2019 Activist Salon

Artist and performer Luci Murphy received WIFP’s Women and Media Award at the 2019 Activist Salon on July 17th.

Luci Murphy is a preeminent advocate for utilizing culture to advance social and political justice, weaving people together across communities. As an artist and performer, she has harnessed her musical talents by singing for social justice, civil rights, union rights, affordable housing, peace, and other causes. (See the Women and Media Award page on this website for more about Luci’s important work and contributions.)

WIFP Director Martha Allen welcomed participants to the 2019 Activist Salon.

Short interesting presentations by speakers stimulated discussions and led to networking and connecting among the activists.

New Story Leadership for the Middle East (NSL) Managing Directors Rawan Odeh and Anna Garbar interviewed three of their 2019 delegates about their lives and their work.

Rawan Odeh is a Palestinian American who lived half her life in New York and half in Nablus. Rawan has worked as an Asset Management Associate for Women’s World Banking in the MENA region. Afterwards, she went on a fellowship with Kings College London and published research on the Economic Aspects of the Palestinian Israeli Conflict.

Anna Garber is an Israeli from Haifa. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Haifa and is currently pursuing her Masters in International Relations at American University. She has worked at the Institute of International Education.

Rawan and Anna interviewed two Palestinian women and an Israeli leading to discussions with the activist audience. Brief backgrounds of the women who spoke:
Hiba Yazbeck: Palestinian citizen of Israel, born in Nazareth. In communications at Tel Aviv University. Currently interning at Haaretz. Hiba is working in the office with Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Thawra Abukhdier: Palestinian American from Jerusalem. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Journalism from Hebrew University. Thawra is working in the office with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Dana Amir: Dana is from Gan-New, Israel. The past five years she has been traveling and studying around the world. She is currently pursuing a B.A. degree in Psychology and Economics. Dana is working on a Project for Change where international students learn to recognize and mitigate cognitive and emotional biases that appear in complex and difficult political discussions.

In addition to the speakers on the Middle East, Margaret Flowers spoke about the work of activists in the U.S. on a number of important issues including single payer health care and the importance of activist journalists efforts to get information out that is omitted or distorted by the corporate-owned mass media. Margaret Flowers is a Pediatrician and advocate for single payer health care and justice. She is the co-director of Popular Resistance and co-host of Clearing the Fog, a weekly podcast.

Hosts of the WIFP event were Martha Allen (WIFP director), Tanya Smith-Sreen, Otgon Altankhuyag, Alethea Russell, Arya Boris, and Jonathan Zeitlin — all Associates of WIFP and support staff. Alethea Russell, a photographer, provided most of these wonderful photos from the event.

Organizational links
New Story Leadership for the Middle East (NSL): www.newstoryleadership.org
Popular Resistance: www.popularresistance.org