Permission To Narrate

– Edward Said

The late Palestinian scholar, Edward Said, remarked that Palestinians had been denied permission to narrate their history and speak of the day-to-day experiences of life in the margins. Here, we reclaim that permission to narrate our own stories.

All Alone on Israel Island

Yousef Munayyer: Solitude and Absurdity. Perhaps no two other words better described the scene at the United Nations earlier this year when US Ambassador Susan Rice raised her hand with a reluctant expression on her face to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli colonial expansion.

September 2011

With the Washington heat, it is hard to believe we are looking at Fall. But September brings us the beginning of an exciting new season of exhibitions at the Gallery. While Bassima Mustafa’s deep images of olive groves continue to cool us off in through September, I will be in Texas visiting the contemporary art galleries with a view to an exhibition here in the future.

Whispers of Palestine

New Jersey photographer Bassima Mustafa’s Whispers of Palestine revisits her family’s olive groves, to trace  Palestine through its land and architecture, which she feels are integral to understanding  the country and its history.

Summer 2011

The weather in Washington has already been hot for weeks, and the forecast indicates that it will continue to be so throughout the summer. Here at the Gallery, we think things have been “hot” as well. Our exhibition Breaching the Wall had a record opening crowd, and continues to generate heat in the press.