“Art and Resistance” is one of the preliminary events for the Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB) poetry festival. LTAB is the largest youth festival in the world that brings together young people from many different backgrounds and sides of the city and celebrates the expression of their identities and values

Art and Resistance features Omar Barghouti, a leading Palestinian human rights activist and dance choreographer. Not immune from the reach of racism, sexism, homophobia, war, and strife, art can express a myriad of reactions to oppression, from passive reflection to active resistance—which can take diverse and almost limitless forms. With examples from dance and various art forms, this presentation explores an evolutionary vision of art of the oppressed as rooted, transformative, communicative, and evolutionary—art which negates and transcends oppression.

Omar Barghouti is a choreographer, cultural analyst, and human rights activist. A key contributor to the development of contemporary Palestinian dance through work as choreographer and dance teacher in El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe, Al-Bireh, and Watan Contemporary Palestinian Dance Company in New York, Omar has published many articles focusing on dance as cultural resistance to oppression. Barghouti is also the author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Civil Rights.

Recorded Saturday at the Quincy Wong Center, Columbia College Chicago.