Rachel’s Words

Below are events happening on March 16, 2007, commemorating Rachel Corrie. If you organized an event, please let us know by contacting us.

Washington, DC
Poets Against The War
Note from organizer, Reuben Jackson:
My wife and I are planning a March 16th event (we plan to red from Rachel’s letters) at our house in DC. We saw “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” in NYC in November of last year, and at the risk of uttering a cliche, I have not been the same.

Vienna, Austria
Women in Black and Jewish Voice for a Just Peace (Austria)
Note from organizer, Paula Abrams-Hourani:
We have held vigils for Rachel Corrie every year since she was killed and will do so on Friday, 16 March 2007. This time we will extend the memorial vigil to all of the thousands of victims of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land….we think she would agree with this.

One month from today we will mark the fourth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. Please join Rachel’s Words and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in making March 16th a day of remembrance.

Below we have descriptions of four different Rachel’s Words events. They range from a small dinner party to a large production with professional actors and musicians. There are many creative possibilities in combining Rachel’s emails with current events, candle-light vigils, street theater, theatrical readings, film screenings, direct action, report-backs, teach-ins, or coffee and conversation.

Rachel’s Words can provide resources to make organizing easier. We have Rachel’s emails online and translated into several languages. Our Myths and Facts Sheet was reviewed by Craig and Cindy Corrie and addresses the misinformation often repeated in the media. It’s available online as text or as a pre-formatted .pdf and is intended to be used as a handout or a media tool.

We have video footage from our event at Riverside Church, DVDs of the documentary The Killing Zone, Rachel Corrie solidarity bracelets — and we’re building a community of people to share ideas and experience. Please contact us if we can help you organize an event, large or small. And let us know how you plan to mark the day.

RACHEL’S WORDS
MARCH 22nd, NEW YORK CITY
Co-hosts: Amy Goodman and James Zogby
Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive
8.00 pm
$20 Suggested donation (No one turned away for lack of funds. Doors open at 7.30)
[Make reservations securely online]

UPDATED March 22nd: If you are buying your ticket(s) online after 1:00 PM on March 22nd, you must bring a printed copy of the confirmation email you will receive from PayPal with you for purchase verification!

A portion of the proceeds will go to The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

Thank you to everyone who has offered to participate in the event! So many people have been moved by Rachel’s amazing life and writings and we wish we could include everyone in the event itself. At this time we are not seeking anymore participants but we do encourage you to help us by spreading the word about the March 22 event and bringing as many people with you as you can!

Participating by video or statement
• Maya Angelou will read an email of Rachel’s by video,
• Patti Smith will perform “Peaceable Kingdom” dedicated to Rachel by video,
• Eve Ensler (Vagina Monologues).
• Vanessa Redgrave
• Mariam Said (wife of the late Dr. Edward Said)
• Najla Said
• Alice Walker
• Howard Zinn

Leonard “Hub” Hubbard of the legendary grammy award winning hip-hop band The Roots will be appearing at the Rachel’s Words Event on March 22nd. He will be performing a tribute song to Rachel.

Make your online reservation for March 22nd today! Tickets to the event can be reserved online for a donation of $20. They will also be available at the door the night of the event.

Leonard “Hub” Hubbard of the legendary Philadelphia-based hip-hop band The Roots will be appearing at the Rachel’s Words Event on March 22nd. He will be performing a tribute song to Rachel.

Make your online reservation for March 22nd today! Tickets to the event can be reserved online for a donation of $20. They will also be available at the door the night of the event.

UPDATES
1. MARCH 16 th Readings of Rachel’s Words around the world
2. MARCH 22 nd Event at Riverside Church
3. ENDORSERS: Groups and Individuals
4. SUPPORT: What you can do
5. WEBSITE

MARCH 16:
The countdown is on for the March 16 readings and actions. If there isn’t a reading/action around Rachel’s Words planned in your city, it’s not too late. So far, we are aware of 45 readings/actions taking place in 42 cities in 13 countries. Rachel’s Words can be heard even more widely. Please consider planning a reading and letting us know about it. “Living Room” readings count also—a few friends sitting around a kitchen table reading and talking about
Rachel’s emails. Let us know at info@rachelswords.org what you have planned, when and where and contact info if it’s a public event. Put MARCH 16 in the title of the email. Send photos or video of the event to info@electronicintifada.net so we can use it for the March 22 event. (ground mail address to overnight it is on the website) Check our website at www.rachelswords.org for updated information on where readings/actions are happening.

The event on March 22^nd continues to build with exciting scheduled guests and speakers signing on. Stay tuned to RachelsWords.org for more information in the coming days.

You can now make reservations online! Tickets are available for a $20 donation and can be picked up at the door the night of March 22^nd. Each reservation gets a commemorative admittance bracelet. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Rachel Corrie Foudation for Peace and Justice.

Dear Supporters,

In the process of building this site and the response to the cancellation of the play, we have taken your suggestions very seriously. As a result, we have now moved from the Yahoo email platform to Google.

However, many of you, many of us, set our email profiles to NOT allow being added to lists. Imagine?

2/3 of the people who signed up to be on our email list have not been able to be transferred over, including all of us here at Rachels Words. You will have to sign up again.

If you do not get an email this evening, please sign up again through the website.

We thank you for your support.

Love,
Rachels Words

Liz Magnes, jazz pianist, will perform a piece that she is composing in Rachel’s memory especially for the event. She made her solo piano debut at the age of 15 playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville NY, Mannes College of Music in Manhattan and the Hebrew University Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.

Magnes combines an extraordinary approach to jazz piano with a World Music flavor to create a totally new and fresh solo jazz piano sound. Her signature blend of American and Middle Eastern jazz is an exciting meeting of East and West.

During her extensive travels, Liz has explored the melodies and rhythms of many ethnic groups, integrating rich and varied musical heritages into sophisticated jazz improvisations. She has performed in Israel, Egypt, various countries in Europe and various cities in the US. Liz has worked collaboratively with many other artists, drawing upon many different musical traditions including medieval Jewish oriental prayer music, Spanish Ladino melodies, Arabic maqam, modern Israeli pop music and traditional American standards. She interprets each with her jazz sensibilities to create beautiful and often startling connections between divergent forms, weaving together different eras and cultures into splendid musical tapestries.

Hello all,

Thank you for being so patient with lack of communication over the last few days. As you can imagine, things were happening fast and furiously and we needed a little time to sort out details before we could let you know concretely what was going on. But now, finally, it’s time to get concrete and to start moving fast!

Summary:
The “Rachel’s Words” initiative has several components; world-wide actions on March 16th and a New York performance event on March 22nd. We have been invited to host a reading of Rachel’s Words at the Made in Palestine Art Exhibition in New York, date to be determined. There are more components in the works—this is continuing to snowball!

March 16th Actions: