Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie

Date 

Add to My Calendar Friday, April 18, 2008 12:00am

Location 

Join Craig and Cindy Corrie, the parents of Rachel Corrie, for a reading and release of Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie this Friday, April 18th at 6:30pm in New York City.

Special guests Kathleen Chalfant, Nick Flynn, Marie Howe, Denis O’Hare and Lili Taylor will join Craig and Cindy Corrie to read excerpts of the book. Rachel Corrie is a young American activist who was killed on March 16, 2003, as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in the Gaza Strip while the family was inside. She was twenty-three years old.

Let Me Stand Alone reveals Corrie’s striking gifts as a poet and writer, as she tells her story in her own words, from her precocious reflections as a young girl to her final emails. Her writing brings to life all that it means to come of age: a dawning sense of self, a thirst for one’s own ideals, and an evolving connection to others, near and far.

In 2005, CCR filed Corrie v. Caterpillar, a federal lawsuit against Illinois-based Caterpillar, Inc. on behalf of the parents of Rachel Corrie and on behalf of Palestinian families whose family members were killed or injured when Caterpillar bulldozers demolished their homes.

On September 17, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of CCR’s case against Caterpillar, Inc. The Court found that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the case because it would intrude upon the foreign policy decisions of the political branches of the United States government. Plaintiffs filed a petition for panel rehearing on October 9, 2007, which is still pending.

“Rachel Corrie was a visionary driven by a sharp unrelenting moral intensity. This book reveals the depth of her wisdom, her poetry, her humanity, and he desire to transform suffering. It also reveals her solitary struggle and bravery in the face of a sometimes cruel and heartless world. Let Me Stand Alone is a testament to how deeply we need the power and vision and energy of young women to transform the world. It should be read by everyone.” --Eve Ensler

Last modified 

April 15, 2008