🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter
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**Neighbours and Friends, **
This Valentine’s Day our hearts, as always, are with the people of Palestine and all those suffering from oppression and displacement. We’ve got a lot of great local events going on this weekend supporting the cause - scroll down to see what’s new in the neighbourhood! We also have an inspiring community spotlight piece for you all to spread the love today.
In the news, in case you missed it, the Superbowl Halftime show caused a stir when protestor Zul-Qarnain Nantambu waved a Sudan-Palestine flag during Kendrick’s performance. From Omar Suleiman on AlJazeera, speaking of the halftime show itself: “The Romans called it ‘bread and circuses’ – keep the masses fed and entertained and they will not rise against oppression, or even notice it.”
When we tune into reality, not letting ourselves be distracted or kept in the dark, and stand up for what is right, we unite our voices and we can make a difference. Your continued solidarity, in even the smallest actions, makes a difference. Scroll down to find this edition’s easy action you can take for Palestine - and maybe listen to the new track from Macklemore while you’re at it!
Action Updates
One small action you can take!
This week we have one simple action you can take - Just Peace Advocates and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute have created a letter writing campaign on Action Network so you can email Trudeau at the click of a button, and demand that he condemn Trump’s genocidal Gaza plan. Click here to sign the letter.
Upcoming Events
VIFF Film Screening: No Other Land - Various Dates
February 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 25th
Click here for details and to book tickets
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians — indeed for Basel Adra, an activist from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, this has been his life.
Faced with the systematic demolition of homes and schools, carried out to make room for an Israeli military training ground, residents confront a painful choice: either move away and relinquish their land or endure and try to rebuild. With the help of Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, Adra documents the evictions and organizes protests against them, even as the pair’s unequal personal situations hang over their work together.
Palestine Fundraiser - Saturday Feb 15th
🗓 Date: February 15th
⏰ Time: Doors @ 7pm
📍 Location: 648 KingswayPalestine Fundraiser - come enjoy live bands @wearehouseguest @sundress.wav @pleasebeniceyo + then hit the dj crossover for the end of the night! we’ll have post card writing and a silent auction happening throughout the evening ┊͙ ˘͈ᵕ˘͈ pls wear a mask!
$15 or PWYC
organized by @pleasebeniceyo and @mar1nuhh ! all funds will be going to @thesanabelteam
Cultural Market - Sunday Feb 16th
🗓 Date: Sunday Feb 16th 2025
⏰ Time: 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM PST
📍 Location: 312 Main StreetOn Sunday, February 16, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at 312 Main Street, join us for 𝓢𝓸𝓾𝓺 𝓜𝓮𝓮𝓽𝓼 𝓜𝓮𝓻𝓴𝓪𝓭𝓸—a vibrant cultural market inspired by the timeless connections of the Silk Road.
Celebrate the shared histories and bonds between the Arab and Asian diasporas through delicious food, handcrafted treasures, and storytelling expressed through art, music, and dance. Together, we’ll create a space of community and care, supporting mutual aid efforts for Bilad al-Sham (the Levant) and the Philippines.
With over 20 unique vendors, live performances, poetry, and art, this is a celebration of unity, resilience, and connection you won’t want to miss.
Let us honour the ties that connect us and the stories that bring us together. 💫
Barely a Book Club - Sunday Feb 16th
** 🗓 Sunday February 16th 2025**
⏰ 5:00PM-8:30PM
📍The JBG 144 East 6th Ave
⭐️ Limited spots, Registration required, click here!
Barely A Book Club (Border & Rule) from @anartchists:
HEY FRIENDS ‼️🧸☕️📚 it’s a good day for us today because we get to tell you that our long-awaited book club is back, and you’re invited ! We held our very first one last year in August & have been getting questions about it ever since ♥️
Run by @aatishaaa & @khshmht_ , “Barely A Book Club” aims to facilitate our learning & deepen our understanding of the social issues around us, the ways in which they’re all interconnected and why collective liberation is the only answer.
This iteration of Barely a Book Club will focus on ""Border and Rule"" by Harsha Walia and the documentary ""La Ballade des sans-papiers"" by Samir Abdallah and Ralph Ventura to explore the ties of immigration and colonization.
‼️ You DO NOT have to be familiar with the text to join !
😷: Masks are encouraged !
🍽️: As always, bringing food is optional but encouraged - bring some snacks to share with everyone!♥️
Whether you’ve been a long-time comrade, or you’re new to the movement (especially if you’re new to the movement!) all are welcome. This evening is an opportunity for you to get informed, take steps towards helping in the ways that we can, ask questions, engage in discussion, and also find some warmth and solace in community. Bring your grief, bring your rage, bring your love and bring your dreams for a better world. Bring it all.
Donation Campaign of the Week
Connecting Gaza Fundraiser
This week we are highlighting this fundraiser from the team behind ‘Connecting Gaza’. Here’s more information from their Go Get Funding page:
“Families in Gaza desperately need tents, blankets and winter clothes. With your help we can send money directly to affected families.
Basic supplies like food, medicine and fuel are beyond expensive, in many cases out of reach for families struggling with war, displacement, starvation and disease. A bag of flour is ~$250, a tent costs ~$2000 to rent. People are crammed 50 to a room in damaged housing with no water, no electricity. After a year of this nightmare families are losing hope. How much more of this can they take?
‘I think of the ‘Righteous Among the Gentiles’ during the Holocaust who could not stop the Nazi war machine because it was too powerful, but did all they could to help individual Jews and sometimes saved their lives - and decades later I met those whose lives were saved. While we do what we can to try to stop this horrific killing and destruction, please join me in providing the most basic necessities of life to these totally innocent people in Gaza.’ - David Mivasair
While it is not a long term solution, money helps people meet their immediate needs. There are so many struggling, and many people wonder how they can support. Directly aiding families so they can buy food, water, warm clothes, blankets, medical needs is one of the best we can support families in Gaza.
We send every penny we get. No overhead. Can you help us do this?”
https://gogetfunding.com/connecting-with-gaza/
Community Spotlight
Music for Palestine
Amy Blanding is a queer, disabled protest folk musician from Prince George BC, who lost her job as the Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility at the Northern Health Authority because she sang a song she wrote protesting the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza at a community event.
It is not enough to be enraged by blatant attempts like this to silence and intimidate those of us who stand up for Palestine. As a community we must stand together to uplift and amplify these voices, and make it known we will not tolerate cowardly policies which lend tacit approval for genocide by our public institutions. We are reminded in Amy’s story of the recent shameful ban on watermelon pins by the Vancouver Public Library. These public agencies work for us and our communities - they exist ostensibly to support and strengthen our communities. When their actions instead harm and degrade our communities, we cannot tolerate it. We must demand better of them, for our own sake, our communities, and for Palestine.
Amy has recorded her song, Sunbirds, with her band, Reckless Burning, and it is now available for download on bandcamp. Every download will be donated directly to Wear the Peace for food, water, and aid to Gaza including evacuations for medical surgeries outside of Gaza.
If all this puts you in the mood to belt out some protest tunes, why not join the VanGran Band! The VanGran Band meets every few weeks on Mondays at Soundhouse Studios to jam, sing, and build community. They are currently looking for players and vocalists to join in anticipation of playing fundraising shows in the spring and summer. They are also welcoming new members who just want to hang out and listen. Join the whatsapp group to learn more."
Contribute to the Newsletter
Do you have something you would like to share with your neighbours? We welcome submissions of all kinds — stories, poems, art, and event info. Simply reply to this email to send in your contribution.
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With gratitude and in solidarity,
Your Neighbours
Van Gran 4 Palestine
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