But We Must Speak: On Palestine & The Mandates of Conscience | New York City | November 1st 2023

On Wednesday November 1st in Manhattan the Palestine Festival of Literature staged a free, public event in the James Memorial Chapel of Union Theological Seminary titled: But We Must Speak: On Palestine and the Mandates of Conscience 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. Palestinian poet, activist and journalist, Mohammed El-Kurd opened the evening. Pulitzer Prize–winning Mojave poet, Natalie Diaz, performed three works of poetry. A message was read out 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.