Open-Mic Event Addresses Israeli Conflict

Noted hip-hop poet Kevin Coval came to Quincy House yesterday, bringing his professional artistic pedigree to a student-organized open-mic and slam poetry event that aimed to spur creative discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sponsored by the Progressive Jewish Alliance, the Society of Arab Students, and the Harvard Spoken Word Society, yesterday’s event marked an innovative attempt at using an artistic performance to address issues of faith and politics, according to Jason W. Schnier ’11, chair of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.

“[The event] was conceptualized as a new way to engage with the Middle East conflict, and a different way to think about religious identity in a pluralistic community,” Schnier said.

“We bring in peace activists, and sometimes we approach it in a cut-and-dried fashion,” Schnier said. “This is a creative way to do that.”

Mashael A. Fakhro ’11, the co-president of the Society of Arab Students, also emphasized the event’s creativity, writing in an e-mail, “SAS is co-sponsoring because it supports dialogue on the conflict through creative and innovative means.”

Jose G. Olivarez ’10, a director of the Spoken Word Society, which helped sponsor last night’s event, had prior ties to Coval, who mentored Olivarez through the group Young Chicago Authors.

Olivarez was the sole audience member to volunteer to share his poetry in the open-mic segment of the evening, reading his own poem, “Walls.”

Coval then took the floor and performed several pieces on themes ranging from the Chicago sunrise to growing up as a Jewish-American in the Chicago suburbs.

“I’m down for a difficult conversation,” Coval said during the event, “because that’s how democracy functions.”

The artist closed with poems about Israel and Judaism, asking “Can you alone be chosen in an interconnected universe?” in one piece entitled “Hero Israel.”

An open discussion about the Israel-Palestine conflict between Coval and audience members followed the performance.

“So often, when you talk about the Israel-Palestine conflict, you get bogged down in two different, opposing views,” Olivarez said before yesterday’s event. “For me, the goal is really about sharing the variety of voices from Palestine and Israel.”