On Sunday, October 20th at 12pm EDT, Theater Workers for a Ceasefire is pleased to present Samir Eskanda and Morgan Bassichis for a conversation on BDS/PACBI and cultural organizing. This special event will bring together two outstanding artist-organizers in order to galvanize organizational leaders and activists alike around the urgent task of building Palestinian solidarity in the theater. 

A moderated discussion will be followed by Q&A. If you’ve had questions about meeting the PACBI call or are looking for a jolt of inspiration for your own power building efforts, this is an event you do not want to miss. As we enter a second year of genocide and occupation in Palestine, it is critical we renew our efforts with greater clarity and deeper commitment. 

RSVP to receive the midtown NYC in-person address or Zoom link. Please note RSVP’s are good for one person only. This event is intended for theater and performance arts workers. If you are in the NYC area, we highly encourage in-person attendance. 

Samir Eskanda is a Palestinian artist, organizer, and human rights activist based in the UK.

Over the past decade, he has provided strategic guidance to many cultural solidarity initiatives worldwide, including from musicians, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists, among others. These initiatives have predominantly included a commitment to end complicity in Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid. His views on the intersection of culture and activism and why art should not be used to whitewash oppression and grave human rights violations have appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, Sky News, and others.

Samir has played a key role in many campaigns, covered by CNN, BBC, Rolling Stone, among other mainstream outlets, appealing to celebrities like Shakira and Lana del Rey to cancel performances in Tel Aviv. These campaigns have been pivotal in the current mainstreaming of the cultural boycott of Israel as a meaningful form of solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, multiple solidarity initiatives from artists have impacted some of the world’s biggest music, film, literary and arts events.

Samir has also helped organize many high profile petitions defending the freedom of expression of artists speaking out for Palestinian rights, including Sally Rooney, Lorde, and Emma Watson, against repressive attacks aimed at intimidating or silencing them, and helped mobilize artists to challenge institutional censorship and complicity in Israel’s genocide and regime of apartheid.

Morgan Bassichis (they/them) is a comedian, writer, and musician who has been a member of Jewish Voice for Peace-NYC since 2014. Before moving to New York, they organized with LGBTQ communities in the Bay Area against the prison industrial complex. Morgan has been called "fiercely hilarious" by The New Yorker and "I think an actor, but hasn't been in anything?" by their father. Their recent shows include Can I Be Frank? (La MaMa, June 2024), about the performance artist Frank Maya, and A Crowded Field (Abrons Arts Center, April 2023), which explored the use and abuse of Jewish holidays by Zionism. Morgan's performances have been presented by Creative Time, the Kitchen, the New Museum, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum. Their museum exhibition "More Little Ditties" was presented by the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2023. They co-edited with Jay Saper and Rachel Valinsky the young adult anti-zionist guidebook, "Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah" (Wendy's Subway, 2023), with an introduction by Angela Y. Davis. Morgan also edited and wrote the introduction to Nightboat Books' 2019 reprint of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, written by Larry Mitchell and illustrated by Ned Asta.