, South African activist and Muslim liberation theologian
– Riya Hassan, former Sussex student and coordinator with Palestinian BDS National Committee, a Palestinian civil society coalition
More information about speakers
Aja Monet
The youngest individual to win the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café Grand Slam title—Aja Monet is a Caribbean-American poet & educator from East NY, Brooklyn.
Aja Monet independently published her first book of poetry, The Black Unicorn Sings (2010). In 2012, she collaborated with poet Saul Williams on a poetry anthology entitled, Chorus: A Literary Mixtape (MTV Books/Simon & Schuster). In 2014, Aja Monet was awarded the YWCA of the City of New York’s “One to Watch Award”—an award established in honor of Monet’s work: for women under the age of 30 who exemplify the mission to empower women and eliminate racism. She was an active member of Justice League NYC, an organization created by Harry Belafonte’s Gathering for Justice, a movement to end youth incarceration and to eliminate the racial inequities in the criminal justice system. Co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio.
Aja Monet currently lives in Little Haiti, Miami and volunteers with the Dream Defenders and Community Justice Project. She spearheaded an arts & activism initiative, “Voices: Poetry for the People” that provides free poetry workshops for grassroots leaders & organizers in Florida. Her first full collection of poems is forthcoming in May 2017 on Haymarket Books entitled, “my mother was a freedom fighter.”
Farid Esack
Farid Esack is a South African Muslim liberation theologian, Professor in the Study of Islam and Head of the Department of Religion Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
Esack is known for his opposition to apartheid, his appointment by Nelson Mandela as a gender equity commissioner, and his work for interreligious dialogue.
Riya Hassan works for the Palestinian Boycott Divestment & Sanctions National Committee.
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