Congressman Keith Ellison, Syrian-American Mazen Halabi, Gail Daneker from Friends for a Nonviolent World and 15 other Minnesotans are preparing for a day long hunger strike in solidarity with Qusai Zakary, a Syrian who is in the 25th day of his hunger strike to protest the siege of over 30 towns in Syria. They are the first phase of an action that is gathering international support (see attached list). On Friday, January 10, 2014 Marvin X will fast for Syria and the hoods of America suffering genocide and fratricide. Also, he asks you to join him in prayer for poet Amiri Baraka and Dr. Julia Hare. Fasalli li Rabbika! (So pray to your Lord)
Black Arts Movement Poet, Marvin X
Syrian poet, novelist, professor Mohja Kahf and poet Marvin X. She considers Marvin X the father of Muslim American literature.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Marvin X tour dates
Marvin X will read at New York University on February 4, 2014, at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez.
February 22 he will read at the Hinton Center, Fresno CA.
February 24 he will read at Fresno City College
February 28, March 1-2, he will co-produce (with Kim McMillan) the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced.
For more information or to invite Marvin X to your campus and/or conference, call 510-200-4164.
Contact: Mazen Halabi 612-386-1081
Terry Burke 952-926-0198 312-399-0454 (cell)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, FIRST DAY
of an International Hunger Strike for Syria
Congressman Keith Ellison, Syrian-American Mazen Halabi, Gail Daneker from Friends for a Nonviolent World and 15 other Minnesotans are preparing for a day long hunger strike in solidarity with Qusai Zakary, a Syrian who is in the 25th day of his hunger strike to protest the siege of over 30 towns in Syria. They are the first phase of an action that is gathering international support (see attached list).
Syrians are dying of malnutrition because military blockades have prevented food and medicine from coming into their areas - approximately 1 million people are affected. The goal of the strike is to break the siege.
It's a "rolling" strike where at least one person participates in the hunger strike each day. Congressman Ellison is fasting on Monday, December 23. Mazen Halabi, Gail Daneker, Wendy Tuck, Terry Irish, and Ava Dale Johnson are the Minnesotans fasting on Friday, December 20.
The Minnesota Syrian-American community has been extremely active - sending doctors to help in the refugee camps, making speeches around the state, and raising money for refugees and medical aid.
Mazen Halabi is one of the local Syrian-Americans whose friends and family in Syria are caught in a crisis that has been described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since World War II. Halabi expressed his appreciation for Ellison's responsiveness. "Congressman Ellison has always been there for us - to listen and to try and find a way to resolve the Syrian conflict. We are grateful to have a compassionate, involved representative in Congress."
Qusai Zakary, who is in Moadamiya, Syria, pleads with the world to help the "starving and frozen Syrian people". "Starvation is a much worse weapon of war than sarin gas," he points out. "Dozens of women and children have died from malnutrition in the last few months. The world has to raise their voices together and say 'Stop using food as a weapon of war'. My hunger strike will continue until the siege is broken and aid convoys enter the besieged towns of Syria."
The solidarity hunger strike has gotten support from U.S. academics and nonviolence advocates around the world, including American poet Marilyn Hacker. Here in Minnesota, Gail Daneker, director at Friends for a Nonviolent World and a peace activist for 30 years, says, "We live in an era where we have ample resources so that no one on the planet should be hungry and yet thousands are being deliberately deprived of food and medicine. We should be beyond using food and medicine as weapons of war."
A petition supporting Zakarya's strike was created by the human rights advocacy group Avaaz last month. The petition calls for a binding resolution from the U.N. Security Council requiring the regime in Syria and all armed parties to allow humanitarian organizations immediate unfettered access to aid the civilian population without discrimination, including cross-border access and access across military lines.
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Oh, Mohja
how much water can run from rivers to sea
how much blood can soak the earth
the guns of tyrants know no end
a people awakened are bigger than bullets
there is no sleep in their eyes
no more stunted backs and fear of broken limbs
even men, women and children are humble with sacrifice
the old the young play their roles
with smiles they endure torture chambers
with laughs they submit to rape and mutilations
there is no victory for oppressors
whose days are numbered
as the clock ticks as the sun rises
let the people continue til victory
surely they smell it on their hands
taste it on lips
believe it in their hearts
know it in their minds
no more backwardness no fear
let there be resistance til victory.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
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Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?
The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood
and overrun the earth with evil?”
And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor:
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see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma
shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark
and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping
from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,
and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,
nor rebel car bombs on the ground,
ask them their names before they die.
They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,
and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.
They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.
Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut
becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river
running all the way over the ocean, to you,
draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels,
“I know what you know not.” But right now,
learn the names of all the Syrians.
See what your species has done.
--Mohja Kahf
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Two Poems for the People of Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf
how much water can run from rivers to sea
how much blood can soak the earth
the guns of tyrants know no end
a people awakened are bigger than bullets
there is no sleep in their eyes
no more stunted backs and fear of broken limbs
even men, women and children are humble with sacrifice
the old the young play their roles
with smiles they endure torture chambers
with laughs they submit to rape and mutilations
there is no victory for oppressors
whose days are numbered
as the clock ticks as the sun rises
let the people continue til victory
surely they smell it on their hands
taste it on lips
believe it in their hearts
know it in their minds
no more backwardness no fear
let there be resistance til victory.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
Syrian poet/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf
Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?
The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood
and overrun the earth with evil?”
And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor:
see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma
shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark
and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping
from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,
and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,
nor rebel car bombs on the ground,
ask them their names before they die.
They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,
and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.
They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.
Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut
becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river
running all the way over the ocean, to you,
draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels,
“I know what you know not.” But right now,
the angels seem right. Cut the coyness, God;
learn the names of all the Syrians.
See what your species has done.
Marvin X tour dates
Marvin X will read at New York University on February 4, 2014, at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez.
February 22 he will read at the Hinton Center, Fresno CA.
February 24 he will read at Fresno City College
February 28, March 1-2, he will co-produce (with Kim McMillan) the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced.
For more information or to invite Marvin X to your campus and/or conference, call 510-200-4164.