1:30 – 2:45pm 
Screening: Edward Said and Salman Rushdie in conversation at the ICA, 1986

In 1986, Edward Said and Salman Rushdie sat down to talk at the ICA. Professor Said launched his book After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives and discussed his and the collective Palestinian identity, exile, return and the right to return. Much of what they discussed played out the following year, during the First Intifada.

3 – 4pm 
Panel discussion with writers Reni Eddo-Lodge, Ghada Karmi, academic Laleh Khalili and organisers Ru Kaur and Akram Salhab

This panel brings together activists, academics and writers to think through solidarity as the seed of liberation. Together, they discuss and explore how to build a world of sovereignty, health, resources and belonging for all through action, analysis and narrative.

In the context of global struggles against legacies of colonialism and multi-generational injustices, what must be done to counter and transform genocidal and structural violences underpinned by racialisation and gender? From the possibilities of Palestinian self-determination, to changing political and cultural imaginations through memoir and journalism, and to abolitionist thinking and praxis, how can histories of domination and dispossession be remade?

4 – 6:30pm 
Poetry, readings, screenings and listening sessions with a closing performance by Elaine Mitchener

Inspired by poet Sarona Abuaker’s experiment in relationalities, this gathering is a collective effort by independent and small publishers Silver Press, Ignota, the87press, STUART, Verso, Peninsula Press, Tilted Axis Press, Divided, Prototype, Book Works and Pluto Press. Bringing together readings, screenings and listening sessions, this gathering holds space for grieving and imagining in solidarity with Palestine and liberation struggles around the world. To borrow from artist Tai Shani: ‘Solidarity is beautiful in deep, meaningful ways that can banish the flat darkness of nihilism. Solidarity is the boundless mess of the imagination put into action – sometimes it can feel frictionless and safe, but sometimes it also demands risk. Though the beauty of solidarity is that a group can come together and find safety and strength collectively, to effectively hold power to account.’

Featuring: Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Aurelia Guo, Emily LaBarge, So Mayer, Yamen Mekdad, Lucy Mercer, Elaine Mitchener, Zarina Muhammad, Rose Nordin, M. NourbeSe Philip, Nisha Ramayya, Anahí Saravia Herrera, Rosalie Schweiker, Azad Ashim Sharma, Sarah Shin, Olivia Sudjic, Isabel Waidner, Steve Willey. Elaine Mitchener’s closing performance improvises on poems and texts by Jay Bernard, Thuyên Nãh; Dicteé by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and There it is by Jayne Cortez.

we shape ourselves with the force of each other is a title from Abuaker’s poem Suture Fragmentations – a note on return. In it, the poet reflects on the inherent queerness of ‘being out of place in (diaspora),’ taking queerness to mean ‘the process and acts of re-orienting.’