The hip-hop group from Gaza, DARG Team, has struggled and finally made it out of Gaza en route to Geneva and then Berkeley. They are bringing their amazing performance skills to MLK Civic Center Park for SIT for Change: 3rd Annual Sit-A-Thon on the National Day of Transformative Change, Saturday, September 18.
The pressure put on the Egyptian government after the flotilla incident was enough for the Egyptian government to lift the ban on DARG Team’s traveling. This was the tipping point for a beginning of a movement to allow greater cultural exchange and ultimately full freedom of movement for Gaza and her people.
WHAT NOW?
While in Gaza last January, CXC (Center for Transformative Change) Founder, angel Kyodo williams spent much of her time with the group. Moved by their plight and inspired by their talent, she committed herself to helping them get here. CXC wants to help make that possible.
WHAT & WHEN?
On September 18, 2010, CXC’s signature event, SIT for Change, is taking place nationally, with a national anchor event in Berkeley, California (for further info. visit: www.sitforchange.org). By having DARG Team perform here, we believe we can highlight the issues in Gaza through the vehicle of cultural exchange. We can galvanize people even if they don’t know about peace and justice issues in Israel/Palestine. This is a great window of opportunity to widen and diversify the pool of people that are committed to seeing Gaza free. To raise further awareness about Gaza, we are organizing a small tour for the group in the US and Canada. (We plan to bring DARG Team here from September 15 until October 2. In Switzerland they are being hosted by the city of Geneva. From there they go to Denmark.)
We will debut the documentary SMALL ACTS for FREEDOM, which depicts the journey into Gaza and connects with the hip-hop group. DARG Team has channeled their frustration with being subjects of war and oppression and prisoners in their own land, into the profoundly liberating creative expression that is hip-hop’s birthright and legacy. We believe it’s the first feature length documentary filmed and edited entirely on an iPhone.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Here’s what we need:
– HELP: We are a very small organization. This is not our central work, but we believe it’s critical matter for honoring a sense of decency and for honoring sovereignty. We need organizers and experts on the various aspects of getting them here and getting them on tour. We especially need help from folks with contacts: Who can you point us to? Connect us with?
– MONEY: We need to fly, transport, house and feed 5 young men and 2 support people for 2 weeks. We know it’s not cheap and we know it’s really, really worth it. How much will it cost? we think $35-50k which will enable all of that plus enable our part-time staff to put out press releases, do flyering, postering and do whatever else is needed to focus on and organize this. This is a very small baseline budget for what we know will go very, very far in RAISING AWARENESS to FREE GAZA.
– KNOW-HOW: We need to learn about getting Visas for Gazans traveling from Switzerland to Denmark and then to the US. We need assistance from someone who knows enough about immigration to let us know how to start this process…or we need help from someone who has the energy and resourcefulness to find out how we should start. We need press lists and contacts, connection to supportive government representatives, and so on.
WHAT ELSE?
This begins now; we aren’t waiting until September. We will leverage the current heightened awareness to bring DARG Team to the US, advocating for free cultural exchange and ultimately, Freedom for Gaza.
We would love to host a series of films or talks at our Center leading up to DARG Team’s performance. Can you help make this possible?
Please email Premadasi Amada with any resource info, leads, ideas, support:
Let’s achieve the growth of support for human rights of all, and for Gaza in particular, through creative, peaceful expression together!
Zarya says
Supebrly illuminating data here, thanks!
Soha Al-Jurf says
Have you been in touch with Barbara Lubin/MECA? Lily Haskell/AROC?
transform. editor says
i don’t know if anyone has. can you send more info. about them via email?