PALESTINIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CENTER June Newsletter 2021
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Events
Palestine Monday Decolonial Feminism
We hosted a moderated discussion with Dr. Rabab Abdelhadi that discussed the role of Palestinian women and decolonial feminism, as well as the intersections of settler colonialism and gendered violence, in the movement to liberate Palestine. Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is an internationally-known scholar and a distinguished professor and researcher who continuously supports community development and student engagement. The conversation was extremely timely given the anti-Palestinian and misogyntics phone calls that PACC received. We had 30 people tune in via Facebook and Youtube livestream, and many people asked to be sent the recording of the event.
Workshop Wednesday Writing Your Palestinian Story
We collaborated with American Muslims for Palestine to co-host a writing workshop led by Afsheen Shamsi, President of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, titled “Winning Hearts with Your Palestinian Story” to help people tell their stories & teach others about Palestine! We had 6 people join via Zoom for an interactive discussion about the power of narratives and storytelling.
Sunday Series
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The Naksa
Women’s Brunch Physical health
Town Hall
Since June is the month the Naksa took place in, this month we focused on having a conversation about the historical and present day effects of the Naksa with Palestinian political leader and thinker, Ahmed Ghoneim. We had 22 people join via Zoom with over 626 views on Facebook, and all participants were extremely engaged and asked our speaker many important and critical questions. Our women’s brunch this month focused on physical health! Our participants enjoyed both a yoga class session as well as a dabka session for fun ways to stay active and healthy! We had 8 women join and all had a lot of fun socializing and engaging in these activities together.
We held a town hall for stakeholders and leaders of our PACC community to present the final analysis of PACC’s Community Needs Survey. We had 20 people attend, and all collectively brainstormed how we can address the needs and concerns of our community members, and how to put these ideas into action. There will be another follow-up meeting in September to follow up on the plans made and continue empowering our community.
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We Celebrated Palestinian American Heritage Week in Paterson
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Community Garden Launch We launched our first ever community garden right in PACC’s backyard to teach about traditional Palestinian herbs and gardening methods. We have compiled a list of volunteers to help continue sustaining the garden each season.
Clifton & Paterson Flag Raisings We raised the Palestinian flag at both Clifton and Paterson City Hall again this year, this time with a focus on celebrating the contributions of our community in both cities. We honored our 2021 college graduates as well as highlighted all the various Palestinian groups, businesses, organizations, and individuals that are active members of our cities!
Open Mic Night We created a space for our community to express their Palestinian identity with poetry, music, spoken word, and much more! With an amazing line up of performers and over 15 attendees, this event was a highlight and much appreciated by all who joined.
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Programs Arabic for Kids Our Arabic for kids program started again this month and is going very well! We now have 14 new students for a total of 45 students who are all learning how to read, write, and speak Arabic.
Dabka Our Dabka program re-started this month and our students are all excited to pick up their dabka skills again. This is the first time we host Dabka classes in the summer and both parents and students are appreciative of it!
We finished our in-person Intermediate Computer Class last week! Students learned how to create emails and they got comfortable with using a keyboard. Students will go on to more advanced training next session. We also have a new Basic Computer Class that will be starting shortly.
Computer Class
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PACC Summer Fun
Our summer program now has 60 participants! The kids enjoy science class where they do cool and exciting experiments, HOPE Jr. where they learn about Palestine, arts and crafts where they create interesting art projects, and gym to keep them active and fit!
HOPE We launched our annual Holding Onto Palestinian Existence (HOPE) virtual course for youth 12-21 years old to learn all about Palestinian history, culture, traditions, and other social justice issues from anywhere in the country!
Bookbinding This course demonstrates easy binding techniques step by step so students can make their own journal or sketchbook, working with paper, thread, and glue! Different book structures will be explained and created that can be used for gifts, small notebooks, journals or art projects.
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Community Engagement Graduation Posts We continued honoring all our Palestinian college graduates into the month of June. We posted graduates’ pictures, names, origins from Palestine, and where they graduated from on all social media platforms. We also honored all our graduates at the Clifton Flag Raising, and are beyond proud of them all.
Naksa Press Release
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We sent out a newsletter to all our subscribers and created infographics to post on our social media accounts explaining the importance of the Naksa, specifically the geo-political significance of the historic defeat on past and present day Palestinian struggle. We also used it as a way to remind, inspire, and continue necessary solidarity work, and coalition building that will take us one step closer to Palestinian liberation.
Get Out the Vote Team This month, our GOTV team focused on making sure our community knew about the primary election that took place on June 2nd in New Jersey by phone banking as well as creating and circulating a video that reminded and encouraged people to get out the vote! The second main focus was on voter registration, and members of our team tabled at all in person PACC events to register people to vote on the spot!
Palestine Workshops In Schools In light of recent events, PACC partnered with Noble Leadership Academy and Maarif School to lead a workshop on the Palestinian Struggle for their middle and high school students. 80 students and teachers attended each workshop. In these workshops, we covered the definition of colonialism, settler-colonialism, apartheid, Zionism and Ethnic Cleansing. We also discussed the major events in Palestinian history highlighting Balfour Declaration, Sykes-picot, the nakba and the Naksa. We incorporated what’s happening today on the ground and what can we do about it. We are in conversation with these and other schools about developing an elective class for their students
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