Podcast appearances and mentions of mark winston griffith

Last week, we traveled back in history to learn about Civil Rights-era efforts to integrate New York City's segregated schools and we featured a speech from Reverend Milton Galamison, the leader of the 1964 NYC school boycott. In the episode, we fast forward to present day to take a look at what has changed (and what hasn't) in the fight for integration.Ash'aa Khan takes us to Queens to hear a conversation about school diversity between NYC schools chancellor David Banks and hosts of the School Colors podcast, Mark Winston-Griffith and Max Freedman.Want exclusive content from Miseducation? Join us on Patreon.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Queens, New York is often called “the most diverse place on the planet.” So why would a school district in Queens need a diversity plan? And why would so many Queens parents be so fiercely opposed?Welcome back to School Colors — Season 2.Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

District 28 is both diverse and segregated. There's a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply: the Southside is Black, and the further north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this.Once upon a time, Black parents in South Jamaica staged an epic school boycott that led to the first statewide law against school segregation in New York. The Southside hosted two revolutionary experiments in racially integrated housing. So what happened between then and now?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

In the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. It was a fight that got so intense the press called it "The Battle of Forest Hills."How did a famously liberal neighborhood become a hotbed of reaction and backlash? And how did a small group of angry homeowners change housing policy for the entire country?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

So much of the present day conversation about District 28 hinges on the dynamic between the Northside and the Southside. But why were the north and the south wedged into the same school district to begin with? When we asked around, no one seemed to know.What we do know are the consequences. As soon as the district was created, white and Black folks looked over the Mason-Dixon line and saw each other not as neighbors, but as competitors for scarce resources. And the Southside always seemed to get the short end of the stick.On this episode: how the first three decades of District 28 baked in many of the conflicts and disparities that persist to this day.Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Until recently, District 28 was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. For more than a hundred years, we've seen how conflicts around housing, schools, and resources have played out mostly along this racial divide. So how did District 28 go from being defined by this racial binary, to a place where people brag about its diversity?In this episode, we take a deep dive into two immigrant communities — Indo-Caribbeans and Bukharian Jews — that have settled in Queens: how they got here, what they brought with them, and what they make of their new home's old problems.Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Queens has changed a lot in the last few decades — and so has District 28. New immigrant communities have taken root and the district is, on the whole, pretty diverse. But most Black folks still live on the Southside, and the schools below Liberty Avenue continue to struggle.A lot of parents and educators agree that there needs to be some change in District 28. But the question remains: what kind of change? When we asked around, more diversity wasn't necessarily at the top of everybody's list. In fact, from the north and south, we heard a lot of the same kind of thing: "leave our kids where they are and give all the schools what they need."So what do the schools on the Southside really need? And what's at stake for Southside families when we "leave those kids where they are" and fail to meet their needs for generations?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

In some ways, this entire season was prompted by the parents who organized against diversity planning in District 28. So in this episode, we let the opposition speak for themselves.Who are these parents? What do they believe and why? And why were they ready to fight so hard against a plan that didn't exist?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

In 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to replace the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT. For years, advocates had argued that the test favored white and Asian students while systematically keeping Black and Latinx kids out of the city's most elite and well-resourced high schools. But many Asian American parents felt targeted by the mayor's plan, and they mobilized to defend the test.So when the District 28 diversity planning process was rolled out a year later, many Chinese immigrant parents in Queens saw this as “just another attack." This time, however, they were ready to fight back.The SHSAT is just one example of "merit-based" admissions to advanced or "gifted" education programs. These programs can start as early as kindergarten and they have become a third rail in New York City politics. In this episode, we ask why gifted education gets so much attention, even though it affects relatively few students. How do we even define what it means to be "gifted"? And by focusing on these programs, whose needs do we overlook?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

"I know this work can take you under if you let it, so I try not to let it take me."Pat Mitchell is the beloved longtime principal of P.S. 48, an elementary school in South Jamaica. She cares deeply about her students, many of whom struggle with poverty and unstable housing. While school was often a place of stability for her students and their families, COVID-19 changed everything.In this special episode, we follow the first pandemic school year through the eyes of Ms. Mitchell.Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Over the course of this season, we've explored a rich history and complicated present — but what about the future?In this episode, we catch up with parents who became activated on both sides of the debate over the diversity plan. Since the diversity plan never came to fruition, what's to be done about the inequalities that persist in District 28?Click here for a full episode transcript.Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15!Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey.School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman. Produced by Max Freedman, with Carly Rubin and Ilana Levinson. Edited by Soraya Shockley. Additional reporting by Carly Rubin and Abe Levine.Project management by Soraya Shockley and Lyndsey McKenna. Fact-checking by Carly Rubin. Engineering by James Willetts. Additional research by Anna Kushner. Original music by avery r. young and de deacon board, with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Title: How to Use Storytelling To Address the (In)Equity in Education    Max Freedman is a reporter, producer, and co-host of School Colors. He created School Colors with Mark Winston Griffith, a veteran community organizer and the editor of Brooklyn Deep. After four years of research and reporting, the first season premiered in 2019 to critical acclaim. He is thrilled to publish Season 2 through NPR's Code Switch.Freedman is also one of the creators of Unsettled, a long-running independent podcast about Israel-Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. For Unsettled, he most recently reported and produced "The Birthday Party," an immersive narrative series about Palestinian-Jewish solidarity work in the occupied West Bank. In the early weeks of COVID-19, he produced Making the Call, a weekly show about medical ethics and the pandemic for Endeavor Content.    Before becoming a journalist, Freedman was a facilitator with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, adjunct faculty at Pratt Institute and a senior educator at the New-York Historical Society, where he created an enrichment program for grades 4-8 using musicals to teach American history.He holds a B.A. in theater from Northwestern University, and an M.S. in design and urban ecologies from Parsons School of Design. His work on School Colors Season 2 was supported by the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University.   Mark Winston Griffith is the creator, host and writer of School Colors along with Max Freedman. Griffith is a third-generation resident of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Until April 2022, he was the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center, a Black-led community organizing group based in Central Brooklyn that he co-founded in 2011. His parents' organizing in Central Brooklyn and authorship of a report on Community School District 16 inspired him to co-create School Colors.   While at Brooklyn Movement Center, Griffith created Brooklyn Deep, a citizen journalism initiative that chronicles neighborhood change in Central Brooklyn. He has served as an adjunct professor of urban reporting at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and has been a board member of The City news site, City Limits Magazine and Free Speech TV.   Griffith is an enthusiastic parent of two teenage boys and has navigated the public, private and charter school systems.   Show Highlights The power of storytelling as a vehicle for making change happen. Looking through a leadership lens of equity and inequity that exists in our educational system.  Gain a keen sense of how race and gentrification impacts the conversation about education. Be a curious leader by engaging in “real conversations” to avoid ill-conceived assumptions. Examples of how the schools are conditioned by external forces. Stories of principal development and the benefit of community resources. The dangers of perception, zone preference and how it impacts families. “We spend so much time in School Colors thinking about the problems, looking at what's going wrong and the barriers. To be quite frank, we don't spend enough time with kids and the very subject of the things that we're talking about. In spending that little time with those kids, it brought home to me what this was all about in the first place. These are not subjects or like broken people. These are vibrant human beings.” -Mark Winston Griffith Max Freedman & Mark Winston Griffith's Resources & Contact Info: School Colors - Home | Facebook school colors | Brooklyn Deep Twitter/max Twitter/Mark LinkedIn/Max LinkedIn/Mark Instagram/Max  Instagram/Mark NPR's Code Switch/Twitter Leave a voicemail at 929-483-6387 Read my latest book! Learn why the ABCs of powerful professional development™ work – Grow your skills by integrating more Authenticity, Belonging, and Challenge into your life and leadership.   Read Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader today! Join the “Back to School Boot Camp” The one thing you need to start next year off with energy momentum is a solid 90-day plan.   In the “Back to School Bootcamp” I will teach you how to create your 90-day plan in just 5-days.   Join the challenge today! Apply to the Mastermind The mastermind is changing the landscape of professional development for school leaders.    100% of our members agree that the mastermind is the #1 way they grow their leadership skills.   Apply to the mastermind today!   SHOW SPONSORS: HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION Transform how you lead to become a resilient and empowered change agent with Harvard's online Certificate in School Management and Leadership. Grow your professional network with a global cohort of fellow school leaders as you collaborate in case studies bridging the fields of education and business. Apply today at http://hgse.me/leader.   TEACHFX School leaders know that productive student talk drives student learning, but the average teacher talks 75% of class time! TeachFX is changing that with a “Fitbit for teachers” that automatically measures student engagement and gives teachers feedback about what they could do differently.  Learn more about the TeachFX app and get a special 20% discount for your school or district by visiting teachfx.com/blbs.   ORGANIZED BINDER Organized Binder is the missing piece in many classrooms. Many teachers are great with the main content of the lesson. Organized Binder helps with powerful introductions, savvy transitions, and memorable lesson closings. Your students will grow their executive functioning skills (and as a bonus), your teachers will become more organized too. Help your students and staff level up with Organized Binder.   Copyright © 2022 Twelve Practices LLC        

On this Summer Friday, enjoy some of our favorite recent conversations: Sara Abiola, executive director of the Tisch Food Center and associate research professor in the department of health and behavior studies at Columbia University's Teachers College, and Pamela Koch, associate professor of nutrition education and faculty director of the Tisch Food Center, talk about policy proposals for meeting the challenge of food insecurity in NYC following the pandemic and their report, "NY Food 2025." Britt Wray, Human and Planetary Health Fellow at Stanford University and author of the new book Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis (Knopf Canada, 2022), talks about how climate anxiety can affect people's decisions on whether to have children, or not. News about climate change tends to be uniformly bad, but Mic has compiled stories that give reason for some hope. AJ Dellinger, impact writer at Mic, shares a bit of climate optimism. Queens is one of the most diverse places on earth. But like a lot of New York City, it's also segregated. Mark Winston Griffith, executive editor of Brooklyn Deep, and Max Freedman, co-hosts of the podcast School Colors, now on NPR's Code Switch, talk about their reporting into a school diversity plan in district 28 in Queens that proved to be hugely controversial. Rhea Ewing, comic illustrator, fine artist and author of Fine: A Comic About Gender (Liveright, 2022), talks about their new book that the many answers elicited from the transgender community to the question "What is gender?". These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity; the original web versions are available here: Combatting Post-Pandemic Food Insecurity (Apr 20, 2022) Generational Dread (May 12, 2022) Some Good News Stories About Climate Change (For a Change) (Jun 2, 2022) What Went Wrong With a School Diversity Plan in Queens? (May 13, 2022) Creating 'A Comic About Gender' (Apr 13, 2022)

The acclaimed podcast School Colors is back with a new season. In their quest to understand how race, class and power shape American cities and schools, hosts Max Freedman and Mark Winston Griffith head to Queens, N.Y. and dive into a fierce debate over a "diversity plan." The fight that ensues exposes hidden inequities and invisible dividing lines in one of the most diverse places in the world. Listen to the rest of the series on School Colors, in the Code Switch feed.

Queens is one of the most diverse places on earth. But like a lot of New York City, it's also segregated. Mark Winston Griffith, executive editor of Brooklyn Deep and co-host of the podcast School Colors, now on NPR's Code Switch and Max Freedman, co-host of the podcast School Colors and the creator and producer of the podcast Unsettled, talk about their reporting into a school diversity plan in District 28 in Queens that proved to be hugely controversial.

School Colors is back! Season 2 premieres this week, presented by NPR's Code Switch. To listen, hop over to the Code Switch feed.In Season 1, hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman reported from their home turf in Central Brooklyn. Season 2 is all about Queens. Queens is often touted as the most ethnically diverse place in the world. So why would a school district in the middle of Queens need a diversity plan? And why would diversity planning be met with such intense parent opposition?Listen to School Colors only in the Code Switch feed starting Wednesday, May 4. 

Mark Winston Griffith, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), and Board member of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City, discusses the history of BMC, and the relationship of the principles of Kwanzaa and those of the cooperative business model. Mark Winston Griffith is is a nationally recognized thought leader, community organizer and journalist. He's also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), a membership-based, community organizing group serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights. BMC is a multi-issue organization currently building campaigns around public education, food sovereignty, sexualized street harassment and police accountability. In the early nineties, Mark co-founded the Central Brooklyn Partnership, a community organizing group that focused on economic justice issues, and was co-founder of Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union, which at the time was the nation's largest black-run, community-based, financial cooperative.

This episode bridges the wisdom of an ecosystem innovator and a journalist to discuss the resilience of urban communities in their fight for food access. The Innovator, Erika Allen, is the Co-founder and CEO of the Urban Growers Collective. The Journalist, Mark Winston Griffith, is the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center. What does it mean to be a community organizer? How have communities been exploited because of food? Learn how innovating democratic food systems and intergenerational organizing in black neighborhoods creates a path toward a resilient & equitable local food system. More about this episode: Erika Allen @urbangrowerscollective urbangrowerscollective.org/ Mark Winston Griffith @bkmovement brooklynmovementcenter.org/ A Castanea Fellowship Podcast @castaneafellowship / castaneafellowship.org/rooted-wisdom/ Conversation Guide: Aileen Suzara @aileensuzara @sariwakitchen Voice Talent: Mark Winston Griffith @mwgriffith @bkmovement Produced by: EmpathyHaus empathyhaus.com Support this podcast

Everyone wants their kids to get the best education, but there are major disputes on the right and moral way to make it happen. Anya Kamenetz, an education correspondent at NPR, and Mark Winston Griffith, the executive director of the Brooklyn movement Center and co-host of the podcast “School Colors,” talk about the current presidential candidates' education policies and their stances on the issue of school choice.

Jessica Gould, WNYC education reporter, comes on for another week of evolving school reopening plans. We're also joined by Mark Winston Griffith, executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center and co-host of the podcast School Colors and Dr. Uché Blackstock, emergency medicine physician, founder & CEO of Advancing Health Equities and a Yahoo News medical contributor as we consider the latest plans through the lens of racial equity here in the country's most segregated school system. 

I like to think that I choose my words carefully on Power Station. I use terms like community organizing and movement building to reflect a theory of change and a process some organizations view as foundational to making policy and social change possible. But I realize that language that speaks to my own experience may ring hollow for others. Enter Mark Winston Griffith, who embraces the language and the hard, nuanced and unrelenting work of organizing and movement building in Central Brooklyn. He formed the Brooklyn Movement Center 10 years ago to reinvigorate what had become a calcified environment for change-making. And he committed to engaging a talented staff and community members in the work needed to dismantle systemic inequities, including policing, housing, food and the environment, and influencing the creation of new and more just systems. This is what community organizing and movement building really means. It is not easy to generate, sustain or fund but it is essential to the world we say we want to live in.      

In this bonus episode, recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman talk with Christina Veiga, a reporter from Chalkbeat. They are joined by a special guest: NeQuan McLean, president of the Community Education Council for District 16.Their conversation digs deeper into some of the themes of the show, and pulls back the curtain on how Mark and Max created School Colors -- and where it's going next.CREDITSProducers: Mark Winston Griffith and Max FreedmanEditor: Max FreedmanMusic: avery r. young and de deacon boardSpecial thanks: Christina Veiga, Amy Zimmer, Carrie Melago, Robin Lester Kenton, Naila Rosario, Gregg Richards

Guest Host: Anthonine Pierre Studio Guests: Max Freedman and Mark Winston Griffith Show Description On this special edition of Third Rail, Anthonine Pierre steps into the host chair and interviews Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman, the co-hosts and co-producers of the documentary podcast, School Colors. Representing Brooklyn Deep’s most ambitious project today, School Colors is a stirring and epic look at race, class, and power in American cities and schools through the lens of Central Brooklyn. In the first segment, Anthonine goes behind the scenes with Mark and Max to give us a deep appreciation for the four-year process that resulted in the complex and personal stories of School Colors. And then, of course, we finish the episode with “Tell ‘em why you’re mad.”

In a special post Academy Award edition of Third Rail, we indulge our twin loves, BK and movies, by paying homage  -- and occasional shade -- to Black Brooklyn through the lens of cinema. Specifically, we pose the question, what are the best Black Brooklyn movies ever made? Joining Third Rail host Mark Winston Griffith and engineer Siad “Gypsy” Reid, is Curtis Ceasar John, Director of the Luminal Theater. Segment One: We walk through Curtis’ top five list and other honorable mentions. Segment Two: We consider the dominating influence of Spike Lee on Black Brooklyn commercial cinema. Segment Three: "Tell 'Em Why You Mad" Intro and Outro theme Music: “City Survival” by MC K-Swift featuring TreZure Empire.                   Episode Music: "Fallout",  Yung Kartz

Mark Winston Griffith, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center BMC), and Board member of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) is interviewed by Vernon Oakes on Everything Co-op. Vernon and Mark discuss the role cooperatives have played in both economic development and ensuring economic justice in Central Brooklyn. They also discuss cooperative strategies he has used to "trap" Black money to keep the dollars spent within the communities for a longer period of time. Mark Winston Griffith is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), a membership-based, community organizing group serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights. BMC is a multi-issue organization currently building campaigns around public education, food sovereignty, sexualized street harassment and police accountability. Mark currently teaches a graduate course in community organizing at the Murphy Institute. In the early nineties, Mark co-founded the Central Brooklyn Partnership, a community organizing group that focused on economic justice issues, and was co-founder of Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union, which at the time was the nation's largest black-run, community-based, financial cooperative. Mark currently serves on the leadership boards of the Central Brooklyn Food Coop, the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union, the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City, the National Black Food and Justice Alliance, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Communities United for Police Reform and Free Speech TV. The Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City strengthens and expands community-led, democratically-controlled initiatives - from worker, financial and consumer co-ops to community land trusts and gardens, mutual housing, and low-income housing co-ops. The goal of CEANYC is to build an economy based on values of social and racial justice, ecological sustainability, cooperation, mutualism, and democracy.

The shooting of Saheed Vassell by the NYPD on April 4th in Crown Heights re-ignited a chronic community safety debate: What kind of discretion should we use in calling the police when we know that it can result in a death sentence for an unsuspecting Black person?   Today, we investigate what runs through people’s mind when neighbors call cops on neighbors. Third Rail’s Mark Winston Griffith and guest co-host Shantae J. Edwards sit down with Malika Aaron-Bishop, the Membership Chair for GetOrganized BK and co-facilitator for one of its working groups, Racial Justice BK; and Tom Weinreich, who helps organize the deep canvassing team within the NYC chapter of Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) . We also include excerpts from a telephone interview Mark conducted with Soraya Palmer, a member of Equality for Flatbush. Together, these three organizers offer an alternative framework for how to assess the necessity of calling the police and, in doing so, point towards a new community safety protocol in the midst of rapid gentrification. Segment One: We learn more about the boot on the ground work from our guests, Soraya, Malika, and Tom do and how vital it is to our neighborhoods.  Segment Two: What is the role of gentrification and how are white people are socialized to call the police? We go through some scenarios that take us thru the critical thought process of calling the police.  Segment Three: We talk about models and alternatives to calling the police we can point to and get to the root of offensive community listservs. Segment Four: "Tell 'Em Why You Mad" Intro and Outro theme Music: “City Survival” by MC K-Swift featuring TreZure Empire.                   Episode Music: "Clear Sky" by Jimmy Square.With additional editing by Siad "Gypsy" Reid.

Raking in over $400 million in its opening weekend, Black Panther has broken almost all box office records. But what does that mean for Black Brooklynites, the media they make and the legacy we leave?  We discuss Marvel’s Black Panther with film and television producer, Okema T. Moore and Curtis Caesar John, Director of The Luminal Theater, a micro cinema specializing the curation of Black Film.  Our engineer, Keisha “TK” Dutes, joins us as interim co-host alongside Mark Winston Griffith. Segment One: Mark and TK talk to Okema and Curtis about the themes, feelings, and critiques that Black Panther brought up within the community. Also, find out the difference between the Black movie theater experience and the White movie theater experience. Segment Two: Curtis John breaks down what makes a film a Black film; and we wonder how does this Black Panther’s success influences the future of Black film. Okema T. Moore schools us on some Black films and web series you should be in the know about. Segment Three: "Tell 'Em Why You Mad"  Episode Music: Klaue/Wakanda Trailer, Black Panther 2018 “Warrior Falls” (Black Panther Score), Ludwig Goransson “Pray For Me”, (Black Panther Soundtrack) The Weeknd & Kendrick Lamar “Killmonger’s Challenge” (Black Panther Score), Ludwig Goransson Intro and Outro theme Music: “City Survival” by MC K-Swift featuring TreZure Empire.  

In the second part of Brooklyn Deep’s exploration of historic Weeksville, Mark Winston Griffith sits down one-on-one with Rob Fields, the new President and Executive Director of the Weeksville Heritage Center. As a caretaker of Central Brooklyn’s past and a cultivator of its cultural present and future, Rob discusses the role of Weeksville Heritage Center in keeping Black Brooklyn resilient in the face of relentless gentrification. Followed by a "Tell 'Em Why You Mad" moment from our very own, Veralyn Williams. LINKS: http://weeksvillesociety.org/ Music heard in this episode was found via The Lost Jazz Shrines of Weeksville project and include clips from:  Horace Silver Quintet: "Cookin at The Continental" Intro and Outro theme Music: “City Survival” by MC K-Swift featuring TreZure Empire.

Sulaiman Khatib is a co-founder and the current Managing Director of Combatants for Peace,  a joint Israeli-Palestinian nonviolent movement to end the occupation of the West Bank. In this interview, Souli explains how he began to see Israelis as potential partners, rather than the enemy. He talks about the value of ex-combatants in the struggle to end the occupation, and addresses some of the the criticism that his organization has received from other activist groups. This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Asaf Calderon. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York on August 6, 2017, and edited for length and clarity by Asaf Calderon and Yoshi Fields.  Sulaiman Khatib is a leading nonviolence activist in Israel and Palestine. He was born in the West Bank and was imprisoned at the age of 14 for stabbing two Israeli soldiers. It was during his time in prison that he learned about nonviolent resistance and first encountered Jewish Israeli perspectives. In 2006, he and other Israeli and Palestinian ex-militants founded Combatants for Peace: a grassroots nonviolent movement with the goal of ending the occupation. As part of his work, he tours in the US, giving talks with other ex-combatants on nonviolent resistance to the occupation. TRANSCRIPT SOULI:  I believe that if our people given like a good leadership with a vision that carry nonviolence and hope, I do believe that many Palestinians are happy to join. This takes time and energy. But I believe the majority of our people don’t want to live in bloody situation, of course. And if the Israelis given the opportunity to show their goodness of solidarity with the Palestinians to struggle together, I really believe also I have faith of the majority of the Israelis in this case also, they will behave differently.   _ ASAF: Welcome to_ Unsettled_, a podcast about Israel-Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. We are here to provide a space for difficult conversations and diverse viewpoints that are all too rare in American Jewish communities._ My name is Asaf Calderon. I'm one of the producers of Unsettled and your host for today's episode. Sulaiman Khatib, today's guest, grew up with his family in the West Bank under the Israeli occupation. At the age of 14, while trying to steal weapons, he stabbed two Israeli soldiers. Both soldiers survived, and Souli was sentenced by the military court to 15 years in prison. Fast forward 30 years -- today, Souli is a co-founder and Managing Director of Combatants for Peace, an organization founded by ex-combatants from the Israeli military and the Palestinian armed resistance. They are dedicated to ending the occupation, using only nonviolent means. How did Souli transform from a fighter who saw Israelis as the enemy, to a nonviolent activist committed to working in partnership with them? Why create an organization specifically with ex-militants? And how does he respond to the criticism he gets even from other anti-occupation activists? With these questions in mind, I interviewed Souli while he was visiting the United States to work on his upcoming book. We met in his rented room in Brooklyn, on a Sunday -- so of course, you’re going to hear some background music. Sorry about that. Another thing you may notice, is that we both have pretty strong accents. What you are about to hear is an Israeli interviewing a Palestinian, in English, which of course isn’t either of our first languages. So if you're having trouble understanding, please check out the transcript of this episode on our website, unsettledpod.com.   ASAF: So Souli, let’s start by you introducing yourself.   SOULI: My name is Sulaiman Khatib, so, people call me Souli -- some people -- and I was born in a village near Jerusalem, 10 minutes from Jerusalem, called Hizma. I grew up there, half of the time, and then I was in jail for a long time. I was one of the people that thought that the only way for freedom was joining the armed struggle. That was my mind when I was 14.   _ **ASAF: ** Like other Palestinian prisoners, Souli faced particularly difficult conditions in prison. In his bio for Combatants for Peace, he explains: The use of torture was routine: beating prisoners, spraying tear gas into prison cells, and violently stripping prisoners were daily occurrences._ But, it was in these difficult conditions that Souli learned how nonviolent struggle can make a difference. With no civil rights and with their most basic human rights severely limited, Souli and the other prisoners resorted to hunger strikes.   SOULI:  The prisoners were very organized, very smart, and represent all the factions in jail through committees that were elected, so we asked, for example, our demands were around having like water -- like in Hebron jail, we used to have a problem of water, especially like to clean ourselves, you know for showers -- to have access to books, education, and newspapers to bring them, and visiting our families -- it used to be half an hour, we demanded like 45 minutes.   _ **ASAF: ** The striking prisoners also had support from activists outside the prison walls._   SOULI:  In the first few days, we used to communicate with the youth organizations, and universities, and so we were sure that people support us outside, so we don’t reach the point where we die or something, because this was not our goal. We had the hunger strike to live a little better conditions while we were in jail. And that’s how I learned there is another path. There is another way. I did read about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela that was in jail at that time, and I was inspired by, you know, like all these people. We do study about Che Guevara and the Vietnam War, and the guerrilla wars. So, it’s not: you go to jail, you come out as a new Palestinian Gandhi. It’s not that way, the truth. So I don’t really represent the mainstream prisoners.   _ **ASAF: ** Not only did Souli learn about other nonviolent movements, but he also began to explore Jewish narratives which he had never before heard. He recalled watching the Holocaust film_ Schindler’s List_ one day while he was in prison._   **SOULI: ** During the film, we turned the light off, and then we watched the film --through the film, you can see that everybody is really moved. This was really the effect on our hearts, if you wish, because everyone was crying. And after the film, it's really a complex feeling, because we have to ask hot water to make tea from the Israeli police that his maybe ancestors were there, that we feel sympathy with them, and he’s putting us in jail. Through the time I also read the history of the conflict from both eyes. I studied Hebrew also in jail and that made me realize there’s no either us or them. So I became beyond the typical narrative, and I became open for meeting Israelis after jail, and looking for partners on both sides to create a new narrative and new story for our peoples.   _ **ASAF: ** In 2003, during the second Palestinian Intifada -- or uprising -- a group of Israeli reserve soldiers, from elite combat units, decided to refuse serving in the occupied territories, so as to not contribute to the occupation. Soon after going public, the Israeli group was contacted by a Palestinian group of ex-prisoners. Souli, who was recently released from prison, was one of them. They started a series of internal talks, that eventually led to the creation of Combatants for Peace in 2006. The details of the formation of Combatants for Peace are presented in a documentary about them that came out last year,_ Disturbing the Peace_._   **SOULI: ** Everything in Combatants For Peace is based on certain principles, that’s very important to say: that’s joint and nonviolent and bi-national work, and opposing the occupation and slash violence. We are a grassroots organization that have nine local groups and working “twins” -- for example, Tel Aviv-Ramallah, Hebron-Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem-Jericho, Jerusalem-Beit Lechem and so on. And there’s above all also two bi-national groups, which is the woman group of Combatants for Peace that established last year, and the Theater of the Oppressed. Some of the activities are under the local groups -- from dialogue to personal story sharing to nonviolence demonstrations as well. And there is activities on the movement level, like the Palestinian-Israeli Memorial Day -- this is the highest activity every year -- the freedom marches, and we were also part of the initiative of the Freedom Sumud Camp.   ASAF: In Israel, we often hear the term “prisoners with blood on their hands.” Israelis are much less willing to work with and cooperate with people that have done what we call “terrorist activity.” Whatever it was, against soldiers or against citizens, this term “blood on their hands” is something that rings very powerfully in Israeli discourse. What do you think about it, as somebody that, you know, does have blood on your hands? Do you think that... why do you think that Israelis should be working with you?   **SOULI: ** Firstly, all the terminologies, the language... it really exists more or less the same on both sides, that’s one thing, and it really depends where you came from and how you look at things, eh… I attacked two Israelis when I was 14, believing, "This is our enemy, I want to protect my homeland." So these kind of people, like myself, used to be like our good guys, that sacrifice for the homeland. It reminds me for Israeli discourse, when Israelis used violence before 48, for example, or the pre-Israeli organizations -- Etzel, Haganah, and all that -- were heroes.   _ ASAF: The Etzel and the Haganah were Jewish paramilitary organizations that worked before 1948 for the establishment of the Jewish state. Both used terrorism to promote their goals; for example, the King David Hotel bombing in which 91 people were killed, mostly civilians. But of course Souli is right: in Israel, most people consider them to be heroes.   _   **SOULI: ** If we go ahead in the list of around the world, same thing in the Irish conflict and Mandela party, and everywhere else. It’s like two sides of the coin: the one called terrorist by Israelis mainly called hero by Palestinians, generally speaking. I’m generalizing now because there are many opinions. There's no one Israeli opinion or one Palestinian opinion. It’s a question of narratives, and how we see things. Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard. You know, like you can always find like more soft stories to work with, in both sides, people that never been in jail or the army or any involvement, but I think this community is very crucial, important, and we know that from Mandela story, he was in jail. And from North Ireland -- we work with Irish organizations that both sides were also involved in violence and were in jail, and they worked together and we work with them to learn from their experience and this is very exceptional role for  ex-fighters to play.   **ASAF: ** And on the other side, how do you feel about working with people that have Palestinian blood on their hands, and why do you think it’s important to work with them?   SOULI: Yeah, it’s basically really the same question. First, I admit this is heavy and hard for people on both sides and I understand that, and if I remember the first few meetings of Combatants for Peace, we did meet people that have Palestinian blood on their hands -- much more than us, because they used to be in the Israeli Air Force, like pilots, and F16. Obviously, the Israelis never went to the court, or any legal thing. In the Palestinian case you got your punishment, or like over-punishing, because you are living under military rule. So let’s say my case: what I did, if it was Israeli person did the same, would go to rehabilitation center. I was 14. But I am not citizen of anywhere, so I go to military court. So basically, not to legitimize any violence of course, but to say we do have to see the human behind these terms, and in the case of Israelis I... this is heavy but somehow we reach the point to see the human behind the uniform. This take long time, it’s a very deep hard process to see, to look in the eyes of these people and meet somewhere on some level.   ASAF: Many people in the Palestinian struggle and also in solidarity movements in the United States see the kind of work that you do as the term "normalization" with Israel, and they see that as wrong. What do you have to answer to that?   SOULI:  Firstly, we got a lot of criticism in both sides. And I am really fine with that, I have to say. I understand why many people worry and criticize the joint work. But I believe in my experience -- in our experience from Combatants for Peace and other organizations -- the meetings of the other, what's so-called the other, is essential. I don't know also any Israeli that born and, you know, came directly from Tel Aviv to Bil’in. Firstly, they meet Palestinians and to trust and to build relations, and then they became like more activist. That's the one I know the majority of the Israelis that really show solidarity with the Palestinians. And -- we are not normalizing the occupation. We do a lot of activities to fight the status quo, and we are not happy with the status quo. Of course, it's controversial, always, to work with what's so-called the enemy. I personally don't think there is one way to end the conflict, or the occupation, whatever you want to say. But we are not part of the BDS movement, we have a neutral position about the BDS. This is a nonviolence legitimate tool, but we are not there. We are a bi-national organization, and I am not going to boycott my partner Chen Alon, that is teaching in Tel Aviv. He is very active to our cause together, and his daughter was just left the jail recently. And I am struggling for her, as for my sister. So I can't think in the principle of boycotting them.   _ **ASAF: ** Chen Alon is one of the Israeli founders of Combatants for Peace. Tamar Alon, his daughter, was one of a handful of Israeli youth who publicly refused to serve in the military for ideological reasons. While many Israeli members of Combatants for Peace don’t serve anymore, the organization doesn’t call for complete refusal._   **ASAF: ** In the movie, I remember that one of the Israeli Combatants for Peace activists, she says she's serving, she's still serving in the army in reserves, but she is not serving in the West Bank. But, I mean obviously the role that she does outside of the West Bank is affecting the army as a whole. So, how… how can you accept that?   SOULI:  I’m talking like as like formally Combatants For Peace. In general, when we started Combatants for Peace, was a clear condition that Israelis don’t serve beyond the 1967 borders. And on the Palestinian side you don’t, you can’t join Combatants for Peace if you support violence, for example. So there is a refusing in both sides to the mainstream. We work in Israel-Palestine: means we are also pragmatic, means we do thousands of lectures -- last year we met around 4,000 people at lectures. It’s all joint, always there are two speakers -- one Israeli, one Palestinian -- we share our personal stories of the narrative and the transformation and this always inspire people. We find this tool as very deep impact, and we don’t tell the people what to do, especially talking to youngsters, Israeli pre-army mechinot.     _ **ASAF: ** A mechina, or mechinot in plural, is a program that some Israelis go to before the army, where you study and volunteer in the community._   **SOULI: ** So in order to, to play in this space we need to be also careful with the language we use, or to tell them what to do exactly, but I believe that this model stay in the head of many of the youngsters as the only meeting maybe they ever meet a Palestinian before the army, before they go to the army.   **ASAF: ** Another thing that I noticed in the film is that you use a language of equivalency. A few times you mention dual responsibility. You’re saying, "We are both victims and we are both perpetrators." But as an Israeli, it’s difficult for me to accept the idea that you know, we are both equal in this. I feel like I am the perpetrator and you are the victim.   **SOULI: ** In Combatants for Peace, actually, after years of discussion, we recognized the imbalance in power. Of course, the Israelis are in charge. Of course. We know that. But in order to make change, we did decide to take our destiny in our hands, together as activists from both sides. And the... the truth is, usually the Palestinian come with this idea: we are the victims, Israelis they are in charge and they are criminal and... But we don’t want to stuck there. We want our peoples together to take responsibility of our life, our present, and to create a new future. A new story together. I don’t want to see more of feeding of the Palestinian victimhood, which exists deeply. Of course, the Jewish slash Israelis have the same unfortunately story of victimhood, and this is really like a very deep negative energy that will not take us anywhere. No, we can change our lives, and I believe Palestinians, as a Palestinian, if we are united, if we had a vision, if we have the right conditions, we do have responsibility, and we do can make change, together with our neighbors basically, because it will never be good to do it alone, either side. We basically in a non-divorce marriage, we have to manage. That’s what I believe.   **ASAF: ** This I can totally understand, that you’re saying that you know, just because you’re victims doesn’t mean you don’t have agency, and doesn’t mean you can’t change your own lives. But like you said, in Israel, for Israelis we also have this victimhood complex, and I think in a way, it makes it very easy for Israelis to feel connected to, or, it resonates with us, because we...we get to still be a victim.   **SOULI: ** Just to make myself clear, we do talk all the time about the imbalance in power, that’s clear, it’s the reality, nobody denying the reality as it is, first of all. And, but recognizing that, it doesn’t feed the Palestinian victimhood. So I can talk about it until tomorrow because it’s a list of suffering. You know, in October, my mom, to go to the olive harvest next to my village, for my family land, she needs Israeli permit -- which is five minutes away from our home, because there is the wall. You know, when I drive to see my mom, 20 minutes, I have a checkpoint, of course. I’m a little privileged Palestinian compared to other people, but still: when I travel, I have complexes that my Israeli partner doesn’t. You know even with Americans, with the international community, with visa, with the logistics. It's complicated, of course, to live under the military regime. And when I talk to Palestinians I don’t deny the suffering of this person or our people. But I don’t really believe in this competition that exists always in dialogue groups, that the Palestinian comes with full desire to share their suffering and story, which is legitimate, but to recognize the suffering of the other side, or the pain, it doesn’t take away our suffering. To recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian connection to the land, or the jewish connection to the land, it doesn’t take the other connection to the land. That’s where I am now. I know this is complex for even my family when I say these things. I got criticism. Hard arguments. It’s not easy. Because you know what we learn in nonviolence communication, you meet people where they are. I believe we can play a model that cross all these cliches about our conflict. And I understand the Palestinian anger, of course, but we want this energy of anger, to use it instead of going into violence and like really hopeless action like the stabbing, to come join our nonviolence action. And I see this happens, actually. Some people come, youngsters come through Facebook, we don’t know them, not from our circles. So I believe that if our people given like a good leadership with a vision that carry nonviolence and hope, I do believe that many Palestinians are happy to join. This takes time and energy. But I believe the majority of our people don’t want to live in bloody situation, of course. And if the Israelis given the opportunity to show their goodness of solidarity with the Palestinians to struggle together, I really believe also, I have faith of the majority of the Israelis in this case also, they will behave differently.   **ASAF: ** You’ve been, Combatants For Peace have existed for about what 15 years now?   **SOULI: ** 11 years.   **ASAF: ** 11 years. In these 11 years, what do you think has changed in Israeli-Palestinian politics and how did you adapt to those changes?   SOULI: First of all, we… Combatants for Peace is not just a community of ex-fighters, these are the founders, so Combatants for Peace through the years became open to everybody. We started Combatants for Peace -- the meetings, before we call it Combatants For Peace -- started in 2005 secretly, illegally around Beit Lechem [Bethlehem] area. It was the Second Intifada and the political environment, of course, and the social economical situation changed a lot since then. One of the changes, the truth: at that time, the idea of two-state was the only solution people talk about. It's not anymore; it's one of the options. And the second: like, there are many changes, good and bad. I don't see things just black-white, the truth. Last year we did "Ten Years of Combatants for Peace" and we screened our film, Disturbing the Peace -- the film about us, Disturbing the Peace -- at the wall of of Beit Jala. We got a few hundred Palestinians, Israelis to watch it together, under full moon it was beautiful. And we did the Freedom March with 800 Palestinians, Israelis -- this was last year during the, what you call the Knife Intifada -- like really among violent situation. And we got the two Irish ex-prisoners to speak to us there. It was a beautiful feeling of successful, I have to say. And Avner, one of our wise founders, is my close friend, and he speak Arabic fluently, I speak Hebrew, and we are really close after years we are... and Avner told me -- because that time I brought my mom to see the film, and he brought his mom, and they met for the first time -- and his mom told him, “This is exceptional work that you do, the history will write you, and…” Avner was really, for the first time I see him super emotional and we hugged and he said, “Remember, ten years ago when we start?” It was hard to talk about the principle of nonviolence. And ten years later, we are talking not just about nonviolence, we are talking about joint nonviolence, and it’s accepted to a certain level.   ASAF: So just one more question, and that’s something I want to ask everybody that we will be interviewing here. How do you think that we, as Jews that live in the United States, can and should help the struggle from a place here in the United States?   **SOULI: ** Yeah. As we talked before, the American Jewish community have a very important role to play to help our peoples out. And when I talk about our peoples, I mean Palestinians slash Israelis. I don’t see a way for one of the two sides to be happy with this cake, piece of land, that we all love and belong to, without the other side. Is really like a marriage. So the American Jewish part of it is really highly important for us, and from the perspective of media awareness, among the Americans generally and American Jews specifically. So, also we call all the American Jews that come to visit Israel also to visit the Palestinian territory, and meet with our people and see the reality in their eyes and not to believe really the mainstream media. The American Jewish involvement is like deep, historical exist there, in all directions. You know, most, I would say Jewish community in the U.S. of course for a reason or another they care about Israel, that's the truth. And if I look at the extreme settlers, they’re basically American Jewish. They are not even Israelis.   _ **ASAF: ** Well, not all of the settlers. But according to an Oxford University research from two years ago, while Americans make only about 2% of all Israeli citizens, they make up about 15% of the settlers._   **SOULI: ** The American involvement there is so deep. So, instead of being part of the problem, I wish to see more Jewish slash Palestinians that are working together -- with all the imbalance in power and the rights the Jewish have that our diaspora don’t have to go back and all that -- but still to work together in order to change the story and to see, to create a new reality, a new story.   _ **ASAF: ** To learn more about Souli and Combatants for Peace, visit their website cfpeace.org. You can find the documentary_ Disturbing the Peace on Netflix. Unsettled is produced by Yoshi Fields, Max Freedman, Emily Bell, Ilana Levinson, and me. Yoshi and I edited this episode. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Special thanks to Mark Winston Griffith and Brooklyn Deep. Go to our website, unsettledpod.com, for show information. You can now support Unsettled by becoming a monthly sustainer through Patreon. Like us on Facebook, find us on Twitter and Instagram, and most importantly, subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, to make sure you never miss an episode of Unsettled_._

Sulaiman Khatib is a co-founder and the current Managing Director of Combatants for Peace,  a joint Israeli-Palestinian nonviolent movement to end the occupation of the West Bank. In this interview, Souli explains how he began to see Israelis as potential partners, rather than the enemy. He talks about the value of ex-combatants in the struggle to end the occupation, and addresses some of the the criticism that his organization has received from other activist groups. This episode of Unsettled is hosted by Asaf Calderon. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York on August 6, 2017, and edited for length and clarity by Asaf Calderon and Yoshi Fields.  Sulaiman Khatib is a leading nonviolence activist in Israel and Palestine. He was born in the West Bank and was imprisoned at the age of 14 for stabbing two Israeli soldiers. It was during his time in prison that he learned about nonviolent resistance and first encountered Jewish Israeli perspectives. In 2006, he and other Israeli and Palestinian ex-militants founded Combatants for Peace: a grassroots nonviolent movement with the goal of ending the occupation. As part of his work, he tours in the US, giving talks with other ex-combatants on nonviolent resistance to the occupation. TRANSCRIPT SOULI:  I believe that if our people given like a good leadership with a vision that carry nonviolence and hope, I do believe that many Palestinians are happy to join. This takes time and energy. But I believe the majority of our people don’t want to live in bloody situation, of course. And if the Israelis given the opportunity to show their goodness of solidarity with the Palestinians to struggle together, I really believe also I have faith of the majority of the Israelis in this case also, they will behave differently.   _ ASAF: Welcome to_ Unsettled_, a podcast about Israel-Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. We are here to provide a space for difficult conversations and diverse viewpoints that are all too rare in American Jewish communities._ My name is Asaf Calderon. I'm one of the producers of Unsettled and your host for today's episode. Sulaiman Khatib, today's guest, grew up with his family in the West Bank under the Israeli occupation. At the age of 14, while trying to steal weapons, he stabbed two Israeli soldiers. Both soldiers survived, and Souli was sentenced by the military court to 15 years in prison. Fast forward 30 years -- today, Souli is a co-founder and Managing Director of Combatants for Peace, an organization founded by ex-combatants from the Israeli military and the Palestinian armed resistance. They are dedicated to ending the occupation, using only nonviolent means. How did Souli transform from a fighter who saw Israelis as the enemy, to a nonviolent activist committed to working in partnership with them? Why create an organization specifically with ex-militants? And how does he respond to the criticism he gets even from other anti-occupation activists? With these questions in mind, I interviewed Souli while he was visiting the United States to work on his upcoming book. We met in his rented room in Brooklyn, on a Sunday -- so of course, you’re going to hear some background music. Sorry about that. Another thing you may notice, is that we both have pretty strong accents. What you are about to hear is an Israeli interviewing a Palestinian, in English, which of course isn’t either of our first languages. So if you're having trouble understanding, please check out the transcript of this episode on our website, unsettledpod.com.   ASAF: So Souli, let’s start by you introducing yourself.   SOULI: My name is Sulaiman Khatib, so, people call me Souli -- some people -- and I was born in a village near Jerusalem, 10 minutes from Jerusalem, called Hizma. I grew up there, half of the time, and then I was in jail for a long time. I was one of the people that thought that the only way for freedom was joining the armed struggle. That was my mind when I was 14.   _ **ASAF: ** Like other Palestinian prisoners, Souli faced particularly difficult conditions in prison. In his bio for Combatants for Peace, he explains: The use of torture was routine: beating prisoners, spraying tear gas into prison cells, and violently stripping prisoners were daily occurrences._ But, it was in these difficult conditions that Souli learned how nonviolent struggle can make a difference. With no civil rights and with their most basic human rights severely limited, Souli and the other prisoners resorted to hunger strikes.   SOULI:  The prisoners were very organized, very smart, and represent all the factions in jail through committees that were elected, so we asked, for example, our demands were around having like water -- like in Hebron jail, we used to have a problem of water, especially like to clean ourselves, you know for showers -- to have access to books, education, and newspapers to bring them, and visiting our families -- it used to be half an hour, we demanded like 45 minutes.   _ **ASAF: ** The striking prisoners also had support from activists outside the prison walls._   SOULI:  In the first few days, we used to communicate with the youth organizations, and universities, and so we were sure that people support us outside, so we don’t reach the point where we die or something, because this was not our goal. We had the hunger strike to live a little better conditions while we were in jail. And that’s how I learned there is another path. There is another way. I did read about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela that was in jail at that time, and I was inspired by, you know, like all these people. We do study about Che Guevara and the Vietnam War, and the guerrilla wars. So, it’s not: you go to jail, you come out as a new Palestinian Gandhi. It’s not that way, the truth. So I don’t really represent the mainstream prisoners.   _ **ASAF: ** Not only did Souli learn about other nonviolent movements, but he also began to explore Jewish narratives which he had never before heard. He recalled watching the Holocaust film_ Schindler’s List_ one day while he was in prison._   **SOULI: ** During the film, we turned the light off, and then we watched the film --through the film, you can see that everybody is really moved. This was really the effect on our hearts, if you wish, because everyone was crying. And after the film, it's really a complex feeling, because we have to ask hot water to make tea from the Israeli police that his maybe ancestors were there, that we feel sympathy with them, and he’s putting us in jail. Through the time I also read the history of the conflict from both eyes. I studied Hebrew also in jail and that made me realize there’s no either us or them. So I became beyond the typical narrative, and I became open for meeting Israelis after jail, and looking for partners on both sides to create a new narrative and new story for our peoples.   _ **ASAF: ** In 2003, during the second Palestinian Intifada -- or uprising -- a group of Israeli reserve soldiers, from elite combat units, decided to refuse serving in the occupied territories, so as to not contribute to the occupation. Soon after going public, the Israeli group was contacted by a Palestinian group of ex-prisoners. Souli, who was recently released from prison, was one of them. They started a series of internal talks, that eventually led to the creation of Combatants for Peace in 2006. The details of the formation of Combatants for Peace are presented in a documentary about them that came out last year,_ Disturbing the Peace_._   **SOULI: ** Everything in Combatants For Peace is based on certain principles, that’s very important to say: that’s joint and nonviolent and bi-national work, and opposing the occupation and slash violence. We are a grassroots organization that have nine local groups and working “twins” -- for example, Tel Aviv-Ramallah, Hebron-Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem-Jericho, Jerusalem-Beit Lechem and so on. And there’s above all also two bi-national groups, which is the woman group of Combatants for Peace that established last year, and the Theater of the Oppressed. Some of the activities are under the local groups -- from dialogue to personal story sharing to nonviolence demonstrations as well. And there is activities on the movement level, like the Palestinian-Israeli Memorial Day -- this is the highest activity every year -- the freedom marches, and we were also part of the initiative of the Freedom Sumud Camp.   ASAF: In Israel, we often hear the term “prisoners with blood on their hands.” Israelis are much less willing to work with and cooperate with people that have done what we call “terrorist activity.” Whatever it was, against soldiers or against citizens, this term “blood on their hands” is something that rings very powerfully in Israeli discourse. What do you think about it, as somebody that, you know, does have blood on your hands? Do you think that... why do you think that Israelis should be working with you?   **SOULI: ** Firstly, all the terminologies, the language... it really exists more or less the same on both sides, that’s one thing, and it really depends where you came from and how you look at things, eh… I attacked two Israelis when I was 14, believing, "This is our enemy, I want to protect my homeland." So these kind of people, like myself, used to be like our good guys, that sacrifice for the homeland. It reminds me for Israeli discourse, when Israelis used violence before 48, for example, or the pre-Israeli organizations -- Etzel, Haganah, and all that -- were heroes.   _ ASAF: The Etzel and the Haganah were Jewish paramilitary organizations that worked before 1948 for the establishment of the Jewish state. Both used terrorism to promote their goals; for example, the King David Hotel bombing in which 91 people were killed, mostly civilians. But of course Souli is right: in Israel, most people consider them to be heroes.   _   **SOULI: ** If we go ahead in the list of around the world, same thing in the Irish conflict and Mandela party, and everywhere else. It’s like two sides of the coin: the one called terrorist by Israelis mainly called hero by Palestinians, generally speaking. I’m generalizing now because there are many opinions. There's no one Israeli opinion or one Palestinian opinion. It’s a question of narratives, and how we see things. Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard. You know, like you can always find like more soft stories to work with, in both sides, people that never been in jail or the army or any involvement, but I think this community is very crucial, important, and we know that from Mandela story, he was in jail. And from North Ireland -- we work with Irish organizations that both sides were also involved in violence and were in jail, and they worked together and we work with them to learn from their experience and this is very exceptional role for  ex-fighters to play.   **ASAF: ** And on the other side, how do you feel about working with people that have Palestinian blood on their hands, and why do you think it’s important to work with them?   SOULI: Yeah, it’s basically really the same question. First, I admit this is heavy and hard for people on both sides and I understand that, and if I remember the first few meetings of Combatants for Peace, we did meet people that have Palestinian blood on their hands -- much more than us, because they used to be in the Israeli Air Force, like pilots, and F16. Obviously, the Israelis never went to the court, or any legal thing. In the Palestinian case you got your punishment, or like over-punishing, because you are living under military rule. So let’s say my case: what I did, if it was Israeli person did the same, would go to rehabilitation center. I was 14. But I am not citizen of anywhere, so I go to military court. So basically, not to legitimize any violence of course, but to say we do have to see the human behind these terms, and in the case of Israelis I... this is heavy but somehow we reach the point to see the human behind the uniform. This take long time, it’s a very deep hard process to see, to look in the eyes of these people and meet somewhere on some level.   ASAF: Many people in the Palestinian struggle and also in solidarity movements in the United States see the kind of work that you do as the term "normalization" with Israel, and they see that as wrong. What do you have to answer to that?   SOULI:  Firstly, we got a lot of criticism in both sides. And I am really fine with that, I have to say. I understand why many people worry and criticize the joint work. But I believe in my experience -- in our experience from Combatants for Peace and other organizations -- the meetings of the other, what's so-called the other, is essential. I don't know also any Israeli that born and, you know, came directly from Tel Aviv to Bil’in. Firstly, they meet Palestinians and to trust and to build relations, and then they became like more activist. That's the one I know the majority of the Israelis that really show solidarity with the Palestinians. And -- we are not normalizing the occupation. We do a lot of activities to fight the status quo, and we are not happy with the status quo. Of course, it's controversial, always, to work with what's so-called the enemy. I personally don't think there is one way to end the conflict, or the occupation, whatever you want to say. But we are not part of the BDS movement, we have a neutral position about the BDS. This is a nonviolence legitimate tool, but we are not there. We are a bi-national organization, and I am not going to boycott my partner Chen Alon, that is teaching in Tel Aviv. He is very active to our cause together, and his daughter was just left the jail recently. And I am struggling for her, as for my sister. So I can't think in the principle of boycotting them.   _ **ASAF: ** Chen Alon is one of the Israeli founders of Combatants for Peace. Tamar Alon, his daughter, was one of a handful of Israeli youth who publicly refused to serve in the military for ideological reasons. While many Israeli members of Combatants for Peace don’t serve anymore, the organization doesn’t call for complete refusal._   **ASAF: ** In the movie, I remember that one of the Israeli Combatants for Peace activists, she says she's serving, she's still serving in the army in reserves, but she is not serving in the West Bank. But, I mean obviously the role that she does outside of the West Bank is affecting the army as a whole. So, how… how can you accept that?   SOULI:  I’m talking like as like formally Combatants For Peace. In general, when we started Combatants for Peace, was a clear condition that Israelis don’t serve beyond the 1967 borders. And on the Palestinian side you don’t, you can’t join Combatants for Peace if you support violence, for example. So there is a refusing in both sides to the mainstream. We work in Israel-Palestine: means we are also pragmatic, means we do thousands of lectures -- last year we met around 4,000 people at lectures. It’s all joint, always there are two speakers -- one Israeli, one Palestinian -- we share our personal stories of the narrative and the transformation and this always inspire people. We find this tool as very deep impact, and we don’t tell the people what to do, especially talking to youngsters, Israeli pre-army mechinot.     _ **ASAF: ** A mechina, or mechinot in plural, is a program that some Israelis go to before the army, where you study and volunteer in the community._   **SOULI: ** So in order to, to play in this space we need to be also careful with the language we use, or to tell them what to do exactly, but I believe that this model stay in the head of many of the youngsters as the only meeting maybe they ever meet a Palestinian before the army, before they go to the army.   **ASAF: ** Another thing that I noticed in the film is that you use a language of equivalency. A few times you mention dual responsibility. You’re saying, "We are both victims and we are both perpetrators." But as an Israeli, it’s difficult for me to accept the idea that you know, we are both equal in this. I feel like I am the perpetrator and you are the victim.   **SOULI: ** In Combatants for Peace, actually, after years of discussion, we recognized the imbalance in power. Of course, the Israelis are in charge. Of course. We know that. But in order to make change, we did decide to take our destiny in our hands, together as activists from both sides. And the... the truth is, usually the Palestinian come with this idea: we are the victims, Israelis they are in charge and they are criminal and... But we don’t want to stuck there. We want our peoples together to take responsibility of our life, our present, and to create a new future. A new story together. I don’t want to see more of feeding of the Palestinian victimhood, which exists deeply. Of course, the Jewish slash Israelis have the same unfortunately story of victimhood, and this is really like a very deep negative energy that will not take us anywhere. No, we can change our lives, and I believe Palestinians, as a Palestinian, if we are united, if we had a vision, if we have the right conditions, we do have responsibility, and we do can make change, together with our neighbors basically, because it will never be good to do it alone, either side. We basically in a non-divorce marriage, we have to manage. That’s what I believe.   **ASAF: ** This I can totally understand, that you’re saying that you know, just because you’re victims doesn’t mean you don’t have agency, and doesn’t mean you can’t change your own lives. But like you said, in Israel, for Israelis we also have this victimhood complex, and I think in a way, it makes it very easy for Israelis to feel connected to, or, it resonates with us, because we...we get to still be a victim.   **SOULI: ** Just to make myself clear, we do talk all the time about the imbalance in power, that’s clear, it’s the reality, nobody denying the reality as it is, first of all. And, but recognizing that, it doesn’t feed the Palestinian victimhood. So I can talk about it until tomorrow because it’s a list of suffering. You know, in October, my mom, to go to the olive harvest next to my village, for my family land, she needs Israeli permit -- which is five minutes away from our home, because there is the wall. You know, when I drive to see my mom, 20 minutes, I have a checkpoint, of course. I’m a little privileged Palestinian compared to other people, but still: when I travel, I have complexes that my Israeli partner doesn’t. You know even with Americans, with the international community, with visa, with the logistics. It's complicated, of course, to live under the military regime. And when I talk to Palestinians I don’t deny the suffering of this person or our people. But I don’t really believe in this competition that exists always in dialogue groups, that the Palestinian comes with full desire to share their suffering and story, which is legitimate, but to recognize the suffering of the other side, or the pain, it doesn’t take away our suffering. To recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian connection to the land, or the jewish connection to the land, it doesn’t take the other connection to the land. That’s where I am now. I know this is complex for even my family when I say these things. I got criticism. Hard arguments. It’s not easy. Because you know what we learn in nonviolence communication, you meet people where they are. I believe we can play a model that cross all these cliches about our conflict. And I understand the Palestinian anger, of course, but we want this energy of anger, to use it instead of going into violence and like really hopeless action like the stabbing, to come join our nonviolence action. And I see this happens, actually. Some people come, youngsters come through Facebook, we don’t know them, not from our circles. So I believe that if our people given like a good leadership with a vision that carry nonviolence and hope, I do believe that many Palestinians are happy to join. This takes time and energy. But I believe the majority of our people don’t want to live in bloody situation, of course. And if the Israelis given the opportunity to show their goodness of solidarity with the Palestinians to struggle together, I really believe also, I have faith of the majority of the Israelis in this case also, they will behave differently.   **ASAF: ** You’ve been, Combatants For Peace have existed for about what 15 years now?   **SOULI: ** 11 years.   **ASAF: ** 11 years. In these 11 years, what do you think has changed in Israeli-Palestinian politics and how did you adapt to those changes?   SOULI: First of all, we… Combatants for Peace is not just a community of ex-fighters, these are the founders, so Combatants for Peace through the years became open to everybody. We started Combatants for Peace -- the meetings, before we call it Combatants For Peace -- started in 2005 secretly, illegally around Beit Lechem [Bethlehem] area. It was the Second Intifada and the political environment, of course, and the social economical situation changed a lot since then. One of the changes, the truth: at that time, the idea of two-state was the only solution people talk about. It's not anymore; it's one of the options. And the second: like, there are many changes, good and bad. I don't see things just black-white, the truth. Last year we did "Ten Years of Combatants for Peace" and we screened our film, Disturbing the Peace -- the film about us, Disturbing the Peace -- at the wall of of Beit Jala. We got a few hundred Palestinians, Israelis to watch it together, under full moon it was beautiful. And we did the Freedom March with 800 Palestinians, Israelis -- this was last year during the, what you call the Knife Intifada -- like really among violent situation. And we got the two Irish ex-prisoners to speak to us there. It was a beautiful feeling of successful, I have to say. And Avner, one of our wise founders, is my close friend, and he speak Arabic fluently, I speak Hebrew, and we are really close after years we are... and Avner told me -- because that time I brought my mom to see the film, and he brought his mom, and they met for the first time -- and his mom told him, “This is exceptional work that you do, the history will write you, and…” Avner was really, for the first time I see him super emotional and we hugged and he said, “Remember, ten years ago when we start?” It was hard to talk about the principle of nonviolence. And ten years later, we are talking not just about nonviolence, we are talking about joint nonviolence, and it’s accepted to a certain level.   ASAF: So just one more question, and that’s something I want to ask everybody that we will be interviewing here. How do you think that we, as Jews that live in the United States, can and should help the struggle from a place here in the United States?   **SOULI: ** Yeah. As we talked before, the American Jewish community have a very important role to play to help our peoples out. And when I talk about our peoples, I mean Palestinians slash Israelis. I don’t see a way for one of the two sides to be happy with this cake, piece of land, that we all love and belong to, without the other side. Is really like a marriage. So the American Jewish part of it is really highly important for us, and from the perspective of media awareness, among the Americans generally and American Jews specifically. So, also we call all the American Jews that come to visit Israel also to visit the Palestinian territory, and meet with our people and see the reality in their eyes and not to believe really the mainstream media. The American Jewish involvement is like deep, historical exist there, in all directions. You know, most, I would say Jewish community in the U.S. of course for a reason or another they care about Israel, that's the truth. And if I look at the extreme settlers, they’re basically American Jewish. They are not even Israelis.   _ **ASAF: ** Well, not all of the settlers. But according to an Oxford University research from two years ago, while Americans make only about 2% of all Israeli citizens, they make up about 15% of the settlers._   **SOULI: ** The American involvement there is so deep. So, instead of being part of the problem, I wish to see more Jewish slash Palestinians that are working together -- with all the imbalance in power and the rights the Jewish have that our diaspora don’t have to go back and all that -- but still to work together in order to change the story and to see, to create a new reality, a new story.   _ **ASAF: ** To learn more about Souli and Combatants for Peace, visit their website cfpeace.org. You can find the documentary_ Disturbing the Peace on Netflix. Unsettled is produced by Yoshi Fields, Max Freedman, Emily Bell, Ilana Levinson, and me. Yoshi and I edited this episode. Original music by Nat Rosenzweig. Special thanks to Mark Winston Griffith and Brooklyn Deep. Go to our website, unsettledpod.com, for show information. You can now support Unsettled by becoming a monthly sustainer through Patreon. Like us on Facebook, find us on Twitter and Instagram, and most importantly, subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, to make sure you never miss an episode of Unsettled_._

To mark the occasion of the launch of Season 2 of Audio Interference, we hosted a panel discussion on the use of podcasts as propaganda and community building tools. The event was held at Interference Archive on October 4, 2016. Panelists included: -Julie Golia, Director of Public History at Brooklyn Historical Society and co-host and producer of Flatbush + Main -Zaheer Ali, Oral Historian at Brooklyn Historical Society and co-host and producer of Flatbush + Main -Aaron Lakoff, curator and host of Rebel Beat -Kaitlin Prest, creative director and host of The Heart, a podcast and art project exploring love, bodies, gender and sexuality distributed by Radiotopia by PRX -Tennessee Jane Watson, a reporter, artist and educator, who produces audio documentaries, oral histories, sound installations and youth media projects -Mark Winston Griffith, Executive Director at Brooklyn Movement Center and co-host and co-producer of The Third Rail. The panel was moderated by Louise Barry, one of the creators of Audio Interference. Music: “Picture Book” by Dave Depper, courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Produced by Interference Archive.

To mark the occasion of the launch of Season 2 of Audio Interference, we  hosted a panel discussion on the use of podcasts as propaganda and community building tools.  The event was held at Interference Archive on October 4, 2016.  Panelists included:   -Julie Golia, Director of Public History at Brooklyn Historical Society and co-host and producer of Flatbush + Main -Zaheer Ali, Oral Historian at Brooklyn Historical Society and co-host and producer of Flatbush + Main -Aaron Lakoff, curator and host of Rebel Beat -Kaitlin Prest, creative director and host of The Heart, a podcast and art project exploring love, bodies, gender and sexuality distributed by Radiotopia by PRX -Tennessee Jane Watson, a reporter, artist and educator, who produces audio documentaries, oral histories, sound installations and youth media projects -Mark Winston Griffith, Executive Director at Brooklyn Movement Center and co-host and co-producer of The Third Rail.   The panel was moderated by Louise Barry, one of the creators of Audio Interference.     Produced by Interference Archive.

Some Brooklynites are wrestling with their own role in gentrification. Changes may be welcomed, but they come with mixed emotions for many. This week we take a walk in Bed-Stuy with 14-year-old Corrine Bobb-Semple. She's grown up in the neighborhood and for the last few years she's been reconciling the changes in her neighborhood with her experiences at St. Ann's, the elite prep school in Brooklyn Heights where she is surrounded by students who are a part of the gentrification process. We'll meet a black homeowner and community organizer named Mark Winston Griffith who tells us how he landed in his home, and the conflicted security it affords him. We also meet Allie LaLonde and Emily Wilson, two 20-something new arrivals to Bed-Stuy who talk about how hard it can be to move outside the circle of gentrified coffee shops and bars.  And we journey back to East New York where a community of artists that has lived there for years is bracing for change. We meet Catherine Green, who started Arts East New York because there were no arts organizations in the neighborhood. Now she's determined to let her organization, and the communities it serves, have a say in how their neighborhood is capitalized. She also introduced us to her friend, artist Rasu Jilani, who is turning the conversation away from developing economies and toward preserving ecosystems. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Some Brooklynites are wrestling with their own role in gentrification. Changes may be welcomed, but they come with mixed emotions for many. This week we take a walk in Bed-Stuy with 14-year-old Corrine Bobb-Semple. She's grown up in the neighborhood and for the last few years she's been reconciling the changes in her neighborhood with her experiences at St. Ann's, the elite prep school in Brooklyn Heights where she is surrounded by students who are a part of the gentrification process. We'll meet a black homeowner and community organizer named Mark Winston Griffith who tells us how he landed in his home, and the conflicted security it affords him. We also meet Allie LaLonde and Emily Wilson, two 20-something new arrivals to Bed-Stuy who talk about how hard it can be to move outside the circle of gentrified coffee shops and bars.  And we journey back to East New York where a community of artists that has lived there for years is bracing for change. We meet Catherine Green, who started Arts East New York because there were no arts organizations in the neighborhood. Now she's determined to let her organization, and the communities it serves, have a say in how their neighborhood is capitalized. She also introduced us to her friend, artist Rasu Jilani, who is turning the conversation away from developing economies and toward preserving ecosystems. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

The Brooklyn Movement Center, a community based organization, identifies issues, and works to improve the quality of life of the central Brooklyn community. Mark Winston Griffith, BMC's executive director admits to being a "serial social entrepreneur."

Why did Obama win? Greg David and Mark Winston Griffith weigh in. Next, weather expert Adam Sobel on what current weather means for future climates. Finally, political scientist Ester Fuchs and presidential historian KC Johnson on the election.