Yesterday's community event, held in honor of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, offered us a chance to talk, share, reflect and engage, while also raising direct aid monetary donations for writers and families in Gaza, and with additional monetary donations from all food and beverage items going directly to the Sameer Project. I am so grateful to everyone who helped make this event happen, and also to those who gave your support through presence and donations.
I am also grateful to our partners from the Salish Sea Poetry Festival, who participated in the Read Palestine Week reading and also shared their art and creative works made in support of the featured writing from Gaza, and who found a way to integrate writing and poetry into the entire day. I also want to thank both Community to Community (C2C) and the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center (WPJC) for their presence, support, and collaboration.
And finally and most importantly, thanks to the Palestinian writers and families in Gaza, whose words, stories, poetry, reflections, video, audio, and writing were featured during this very special event. You have my deepest gratitude and appreciation.
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For those in the Bellingham area, on Thursday, December 4 at 7pm there will be a special encore reading presentation of yesterday's #ReadPalestineWeek reading at the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, and I really hope you can make it. Many people told me after the event how much they appreciated it and how deeply it affected them. I am personally humbled and honored to help bring the words, writings, and voices from my friends in Gaza closer to my community here in Bellingham, and I really hope to see you there.
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