Week 35: Art as Resistance Online Gathering 2023

August 29, 2023 Rania Elias, former director of Yabous Cultural Centre, joined us as we celebrated the role of art in non-violent resistance.

More about our guests:

Rania Elias was the director of Yabous Cultural Centre in Occupied Jerusalem since 1998 and resigned after 25 years, end of 2022. She was responsible for local and international public relations, business management, events management, project coordination, and funding. She was a leading figure behind the renovation of Cinema Al-Quds, as it was transformed into the largest and most important cultural center in Jerusalem, Yabous Cultural Centre. This was accomplished despite the obstacles imposed on Palestinian organizations that aim to function in Jerusalem. Yabous provides a venue to celebrate and share cultural traditions, interact with artists, and participate in a range of activities that stimulate and expand the creativity, diversity, and artistry of Jerusalem and Palestinian cultural expressions.

In 1995, Rania was the acting director of the Bethlehem International Festival, held by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, and from 1995 to 1998, she served as the administrative director of RIWAQ Center for Architectural Conservation, Ramallah. Since 1998, she has been the director of Yabous Centre’s annual Jerusalem Festival. In 2007, she was appointed as a member of the national and executive committee for Al Quds – Capital of Arab Culture 2009, where she also served as head of the events committee.
Rania is on the board of trustees of several international and Palestinian organizations and networks, and has been a prominent speaker at various international and local conferences and meetings that dealt with cultural and human rights issues in Palestine. As a fieldwork researcher, she contributed to several studies, and she has been actively involved in voluntary social work that deals with various types of human-rights violations.

From the Presentation/Chat

Watermelon flag available here! https://disarmingdesign.com/product/watermelon-flag/ 

Here’s a recent Verge article on Palestinian embroidery: https://www.theverge.com/23833322/palestinian-embroidery-digital-archive-tatreez-wafa-ghnaim-tirazain

Exhibit which is called Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery which is at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge now, kettlesyard.co.uk, and in Nov. it moves to the Whitworth museum in Manchester for several months.

Also the film “Stitching Palestine” is very relevant.  We have Palestinian Fair Trade shop, Hadeel.org, in Edinburgh, and Sunbula in Jerusalem.