Town Hall’s Artist-in-Residence Maia Brown is gearing up for her final Findings Night event on May 19, which explores new musical compositions drawn from the archives of leftist Yiddish poetry of the 20th Century and of Yiddish women’s and gender-expansive-people’s prayer traditions. The evening asks how we can find comrades among our ancestors in this moment as well as amongst each other. Local Palestinian, Jewish, and arts organizations like Donkeysaddle Projects will be offering ways to answer that question too. Maia sat down with Donkeysaddle recently for a preview of what audiences can expect on May 19th.
MB: Tell us a little about Donkeysaddle’s work and how you see the intersections between your many different projects?
DP: Donkeysaddle Projects is a decolonial, abolitionist, antiracist, anticapitalist organization. We center those most impacted by structural injustice, and endeavor to never be extractive in our storytelling or activism. We see our relationships with impacted families and communities as long-term partnerships, and are committed to them on multiple levels, from adding capacity to their campaigns for justice, to fundraising for their urgent needs. We learn from, train, and build power with communities striving for a liberated world, from Palestine to Turtle Island and beyond.
Donkeysaddle works towards building a liberated world free from state violence in all its manifestations. We provide entry points into this movement work and nurture deep and sustained engagement by integrating political education, organizing and advocacy, and art/storytelling projects.
Through our art/storytelling projects, we: partner with impacted families to share their truths; expose state violence, injustice, and their impact; amplify narratives of resistance and create space for healing; nurture radical imagination of the world we deserve.
Through our political education, we: bring community members together for conversations, study, and artistic experiences related to racial justice, im/migration, Palestinian liberation, the death penalty, abolition of police and prisons, and more; provide analysis to understand the root causes of interlocking forms of state violence; nurture leadership of impacted family and community members.
Through our organizing and advocacy, we: mobilize community members to act; shift policy and practices; provide impacted family and community members with support and resources for skill-building, organizing and connections to other organizers.
MB: How can people support your work and what can audiences on May 19th expect to find at your table before the show?
DP: We would love for folks to follow our work by signing up for our emails or following us on social media. We would also love to invite folks to support our work by becoming part of the Donkeysaddle Engine, a community of sustaining supporters who we are in deeper relationships with.
Our table will have information about our work, examples of projects, and more!
You can chat with Donkeysaddle and Maia’s other community partners at Findings Night 2024 with Maia Brown: Finding Comrades Among our Ancestors — New-Old Compositions in Yiddish. It will be a night of anti-fascist songs and gender-expansive people’s prayer traditions. Coming up Sunday, May 19th at 7:30pm.
