An Interview with Peacemaker Emmanuel Jal - from PCDN

Yes, music and art bring people together to communicate where dialogue can't, always. Music, like art, help me heal, forgive and continue on... Amineh

TED Talk 9/11 healing: The mothers who found forgiveness, friendship

 Yes, we have to be generous, at heart and in our minds.

Phyllis Rodriguez and Aicha el-Wafi have a powerful friendship born of unthinkable loss. Rodriguez' son was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001; el-Wafi's son Zacarias Moussaoui was convicted of a role in those attacks and is serving a life sentence. In hoping to find peace, these two moms have come to understand and respect one another.

Aicha el-Wafi and Phyllis Rodriguez met around a shared tragedy -- and their friendship has become a powerful symbol for forgiveness and dialogue

Immigration, Migration and Movement

Here is one more TEDx talk.  Activist and writer Pramila Jayapal gives us new ways to think about immigration, migration and movement. She challenges xenophobia and discrimination, laying out powerful arguments for embracing migration.

Arabic translation: Amineh Ayyad.

Understanding Through Exploring the Quran - a TEDxTalk by Lesley Hazleton

Lesley Hazleton in her talk below explores the Quran. Lesley is a Seattle-based journalist, psychologist, author of "After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split" and also known as 'the Accidental Theologist.' The talk was delivered at TEDxRainier, a conference that took place in Seattle on 10/10/2010.
 
I talk is subtitled in various languages, including Arabic. Please feel free to share with Arabic speakers and post your feedback in either language. Thank you.

Amineh Ayyad Reporting on the Intercultural and Intergenerational Community Storytelling Festival in Seattle

Transforming the former Chinese Boys detention dormitory at the decommissioned Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) building created a new space to share profound experiences by local immigrants and refugees and for the diverse communities of the State of Washington to come together and know one another through traditional stories, adapted tales and personal narratives and legacies. Over 30 storytellers and community leaders and members and children told stories, and about 400 attended the festival.  We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all of our storytellers, volunteers, co-sponsors and children who made the storytelling festival possible and a huge success!  Special thanks to Sam Farazaino, Principal at Inscape for inviting me to participate in Passages (the kick-off celebration of the building) and for dedicating this historic building for art and cultural programs. Such dedication is indeed the most meaningful for this old federal Immigration and Naturalization Services building. This past weekend, on October 16th and 17th, the INS building was reopened and rechristened as an arts and culture center called Inscape.  

I (Amineh), my family and friends, and many of the festival's storytellers, including Buddhist Reverend Guo Cheen, Mohammad Fani, Sheikh Jamal Rahman and Dieu-Hien Hoang are immigrants who have had direct experiences in this building.  I became an American citizen in this building. This has opened new doors and brought new possibilities into my life, also new challenges.  I have also been an advocate for many immigrants and re-settled refugees who were detained for months in the room where we held the storytelling festival, which used to be the old detention dorm.  

Here is a short article with fabulous Photos from Passages at Inscape and "You Who Stand in the Doorway, Come in" community storytelling festival.

More photo albums:

Day One

Day One & Two

Preparation

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor tells stories about immigrants from the Philippines

‎

Kelvin Saxton

Dough Banner, Festival Host Amineh Ayyad, Rebecca Mabaanglo-Mayor and Kelvin Saxton

Reverend Steven Greenebaum and Elizabeth Dunham

 

 

Mohammad Fani shares the story of Camp Brotherhood

Dr. B. J. Prashantham brings his global work in healing trauma and traditional tales from Vellore, India locally

Raja Atallah, Founder of the Arab Center of Washington recalls his experiences at the INS building

Masaru Kibukawa

Rabbi James Louis Mirel brings lessons from the story of Yusuf to the present and speaks about greed and truth

Reverend Guo Cheen on compassion and healing

Compassionist Jon Ramer

 

Sam Farazaino, Inscape Principal removes the door to the detention dormitory where the festival was held.

Enjoy.  Amineh

From the Compassionate Action Network by Jon Ramer. Thank you Jon!

Seattle INSCAPE - Transforming the INS Building!

Greetings Compassionistas!

As we know Seattle has an incredible arts community, and when that community focuses on bringing art to heal and breathe new life into spaces - especially dark ones - it can be amazing. Case in point: this weekend is the opening event of the INSCAPE: History, Arts, Culture. They are transforming the INS (immigration and naturalization services) building on Airport Way into an artist's hub with studios for more than 30 artists as well as visiting artists.

The Compassionate Action Network is cosponsoring the work of Amineh Ayyad and Adapt International. They are producing an Intercultural and Intergenerational Community Storytelling Festival happening as part of the INSCAPE opening event.

The event is happening October 16 and 17th from noon to midnight on Saturday and from noon to 6 PM on Sunday. There is live music on Saturday night starting at 8 PM the bands include The Garage Blasters, Ashcomb, Phase 3, Prince of China.

INSCAPE is Seattle's newest arts and culture hub they are redefining the former INS building with arts, culture, preservation and engagement by exploring the past history and future possibilities of the building.

The thought of honoring the history of this building which was opened in 1930 and transforming the stories it holds into a future together that preserves and engages is an act of compassion. Many people stayed in this building and wished and dreamed to gain access to our country. I encourage you to come down and be a part of this opening and transforming event.

In the words of Amineh:

The festival is curated by Amineh Ayyad as part of Passages event at Inscape, a collective re-visioning and transforming of this historic building into its future role as an arts and culture hub for Seattle's diverse communities.

We are transforming an old detention dorm in the building into a traditional hospitality room representing various cultures around the world. Come and enjoy a traditional storytelling ambiance and have with us a cup of coffee or tea, and listen to and share stories about hospitality, friendship, compassion, perseverance, forgiveness, and the struggles & legacies of immigrants, refugees and other communities in diverse Seattle. Humor, greed, global health and healing are other themes included in the festival.

Our storytellers include Buddhist Reverend Guo Cheen, Muslim Sufi Sheikh Jamal Rahman, SURPRISE storytellers, Compassionist Musician Jon Ramer, elderly, youth, friends, neighbors and strangers.

What a gift it is to live in Seattle!

Claims by Lisa Suhair Majaj

Storytelling and building understanding through poetry. Thank you Lisa.

I am not soft, hennaed hands,
a seduction or coral lips;
not the enticement of jasmine musk
through a tent flap at night;
not a swirl of sequined hips,
a glint of eyes unveiled.
I am neither harem’s promise
nor desire’s fulfillment.

I am not a shapeless peasant
trailing children like flies;
not a second wife, concubine,
kitchen drudge, house slave;
not foul smelling, moth-eaten, primitive,
tent-dweller, grass-eater, rag-wearer.
I am neither a victim
nor an anachronism.

I am not a camel jockey, sand nigger, terrorist,
oil-rich, bloodthirsty, fiendish;
not a pawn of politicians,
not a fanatic seeking violent heaven.
I am neither the mirror of your hatred and fear,
nor the reflection of your pity and scorn.
I have learned the world’s histories,
and mine are among them.
My hands are open and empty:
the weapon you place in them is your own.

I am the woman remembering jasmine,
bougainvillea against chipped white stone.
I am the laboring farmwife
whose cracked hands claim this soil.
I am the writer whose blacked-out words
are bird’s wings, razored and shorn.
I am the lost one returning;
I am the dream, and the stillness,
and the keen of mourning.

I am the wheat stalk, and I am
the olive. I am plowed fields young
with the music of crickets,
I am ancient earth struggling
to bear history’s fruit.
I am the shift of soil
where green thrusts through,
and I am the furrow
embracing the seed again.

I am many rivulets watering
a tree, and I am the tree.
I am opposite banks of a river,
and I am the bridge.
I am light shimmering
off water at night,
and I am the dark sheen
which swallows the moon whole.

I am neither the end of the world
nor the beginning.

Published in Food For Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists, ed. Joanna Kadi (Boston: South End Press, 1994), and in Miscegenation Blues: Voices of Mixed Race Women ed. Carol Camper; (Toronto: Sister Vision Press, 1994)