P U L S EWebsite
P U L S E shared Muftah Magazine's event.
If you're in NYC, don't miss this forum with authors Alia Malek (The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria) & Wendy Pearlman (We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria), moderated by Rawya Rageh of Amnesty International,on Friday February 23 at Judson Memorial Church - New York City. If you're not in NYC but have friends there, please let them know about this exciting event, which is co-sponsored by Muftah Magazine, Guernica, Syria Deeply, Amnesty International USA & the Network of Arab-American Professionals of NY (NAAP-NY).
Toxic effusions and formulaic pronouncements abound in response to the protests in Iran, from the neocons to Robert Fisk (a consistent source of ideological distortion over the last several years). In sharp and refreshing contrast, here are some pieces that offer particularly valuable insights and analysis: Here's What's Behind Iran's Biggest Protests In Seven Years — Borzou Daragahi (@borzou… [ 58 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/essential-reading-on-the-protests-…/
Image: Adolf Hitler (front row on aisle) listens as Wagnerian conductor, Dr. C. Muck, leads the Leipzig Orchestra. Sir Evelyn Wench, on a visit to Germany in 1933 shortly after the boycott of Jewish businesses, wrote: “I had come across antisemitism in Eastern Europe before, but I thought racial persecution belonged to another age. Half-civilized peoples might still indulge in it but surely not the Germany I had known.” [ 689 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/on-the-astonishment-that-nazis-can…/
Our friend Stanley Heller has recorded this excellent reading by Wendy Pearlman of her classic-in-the-making book We Crossed the Bridge and it Trembled. The event was introduced by Molly Crabapple and the reading was followed by a discussion between the two.
http://pulsemedia.org/…/we-crossed-the-bridge-and-it-tremb…/
The film Syria's Disappeared has been called "brilliant and sickening" and a "must-view can’t-look documentary...about the 200,000 people arrested and detained after the Arab Spring took hold in Syria." Amnesty International is partnering with the filmmakers on a series of screenings and panel discussions around the world. Amnesty International - UK recently hosted one in London. Amnesty International - Chicago… [ 132 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/two-upcoming-screenings-of-syrias-…/
From 2012 to 2016, Wendy Pearlman interviewed over 300 Syrian refugees across the Middle East and Europe, collecting testimonials from ordinary people transformed by revolution, war, and displacement. Her new book WE CROSSED A BRIDGE AND IT TREMBLED: VOICES FROM SYRIA tells the story of Syria exclusively through these intimate, first-hand narratives. The book forms a testament not only to the power of storytelling, but also to the resilience of those who face darkness with co...urage, hope, and conviction.
In this special book event, Pearlman discusses her book with the renowned artist and writer Molly Crabapple, author of DRAWING BLOOD. The two will share stories about their respective work related to Syria and reflect on how art and writing can serve in solidarity with struggles for freedom and justice.
Wendy Pearlman teaches political science and Middle East and North African Studies at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the comparative politics of the Middle East, social movements, political violence, refugees and migration, emotions and mobilization. She is the author of three books: Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (2003), Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement (2011), and We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria (2017).
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer living in New York. Rolling Stone has described her work as “God’s own circus posters.” Her books include the memoir Drawing Blood (2015), Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens (with Laurie Penny, 2012) and the art books Devil in the Details and Week in Hell (2012). Brothers of the Gun, her illustrated collaboration with Syrian war journalist Marwan Hisham, will be published in 2018. She is a contributing editor for VICE and has written for The Guardian and other publications.
This event is free of charge and open to all.
Books will be available for sale!
Nader Hashemi and I recently gave the following interview to Jadaliyya about our new co-edited book Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East, followed by an excerpt from our co-authored introduction to the volume. New Texts Out Now: Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, eds. Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East by Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi… [ 2,958 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/interview-sectarianization-as-a-pr…/
by Sam Charles Hamad and Oz Katerji Last March, a live performance in support of Syrian first responders by a flashmob orchestra at New York’s Grand Central Station was physically disrupted by a group of six protesters. Within hours, the video of the disruption was uploaded to social media and promoted by an RT employee. Max Blumenthal, a blogger at Alternet, soon [ 4,082 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/did-a-kremlin-pilgrimage-cause-alt…/
by Alex Rowell When the neo-Nazi who smashed his Dodge Charger into a crowd of anti-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia – killing a woman and injuring many others – was found to have posted a Facebook photo supportive of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, more than a few lay observers were left scratching their heads. Adding to the confusion were videos… [ 964 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/small-wonder-the-global-fascist-lo…/
This is my review of Yassin al Haj Saleh's book The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy. It first appeared in The New Arab. Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution over six years ago, there has been a determined effort to smother it both literally and figuratively. There is the ceaseless attrition of bullets, bombs, torture, starvation and poison gas; there is the relentless subversion of truth through erasure, distortion, slant and fabrication. [ 1,267 more word ]
Pulse co-editor Idrees Ahmad reviews Yassin al-Haj Saleh's phenomenal book "The Impossible Revolution"
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/…/yassin-al-haj-salehs-the-imposs…
"The Syrian regime’s narrative that the choice for the country’s future is between it and Daesh/Al Qaeda is popular amongst western commentators. It’s been used to discredit the opposition and provide justification for the ongoing ‘War on Terror’. Yet most Syrians are not represented by either of these two fascisms; there has always been a third option." —Leila Al Shami, co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
For other articles in this series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 In the summer of 2012, UNICEF and UNRWA asked if Gaza will be liveable by 2020. At the time- five years into Israel’s siege, and post Israel’s 2008 and 2012 carpet-bombing campaigns- one might have been led to think that if the situation only had eight more stable years to go until apocalypse, then it probably doesn’t look too good already. [ 660 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/lets-talk-about-genocide-the-unite…/
The Trump administration has a new plan for the war in Syria, Spencer Ackerman reports for The Daily Beast, and it’s the same as the old one: bomb the hell out of the Islamic State and other extremists while not just leaving the greatest purveyor of violence there alone, but treating it as a de facto partner. This is, for those following along, broadly the same plan that the previous U.S. [ 739 more words ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/trumps-new-war-plan-is-an-awful-lo…/
It’s a story as old as the 21st century: A young NSA contractor with more access to classified information than they probably should have had leaks that information to the press, believing the public has a right to know that which their elected officials would never allow to see the light of day. That leaker’s identity is then revealed, the idealistic millennial facing a loss of liberty for doing that which they believed was a civic duty. [ 1,449 more word ]
http://pulsemedia.org/…/reality-leigh-winner-the-whistlebl…/
