FREEDOM SCHOOL
Held in conjunction with Driving in Palestine, Freedom School rides the wake of the Freedom Flotilla as we come together to assert that from Salish Seas to Palestine, occupation is a crime. Freedom School engages liberation praxis and community building in support of a free Palestine and all who advocate for justice in the face of settler colonialism, militarism, state violence and oppression in our shared and interconnected worlds.
In the free school tradition, we embrace education as critical, political, and liberational for ourselves and our community. Education as a practice of freedom must take place in community, which means that it is free, open, and accessible to all community members. This is the context in which we seek to activate and renew community solidarity, to bring attention to ongoing atrocities perpetrated by Israel in the West Bank, to bring an end to the genocide and weaponized starvation in Gaza, and to centre Indigenous solidarity movements for justice in the face of settler colonial regimes of violence, apartheid, and genocide, more broadly.
Here and now, we amplify and insist on what Sarah Ihmoud describes as decolonial love in the face of colonial oppression where, “to practice feminism in the midst of bearing witness to genocide is to embrace love as a radical consciousness, as a radical decolonial politic of fighting for life.” We do this work together, in community because we know that it is through community that we will achieve collective liberation. Only we will save us.
For, as Nada Elia reminds us, “Today, more than ever, there is growing consciousness that our struggles are not parallel—a term which suggests that they will never meet—but intersectional, coming together at various nodes. Our hope is that the enactment of reciprocal solidarity is a long-term movement, not a ‘moment’.”
Masks are recommended for all events. Extra masks will be available on site should you need one. We ask that if you are sick, please take care and refrain from coming to the event.
Sponsored by SAW, Burnaby Art Gallery, UNIT/PITT, and the Centre fore Comparative Muslim Studies
In the free school tradition, we embrace education as critical, political, and liberational for ourselves and our community. Education as a practice of freedom must take place in community, which means that it is free, open, and accessible to all community members. This is the context in which we seek to activate and renew community solidarity, to bring attention to ongoing atrocities perpetrated by Israel in the West Bank, to bring an end to the genocide and weaponized starvation in Gaza, and to centre Indigenous solidarity movements for justice in the face of settler colonial regimes of violence, apartheid, and genocide, more broadly.
Here and now, we amplify and insist on what Sarah Ihmoud describes as decolonial love in the face of colonial oppression where, “to practice feminism in the midst of bearing witness to genocide is to embrace love as a radical consciousness, as a radical decolonial politic of fighting for life.” We do this work together, in community because we know that it is through community that we will achieve collective liberation. Only we will save us.
For, as Nada Elia reminds us, “Today, more than ever, there is growing consciousness that our struggles are not parallel—a term which suggests that they will never meet—but intersectional, coming together at various nodes. Our hope is that the enactment of reciprocal solidarity is a long-term movement, not a ‘moment’.”
Masks are recommended for all events. Extra masks will be available on site should you need one. We ask that if you are sick, please take care and refrain from coming to the event.
Sponsored by SAW, Burnaby Art Gallery, UNIT/PITT, and the Centre fore Comparative Muslim Studies
2025 Programming List
REGISTER HERE or through individual event pages linked below
All programming takes place at The Vines Den unless otherwise specified
Saturday August 9 - EXHIBITION OPENING: REHAB NAZZAL IN CONVERSATION WITH JAYCE SALLOUM - 6 to 9 pm
Saturday August 9 - LIVESTREAM OF THE PEACE AND UNITY SUMMIT - Time TBA
Sunday August 10 - CURATOR’S TOUR WITH STEFAN ST-LAURENT - 1 to 2:30 pm
Monday August 11 - FILM SCREENING AND CONVERSATION WITH REHAB NAZZAL & JADA-GABRIELLE PAPE - 7 to 9 pm - SFU Habour Centre Room 1700 (Address in RSVP)
Tuesday August 12 - EMDR & DRUMMING HEALING WORKSHOP FOR PALESTINIANS & ACTIVISTS IN THE MOVEMENT- 6 to 8:30 pm
Friday August 15 - PRINT FOR PALESTINE - 6 to 9 pm
Saturday August 16 - HISTORY OF INDIGESTION: THE GAZA STORY AND FORBIDDEN HARVESTS - 10 am to 12 pm
Sunday August 17 - LIFELINES, NOT PIPELINES TEACH-IN: SOLIDARITY WITH INDIGENOUS NATIONS RESISTING EXTRACTION - 1 to 3 pm
Sunday August 17 - CANADABKEH: DABKEH DANCE WORKSHOP - 3 to 5 pm
Monday August 18 - PALESTINE: TRAJECTORIES OF CARE FILM SCREENING - Doors at 7pm, screening at 7:30 pm - Notional Space (Address in RSVP)
Tuesday August 19 - BUILDING A BETTER WORLD WITH BDS: A HANDS-ON WORKSHOP - 6 to 8 pm
Thursday August 21 - THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED WORKSHOP - 6 to 8 pm
Friday August 22 - POETRY FOR PALESTINE - 6 to 8:30 pm
Saturday August 23 - ABOLITION GEOGRAPHIES WITH READ FOR OUR LIVES - 2 to 4 pm
Sunday August 24 - FROM SALISH SEAS TO PALESTINE: ENCAMPMENT SOLIDARITIES & BEYOND - 4 to 7 pm
Monday August 25 - NEW POLICING TECH, SAME COLONIAL EMPIRES: GLOBAL POLICING, BORDER CONTROLS & TECHNOFEUDALISM FROM TURTLE ISLAND TO PALESTINE - 6 to 8 pm
Tuesday August 26 - ANTI-PALESTINIAN RACISM IN SCHOOL SYSTEMS - 6 to 8 pm
Wednesday August 27- PARENTS FOR PALESTINE BOOK CLUB - 6 to 8 pm
Thursday August 28 - TATREEZ WORKSHOP - 6 to 8 pm
Saturday August 30 - CLOSING CEREMONY AND AUCTION - 6 to 9 pm
The Freedom School Calendar: