All UUs and UU-adjacent people are welcome to this gathering.
We will meet in the chapel, a room at the church, located at 1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109.
The first hour of the meeting will be a viewing of sections of the film “MLK in Palestine”.
The second hour will be a meeting, and we will be joined via Zoom by Dr. Clayborne Carter, who wrote the film. We have invited people from MECA (Middle East Children’s Alliance) and JVP (Jewish Voice For Peace) to join us, as we are hoping that to partner with these groups, who have a strong presence in the Bay Area and are very active in organizing and putting on events for solidarity with Palestinians. The first half hour will be a discussion of the film and Q&A time with Dr. Carson.
Part two of the second hour will be devoted to discussion about our new chapter of UUJME. Here is a proposed agenda for topics for this section of the meeting:
How often should we meet?
Should we meet in person, via Zoom, or hybrid meetings?
What ideas do people have for how to educate our congregations on this issue, and encourage dialog? For instance:
A presence at the UUSF Human Rights table after church
Olive oil tasting, and display of cultural products
Share info about tours of Palestine sponsored by solidarity organizations
Messaging at the weekly UUSF vigil on Wednesday mornings
The proposal that we partner with MECA and the Jenin Freedom Theater to host a meeting with Nabil Al-Raee, former artistic director of the Jenin Freedom Theater, who will be visiting the Bay Area for part of a week in early May. The theater is a very good cause; please read about it using the link if you are not familiar with their work.
About the film:
From Connie Field, the director of classics like The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter and Freedom on my Mind, comes the new documentary film Al Helm (The Dream).
The glorious strains of gospel music wash over the West Bank in Field's potent film. As the Palestinian National Theater and an African-American choir mount a touring play about Martin Luther King Jr., written by Stanford Professor and King scholar Clayborne Carson, an impassioned cultural exchange ensues, new friendships are forged and attitudes are altered. A rousing portrait of the changes unfolding in the Middle East as a nonviolent movement grows in Palestine, this dynamic and complex work is born of a brilliantly simple and potent idea: what would happen if African-American Christians--the same group who served as exemplars of the Civil Rights Movement--could witness first-hand the plight of Palestinians today?
