Conditions in Gaza
As of yesterday, Day 36 of the Israel Palestine conflict, Jewish Voice for Peace health committee reported over 11,000 killed. (67% of this number are women and children) Over 27,000 are injured. 270 health facilities have been attacked, 60% of hospitals and 71% of primary health centers are shut down.
198 medical staff, and over 45 journalists have been killed. 1.6 million people (67% of Gazans) are internally displaced. Electricity had been out for 31 days and there is no fuel.
Local physician, author, filmmaker and activist, Dr. Alice Rothchild has been working in solidarity with Palestinian medical organizations since 2004. She’s an author on healthcare in Palestine, the latest book one being Condition Critical, Life and Death in Israel/Palestine. Dr. Rothchild has more recently, written children’s books set in Palestine. A young adult novel, Finding Melody Sullivan came out earlier this year, and a middle grade book, Old Enough to Know, will drop later this year. Dr. Rothchild also directed the documentary, Voices Across the Divide, available free on vimeo. She speaks about what she’s witnessed in Gaza and her journey in understanding conditions there.
Producer: Yuko Kodama and Lucy Braginski
Photo: from Dr. Alice Rothchild
Safe Heroin Injection Sites
The debate over safe injection sites in King County is a hot topic. The model for such sites is Insite. The first such site in North America, it’s located in Vancouver, British Columbia and offers a room with harm reduction supplies and staff who know how to resuscitate people after an overdose.
The podcast, Cited, dives into the story of another type of service, Vancouver Canada’s Crosstown Clinic. Here people are actually given government funded, prescription heroin. Thousands of people visit supervised injection facilities. The patients at Crosstown are part of a much smaller club.
#BlackMenDream
The recent viral photo of Ieshia Evans standing in peaceful protest as she is arrested by police in riot gear is reminiscent of photos from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. The struggle for equality and respect continues in this era with the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Seattle Art Museum is hosting an exhibit called Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography on display now until January 2018. The exhibit features work from several artists including multi-platform artist, Shikeith. Sonya Green spoke with Shikeith in May about his video project, #BlackMenDream.
Steampunk vs. Steamfunk
The 11th annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival is underway at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle. What began as a weekend series 11 years ago is now a nine-day festival with everything from short to long films and documentaries. And new this year is the addition of food trucks for weekend festival events. Also this year the festival features three local filmmakers. One of them joins me in the studio today. Briaan Barron created and directed a mixed-media documentary short, “Steamfunk & Rococoa: A Black Victorian Fantasy”. The short explores a little-known genre called Steampunk.
KBCS Music + Ideas Host Sonya Green discusses how people of color are creatively telling their stories through the Steampunk genre with Briaan Barron.
Finding Hillywood
The Rwandan genocide began claiming up to a million lives in April 20 years ago. Today, we highlight a documentary film based in Rwanda called Finding Hillywood. It’s created by a local director, Leah Warshawski and the film focuses on the vibrant Rwandan film industry today. We talk about this film and take a look at how Rwanda’s government and economy fare today.
Guests:
- Leah Warshawski – Director of the documentary film, Finding Hillywood
- Marie Berry – PhD Candidate at UCLA in Sociology. She’s been researching Rwanda since 2007. She’s also the President of the Board of Directors for Global Youth Connect, a cross cultural human rights training program for youth in post-genocide countries.
- Kevin Henry – Cultural Diversity Communications Coordinator at the City of Bellevue.
Upcoming screenings:
April 15th noon at South Seattle Community College
April 16th 4 pm at Seattle University
April 22nd 6 pm at the Bellevue Downtown Library
April 23rd 6:30 pm at University of Washington (Seattle) Ethnic Cultural Center (screened along with other footage and films about Rwanda)
