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The Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) hosted “Black-Arab Solidarities: A Brief and Interactive History” on Wednesday, discussing unity between Black and Arab people in both national and global contexts. Two SU professors, Carol Fadda and Dana Olwan, moderated the event with four other panelists.

“I’m just looking around the room. And this is an amazing room right now, and it’s just kind of overwhelming. So joyous to be with you all,” Fadda said. “I think this is what the community looks like.”

This conversation was the first event of the Black/Arab Relationalities Initiatives that Syracuse University gained funding for from the Mellon Foundation earlier this year. The event allowed panelists to present research they have conducted at the university in spaces like the Special Collections Research Center.

“The idea behind this project came about from conversations that Dana and I are having,” Fadda said. “We’re having a conversation about how to survive – and not only survive but thrive at the institutions that we live in.”

Pan African Studies master graduate Shukri Mohamed presented her findings in a letter from Malcolm X to Alex Haley, a writer who focused on the struggles of African Americans. Mohamed detailed that Malcolm X, who had returned from his pilgrimage to Mecca before writing the letter, found Black and Arab people are connected by their historical and cultural backgrounds. Malcolm X focused on returning unity between these groups of people, Mohamed said.

Co-panelist Sarhia Rahim confronted the issue via “Panthers to Palestine,” marking how Black leaders’ perspectives moved from pro-zionist to anti-zionist. Rahim’s presentation said the communities show solidarity to each other today. She pointed to a mural of George Floyd that was painted among other sayings like “Make Hummus Not Wall” as well as Palestinian activists advising Ferguson protestors on how to deal with tear gas.

The final panelist, Biko Mandela Gray, a professor of religion, added that solidarity between the communities is a commitment.

“It is a series of choices,” Gray said. “A choice to keep choosing. It is, in other words, a commitment to what I’m describing here is relationality and solidarity.”

Before a discussion and Q&A, Gray recited parts of the poem “Moving towards Home” by June Jordan, which received applause when first mentioned. Following his recitation, Fadda and Olwan pointed out their major takeaways.

Fadda and Olwan’s project is not meant to be about abstract conversations — they are meant to be concrete in what is seen here in Syracuse, Fadda said. Working on this project will allow them to continue to have discussions like these that bring awareness to the relationalities of the Black and Arab communities.

“We want to deepen the conversations that we started,” Olwan said. “Continuing to build on the momentum and excitement of the needs of the community.”

The Q&A session allowed audience members to pose questions about reproductive justice in Palestine and the United States, Syracuse as an asylum city as well as the links between Black people’s oppression in the United States and the oppression of Gazan citizens by Israel.

Conversations like these will continue as Fadda and Olwan build programming with their funding from the Mellon Foundation.

“We are always welcoming these sorts of exchanges because it’s in alignment with the mission of our organization (at) the Community Folks Art Center,” the organization’s Director Dr. Tanisha Jackson said. “The topic is specifically mitigating, bridging communities together to heal.”

Disclaimer: Sarhia Rahim is a staff columnist for The Daily Orange. She did not influence the reporting on this story.

Published on February 7, 2024 at 11:22 pm

Contact Rosina: rlboehm@syr.edu