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Tag: queerarabs

Episode 216 [in English]: Creators for Gaza

Published November 12, 2024

Sheyam Ghieth is an artist, organizer, Egyptian propagandist, and repeat podcast guest after 4 years! 

Sheyam is a co-founder of Creators for Gaza, a SWANA-led mutual-aid network connecting artists and amplifiers with Palestinian families facing genocide. Check it out to donate or get involved as an artist!

They also discuss their work drawing connections between disease and colonialism in genocidal states, building COVID-19 and Palestine solidarity, especially in the face of mask bans meant to attack pro-Palestine protesters. This work includes their Zine “mask up we need you” (in collaboration with @rimo_skyo).

We also talk about how we’re showing up with our communities lately, and Sheyam highlights @swanarosepdx community center as a home for the SWANA diaspora. We talk about the importance of community care *and* alone time for introverts, and the importance of taking time for trust-building in identity-based spaces.

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Episode 214 [in English]: Hannah Moushabeck

Published February 25, 2024

Hannah Moushabeck is a second-generation Palestinian American author, editor, and book marketer. She is the author of Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine, a children’s book about three girls who experience Palestine through bedtime stories. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts on the homelands of the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc Nations.

Hannah talks about growing up in  New York, Massachusetts, and the UK while her family ran an Arab independent publishing house. She discusses how representation in children’s books has and hasn’t changed since her childhood, with a clear uptick in queer stories but very few Palestinian stories.

Hannah recounts the variety of reactions Homeland has received. She’s had her book banned and has been rejected from school talks over “controversy,” but also witnessed joyful responses from child readers and heartbroken responses from adults. 

We discuss the impossibility of “appropriate” pro-Palestinian protest in a system that doesn’t want it to exist, and how we’ve seen every action either trivialized as useless or demonized as extreme (BDS falling into both categories).

Hannah also tells us her queer pandemic love story and what it was like coming out as a full-fledged adult. She also discusses how she’s found intersections between the Fat Acceptance movement and anti-racism, recognizing that body hierarchies are built around European ideals, even though our colonized cultures internalized them.

Visit Hannah’s website here

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