Wednesday, December 3

Ora Wise
Palestine, Israel, Hip Hop and Resistance

Blodgett Hall, Room 109
2:25 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.

About the Speakers
Ora Wise was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of a rabbi and a Jewish school teacher.  After experiencing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for the first time while volunteering with Rabbis for Human Rights on a Bedouin reservation in 2000, Wise returned to the U.S and eventually co-founded PEP--the Palestine/Israel Education Project--and co-produced the grassroots documentary Slingshot Hip Hop, a film documenting the lives of young hip hop artists in Palestine.  Wise and other PEP members are currently organizing with Native American artists and educators towards a native delegation to Palestine this coming winter.  Wise has a Masters in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary and works as the director of education at a progressive synagogue in Brooklyn, implementing an arts-based, pluralistic, Jewish culture and history curriculum for students from Jewish, interfaith, multiracial, and GLBT families.

PEP:
The Palestine/Israel Education Project (PEP) is an initiative of educators and activists based in New York City, created to engage students in critical thinking about the culture, history and current living conditions of Palestinians and Israelis.  Through this project we are employing popular education methods to empower ourselves and youth as educators and as active members of our communities.
PEP uses Palestinian hip hop videos, lyrics, and more to facilitate conversations around racism, occupation, and resistance. PEP members explore ways to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle while developing with youth in the U.S. ways to articulate and address their own connections to the issues of colonialism, racism, and militarism.

Levermore Global Scholars Program  is a program of distinction for socially active, civically conscious, and globally minded students.

Download the flyer (PDF 140KB)