On Wednesday November 1st in Manhattan the Palestine Festival of Literature staged a free, public event titled: 

But We Must Speak: On Palestine and the Mandates of Conscience

Michelle Alexander, the acclaimed civil rights lawyer and author of The New Jim Crow, introduced the evening and welcome the audience.

Palestinian poet, activist and journalist, Mohammed El-Kurd opened with a reading.

Professor Rashid Khalidi was in conversation with National Book Award winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates, moderated by Michelle Alexander.

Pulitzer Prize–winning Mojave poet, Natalie Diaz, read works of poetry.

A message was read out from Rabbis Brant Rosen and Alissa Wise, Co-Chairs of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

The scholar and lawyer, Noura Erakat, spoke on the urgency of the moment.

And the Rev Dr Raschaad Hoggard read extracts of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s Beyond Vietnam speech to close the evening.