Music & Arts : Wailing Walls

An art piece incorporating AET’s Remember These Children booklet waves in the breeze at San Francisco’s SomArts Cultural Center (Staff photo S. Powell).

SAN FRANCISCO’S SomArts Cultural Center hosted “Mexico/Palestine: Unspoken Borders” on Aug. 11 as part of a month-long exhibit on Latin America entitled “Prophecy/Healing: Artists and Communities Confront Global Crisis.”

Based on the poem “Prophecy,” painted on the walls and later read by author William Torphy, who curated the exhibit, the show comprised paintings and sculptures addressing the effects of globalization on traditional communities. An additional piece showcasing the American Educational Trust’s Remember These Children project was hung especially for the Mexico/Palestine: Unspoken Borders event.

Monadel Herzallah, coordinator of the Arab American Union Members Council (AAUMC) emceed the evening, and presented the Nagi Daifullah Award to the Al Juthoor Dabke Dance Troupe. Nagi Daifullah was killed while working with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.

Renee Saucedo of the La Raza Centro Legal and Day Laborers Program discussed the effects of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, comparing it to the annexation wall in Palestine. Alfonso Texidor then read some of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry, as well as his own. A musical interlude was provided by Antonios Farah, singing and playing traditional Arab tunes on his oud.

Having worked in both Mexico and Palestine, Susan Greene of the Break the Silence Mural Project showed and discussed slides and short films documenting the murals and graffiti on each wall, and the Israeli contractors building both walls. The evening closed with lively dabke performed by the award-winning troop.

—Sara Powel