In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Asel Asleh. His story is tragically familiar for Americans, but Asel was not killed in Ferguson, New York City, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. Asel was a Palestinian teenager who was murdered by Israeli police as he participated in a demonstration calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and settler-colonization.

There Is A Field began as a play about Asel’s life and his death, told from the perspective of his older sister, Nardin. Through Nardin’s struggle to cope with the murder of her brother, the play offers a uniquely personal lens for learning about intersecting systems of oppression, including Zionism, Jewish supremacy, and white supremacy—root causes of state-sanctioned violence and structural racism.

Donkeysaddle Projects (DSP) filmed a reading of There Is A Field at the Peñasco Theatre Collective in 2018, performed by activists, artists, and organizers from the Movement for Black Lives. The film of There Is A Field weaves together their performance with archival footage of Asel and the activists’ own realizations of the parallels they see between Asel’s story and the experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities in the United States. The film, set in Palestine and performed by BIPOC artists and activists in the U.S., builds solidarity across intersectional struggles for liberation and decolonization and is sure to spark conversation and connection.

The panel discussion after the screening will include:

Baraa Aslih, Brother of Asel
Gwen Carr, Mother of Eric Garner
Margaret Kwateng, Activist who performs in the film
Jen Marlowe, Filmmaker
Raya Naamneh, Asel's cousin & activist
Moderator: Nadia Ben-Youssef of the Center for Constitutional Rights

RSVP here in order to receive an event link.