PALESTINIAN ARTISTS DAM TO PLAY BENEFIT SHOW FOR OLYMPIA-RAFAH SOLIDARITY MURAL PROJECT

OLYMPIA, WA — DAM, a leading Palestinian hip hop group and local artists Xperience and DJ Sweetelite, will play the Capitol Theater, 206 5th Avenue SE, in Olympia, April 21st at 7:00pm. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Rainy Day Records or online through Buyolympia. Proceeds will benefit the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project.

DAM is the first and leading Palestinian hip hop group. It is composed of Tamer Nafar, 27, his younger brother Suhell, 23, and Mahmoud Jreri, 24. All three members of the group were born and grew up in the slums of Lod, a mixed town of Arabs and Jews, twenty kilometers from Jerusalem.

DAM’s music is a unique fusion of East and West, combining Arabic percussion rhythms, Middle Eastern melodies and urban hip hop.

The lyrics of DAM are influenced by the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as by the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equality. DAM also draw their influence from such controversial issues as terrorism, drugs and women’s rights.

DAM was featured in the film Slingshot Hip Hop, released in 2008, which braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover hip hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.

Amy Goodman appeared in Olympia on Sunday, March 29, 2009 as part of her book tour, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times, which she co-wrote with her brother, David Goodman. She demonstrated her wonderful wit, and way with words, before a crowd of several hundred. I hope that video of her speech becomes available, because her speech was enjoyable and entertaining, and very informative and inspiring — and because I had to leave early! She told some very powerful stories, including about Rachel Corrie, a Palestinian man whose name starts with B (help me out here,) the Israeli Military refusenik (who is also the nephew of Benjamin Netanyahu,) and Frederick Douglass (re: Mount Misery,) among others. Here are some photos that I made, and a list of some of the sponsoring and affiliated organizations:

Hey Everyone, I want to bring your attention to this year's rapidly approaching Rachel Corrie Foundation Peace Works Conference. It will start next Friday and end in the afternoon on Sunday. The program looks awesome - and it will include a group picture at the new Mural on Sunday. So if you're around next weekend - you might want to participate.

All the pertinent information about the conference can be found on the Rachel Corrie Foundation website. Rachel Corrie Foundation Peace Works 2008: Dual Occupations: Sovereignty and Freedom from Iraq to Palestine, A Week-end Conference, October 17-19th, 2008 at The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington (http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/site/2008/09/29/peace/).

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You have two opportunities to attend book release events in Olympia for Let Me Stand Alone - The Journals of Rachel Corrie. They are: next Tuesday, April 8th at 7pm, at Orca books; and next Wednesday, April 9th at 7pm, at The Evergreen State College. The Rachel Corrie Foundation

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FROM THE CORRIES

Friends,

I am thrilled to announce the release of my daughter Rachel’s writings in the new book Let Me Stand Alone – The Journals of Rachel Corrie, published by W.W. Norton & Co. and available in bookstores and online! I am also excited to invite you to attend a series of book launch events across the country that Craig and I will be participating in during the month of April. We hope that you and your friends will join us to celebrate Rachel’s book at one of these events and that you will use the attached flyer to help us spread the word about each one.

Earlier tonight I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Alice Rothchild speak at St. Martin's University. Dr. Rothchild spoke about her book, Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience. She also spoke about her experience traveling to Israel and Palestine, and her position on the conflict, as a Jew. She discussed the immoral nature of many aspects of the current occupation of historically Palestinian territory. The Doctor spoke of a moral obligation that people of all faiths (or lack thereof) and ethnic backgrounds, but especially Jews, have to speak out about the tragedy of violence, and the criminal policies of Israel, which are doing such grievous harm to both the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples.