Last Friday, artists and performers gathered to to highlight the importance of political art in liberation movements and raise funds for medical care in Palestine and Cuba. The event, Artists Against the Blockade, was held in Pilsen on the 71st anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and explored the effects of U.S.-directed and supported blockades and embargoes against Cuba and Palestine.
Organized by Palestinian artist Saja Bilasan and writer Alithia Zamantakis, the event is the latest in their series Artists Against the Apartheid. The idea for the series started after a chance encounter on a bus to a protest for Palestine led to Bilasan and Zamantakis discussing Bilasan’s artwork and how it could help Palestine. The first Artists Against the Apartheid event took place in December; this Friday’s event was the fourth.
“The call for creating the initial event in December 2023 and continuing with a series up until now was to raise funds to donate to Palestinians both locally and in Palestine; Gaza and the West Bank in particular,” Bilasan said. “We have given funds for food, water, medical supplies, aid for evacuation efforts, e-sims to keep Palestinians connected and facilitate the movement of aid across Gaza, money for cancer treatment patients, and money for refugee camps.”
Zamantakis and many of the volunteers are a part of The Party for Socialism and Liberation. PSL has been a key organizer since the first event in the series. For this event, they helped bring together organizations such as Palestinian Youth Movement, Code Pink, BreakThrough News and Chicago Liberation Center.
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Cuban artists and performers came together for the event last Friday at Healthy Hood, an organization focused on community-based support for underprivileged neighborhoods. In the prior three events, they raised 25,000 from ticket sales and vendor donations. As of writing, $6000 was raised from ticket and raffle sales alone, with donations from vendors still being counted.
According to a United Nations report, the sixty-two-year-old embargo of Cuba, a reaction to global Cold war politics in the 60s, has cost the island $4.87 billion between March 2022 and February 2023 alone (in Cuba, the embargo is often referred to as “the blockade”). The embargo blocks medication, food, and chemical products that are used to maintain water quality. Internationally, the policy is unpopular. The United Nations General Assembly has voted almost every year since 1992 for the U.S. to lift the embargo, and each year the U.S. and Israel are the only nations to vote against it.
Through the Hatuey Project, donations can go to Cuban medical centers and help treat cancer in children without intervention from the U.S. government and payment apps such as Venmo. Funds with the note “Cuba” can be frozen and flagged by apps under pressure from the U.S. government.
In addition to Palestinian land being occupied by the U.S.-funded Israeli military since 1967, Israel instituted a complete air, naval, and land blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2007, limiting the influx of necessary goods such as food and medical supplies. In the past nine months, Israel has further restricted goods and destroyed food and medical centers, leading to widespread famine and disease.
The event hosted twenty artists, seven performers, and six speakers who are Palestinian or dedicated to Palestinian and Cuban liberation. Artists had to apply for a spot at the event, and Zamantakis and Bilasan tailored the group to artists whose work was political and focused on social justice.
For Shahzaad Raja, the event was a way to “give back to the cause” ever since being a part of the inaugural event in December. A collage multi-media artist, his handmade art is scrapped from newspapers, magazines, and books. I was struck by one of his collages of a Palestinian protester with the phrases “Ceasefire Now”, “End the Siege” and “Free Palestine” splattered across the canvas in red and green paint.
“It is a difficult time for a lot of people. There are genocides happening so people sometimes feel hopeless in what they can do, so it’s important to not isolate yourself but be a part of a community,” Raja said. “Events like this are important for people to come together. Not only to be around like-minded people but also feel like they’re giving back to the cause.”
Raja added that he takes personal responsibility as an artist, especially when delivering a political message. “Artists specifically have a role to help change the hearts and minds of people. These events help shift and change culture,” he said. “It might not seem like it, it’s not going to happen overnight, but it is slowly moving the needle. The last nine months have been a testament to that.”
Palestinian performer Yaman Othman said he also hopes to help the Palestinian cause through his art. Othman channels this through lyrical and political hip-hop. The focus of his music is to inspire and educate people on the history of his people, especially dispelling misinformation and propaganda. His latest track, “Greed,” features an intense series of lyrics such as, “Resistance is blood, rocks in my hand” and “I’ve been watching this shit from the comfort of my home while they bomb the people they call a zone.”
“I needed to find a way to spread awareness for the cause, so I mixed it with something I love, which in this case is music,” Othman said. “So, a lot of my rap and harder tracks will call out the myths or the lies that come up in propaganda and other biases around the USA. It is our duty to educate people here and tell the true story so people are not listening to lies.”
Asked what he had hoped to accomplish with his performance Friday night and beyond, he said, “I hope to spread awareness and basically tell the story of my family because I think it’s important for people to understand what happened in the past and how it relates to today. I hope I can get everyone to see how connected Palestine is to every single issue that is wrong with the world.”
Artists used the Palestinian and Cuban struggles to connect with their own communities. There were Latinx artists who explored the theme of imperialism while Black artists such as Derrick Little challenged white supremacy and policing in their neighborhoods.
“People often see U.S. imperialism as something that happens abroad, but it happens here too,” Zamantakis said. “We can see, on the South Side, the murders of Black people by the police, we can see the ways in which so many workers in Little Village don’t have access to work permits, because of the U.S. administration, but are forced out of their countries because of free trade agreements and U.S. corporate policies that eradicate economies all across Latin America.”
For Zamantakis and others in attendance, solidarity abroad has ramifications here.
“US imperialism affects us here on the South Side, just like it affects the rest of the world,” Zamantakis said. “and doing everything we can to support Palestine and Cuba will ultimately help us free ourselves.”
Cesar Toscano graduated from Columbia Chicago with a B.A in Creative Writing and found love for journalism during his last year of college editing for the Columbia Chronicle. He is going to the University of Illinois Springfield this fall to continue studying journalism.