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Dan Walsh, founder and archivist of the Palestine Poster Project Archives, will present on the implications of the Palestine poster for historians, educators, and advocates of public diplomacy. Walsh is expanding the contents and features of the PPPA as part of his Master's thesis project at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
This thesis project also includes a social studies curriculum that draws on the posters to support instruction. Dan Walsh is also a Center Affiliate of CPS and in conjunction with his presentation, the Center for Palestine Studies will premiere a new online exhibit that Walsh has curated, "One Archive - One Narrative," which features 100 iconic Palestine posters.
Background
In the aftermath of the 1968 battle of Al-Karameh, the poster emerged as a new Palestinian national art form, one that now enjoys a place in Palestinian popular culture alongside poetry, music and film. Today Palestinian artists produce posters on a vast range of political and social issues, and organizations of every stripe routinely publish posters, host exhibits, and sponsor contests. The integration of the poster into Palestinian visual culture is now so complete that few realize how extraordinary this still-evolving genre actually is.
Simultaneously, over the past forty years artists from around the world acting in solidarity with Palestine, including many Israelis, have been creating posters with equal fervor. Although all the other major political poster traditions of the twentieth century have withered away, such as those of the Soviet Union and revolutionary Cuba, the Palestine poster genre is expanding, aided immeasurably by the Internet.
The Palestine poster's historical arc, from 1898 to the present, articulates a uniquely uncompromised narrative of modern Palestine. Considered as a whole, the genre has significant educational potential and is especially relevant to the U.S. discourse on the Palestinian-Zionist conflict.
Nearly 4,000 Palestine posters are now organized and freely available to the public through the Palestine Poster Project Archives. These posters from Palestinian nationalist, Arab-Muslim, international, and Zionist wellsprings constitute a wealth of original source material, most of which has been, until now, uncataloged, untranslated, and virtually inaccessible.
Learn more about the Palestine Poster Project Archives: http://www.palestineposterproject.org/
*This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.*
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Room 404, International Affairs Building
420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027