Mohammed El-Kurd Reads at PalFest NYC Event: "But We Must Speak"

On November 1st the Palestine Festival of Literature staged a free, public event in New York titled: But We Must Speak: On Palestine and the Mandates of Conscience. Palestinian poet, activist and journalist, Mohammed El-Kurd opened the evening. Professor Rashid Khalidi was in conversation with National Book Award winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Michelle Alexander, the acclaimed civil rights lawyer and authors of The New Jim Crow, introduced the evening and moderated the conversation. Pulitzer Prize–winning Mojave poet, Natalie Diaz, performed three works of poetry. A message was read out by Morgan Bassichis from Rabbis Brant Rosen and Alissa Wise, Co-Chairs of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council. The scholar and lawyer, Noura Erakat, spoke on the urgency of the moment. The Rev Dr Raschaad Hoggard read extracts of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s Beyond Vietnam speech.