Light is returning.
Even though this is the darkest hour.
No one can hold
Back the dawn
My daughter and I just recorded this song on her phone to embed here.1 Our group, MD-4-Ceasefire, sang it as we solemnly stood outside our Congressperson Glenn Ivey’s home demanding he support permanent ceasefire (see Update below).
That was in February. The turning wheel had begun bringing more light, but it was hard to see, especially with the continuing slaughter in Gaza2.
We sang the song again this past Saturday at the end of an inspiring conversation our community had with Palestinian journalist Fadi Abushammala, who spoke about his experiences in besieged Gaza, and about moving forward with cultural work in the struggle for peace, freedom, and justice in Palestine. Which, he said, is all they want, and the only thing that will bring safety to both Palestinians and Israelis.
After the event we took the remaining food to the downtown DC encampment with students from Georgetown, George Washington and other local universities and colleges. I was heartened to see the bustling Liberated Zone developing in the heart of the university, as they are around the country and beyond.
These protests have burst suddenly into the headlines; but in truth the conditions have been gathering for a long time. Yesterday, a student told me that at University of Maryland—where Students for Justice in Palestine was founded over a decade ago—they had been working for months with the student government on a bill for the university to divest from investments in arms manufacture and other enterprises connected with Israel, holding marches, meetings, petitions, and more.
Exasperation and a spark of some kind may provide the immediate push, but the slow dimming of young people’s trust in less drastic means for being heard is what finally leads to the decision to step entirely outside the normal. The normal has failed them, and us.
Over the last few days, I have visited the Liberated Zone at George Washington University, which also includes students from Georgetown, Howard, and other nearby schools, and the ongoing sit-in at University of Maryland. Both are completely peaceful and friendly. When I briefly mislaid my backpack, one participant told me confidently not to worry. “We keep us safe,” she said with a smile. And yes, I located my things shortly.
Coming out of shadow
The solar eclipse this month in my part of the world was a festive, benign occasion for the millions who saw it. But in ancient times it was a terrifying event, and people were not at all certain the sun would reemerge unharmed from the moon’s shadow.
That is the kind of uncertainty we are living now. We do our damnedest, but we have no idea if we really can change course and save Earth from being blown up, heated past enduring, or succumbing to other looming threats. Or if we can stop a genocide occurring right before our eyes.
What we do know is that we can’t depend on celestial movements. We are often called idealists, but in fact we must make our own movement grounded in hard reality here on Earth, if we want to bring back the light.
Though we are now in blooming spring, these times still feel dark. But glimmers are appearing as people around the world build communities of struggle for justice.
A writing and activism update:
A central aspect of my Activist Explorer writing is reflecting on emotional aspects of activism. Lately, I have focused on the emotional turmoil surrounding the surging movement in the US and around the world for justice in Palestine in the face of genocide.
Those pieces here on Substack are:
As well as this latest one, Light is Returning.
I have also published pieces elsewhere:
“Musings on being a Jew and on Anti-Semitism” appeared in The Multiracial Unity Blog.
An op ed critiquing the “Secure DC Crime Bill,” which, despite spirited opposition passed the DC City Council last month, published in Street Sense Media. My testimony focused on my harrowing experience of being carjacked, which showed me, among things, the dangers of high-speed police chases that are permitted in the crime bill.
Also last month, I was interviewed for a Street Sense article about a Poor People’s Campaign event I attended. (I did not actually attend the original Poor People’s Campaign march on Washington, as the reporter wrote, though my parents did take us kids down to muddy Resurrection City on the mall.)
People’s World ran my review of Cantoras, by Carolina de Robertis, a novel about a courageous group of lesbians resisting dictatorship, repression, and the isolation of gender nonconformity in an authoritarian society, and their experiences of the complex interaction of social transformation and personal evolution.
My interview of University of MD graduate student Diana Carrillo, “Real Information about Latin American Politics,” was published in February in the Mexico Solidarity Project Bulletin, following up on a speaking tour I helped organize with Mexican journalist José Luis Granados Ceja in the fall of 2023. Diana talked about being a Mexican immigrant, the experience of Latin American immigrants at the university, and the need for students to hear alternative perspectives on Latin American politics and culture.
Along with other organizers with MD4Ceasefire, I was interviewed by journalist Delonte Harrod regarding some actions we organized to pressure Rep. Ivey to advocate for a ceasefire. I’m quoted toward the end of his article in The Intersection entitled Jewish-Led Protest Calls for a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza.
Finally, below is a photo of us at the office of Glenn Ivey, me at the far end, with spouse Brian and daughter Sophie, left of the flag, from a January 9, 2024 Washington Post article.
Organizing with writers
On the fiction front, I’ve been meeting with my Activist Fiction Writers’ Circle (AFWC), developing our effort to publish our novels centering activism and activist characters. For my own part, I am pulling the pieces into place to publish the 2nd edition of my novel, Rainwood House Sings. More on this soon!
Another AFWC member and I conducted a writing workshop last month in New York City, at the People’s Forum, as part of the Radical Elders Day of Action.
I feel that writing, while usually solitary, can benefit greatly from solidarity, mutual support, and collectivity. Cases in point:
Our small but intrepid Writers’ Collective of the Claudia Jones School for Political Education meets weekly.
I also attend (but don’t organize) a weekly writers’ circle with Foster, a very supportive, generous community of mostly nonfiction writers—chiefly essayists, though there are all kinds of writing.
When I can I attend online “writing dates” with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
And, certainly not least, at the monthly chapter meetings of the National Writers Union we check in and celebrate each other’s work, as well as discuss other relevant issues. At the national level we’re working on a network to support members when doing book tours.
Why has Gaza provoked such a massive outcry when there are so many other terrible situations of war and violence also going on in the world? This is a question I’ve seen often, framed as an aspersion on the pro-Palestine justice movement. I think the question is valid. Why did the murder of George Floyd touch off huge protests, when so many others have been killed? Seeing the atrocity before our eyes is part of the reason. There is more to explore on this but for now I will say that sometimes people just decide that enough is enough.
Wonderful issue, Juliana. You capture many people's thoughts and feelings. I heard Saturday' program was very good. By the way, I will start a creative writing class . .
I appreciate that you asked those questions in your 2 footnote. It got me thinking about the alternative news sources of today (citizen’s cell phones), encouragement to ponder the nuance of a political situation, the rise of counterculture, troubling socioeconomic climates that are excellent breeding grounds for unrest, and election cycles (all of which are quite similar today as they are to spring 2020… and dare I say ‘68 too, trade social with television). But I also think these compounded factors contribute to that “enough is enough” attitude. Thank you for daily efforts. It’s certainly not easy. But even just a powerfully simple song can move hearts.