Rooted in Sumud: Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance

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• Sami Awad is codirector of Nonviolence International and founder of the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. Sami’s paternal family became refugees in 1948, and his mother is from the Gaza Strip. At a young age, Sami was influenced by the teaching of his uncle Mubarak Awad, the Palestinian nonviolent activist who promoted nonviolent resistance to the occupation during the 1980s. Sami holds a doctoral degree in divinity from the Chicago Theological Seminary; an M.A. in international relations from the American University in Washington, DC; and a B.A. in political science from the University of Kansas.
• William “Damani” Keene, a civil rights activist, is a Pan-Africanist who taught Black Studies at a federal penitentiary while serving as an Air Force officer. He organized a 1972 procession and memorial for the murdered inmates at Attica State Prison. A graduate of Howard and Cornell universities, Damani led a divestment protest at Cornell in support of liberation movements in Southern Africa, and served as Dean of Student Affairs at Howard University. He is the author of Clandestine: The Times and Secret Life of Mariah Otey Reddick, a historical fiction inspired by his once-enslaved great-grandmother.
• Fadi Abushammalah is an Affiliate Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University in the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, and the School of Foreign Service (SFS). Fadi is the executive director of the General Union of Cultural Centers, the Outreach Associate in Gaza for Just Vision, and the director of Donkeysaddle Projects’ Palestine Grassroots Distribution Project. He co-produced the documentary Naila and the Uprising, and has contributed writing to The New
  York Times, Al Jazeera America, The Nation, and Yes! magazine. Currently based in Washington, DC, Fadi lived in Gaza until November 2023, when he and his family evacuated.
• Jen Marlowe is an author, documentary filmmaker, playwright, journalist, and human rights/social justice activist. She is the consulting producer for Just Vision and founder of Donkeysaddle Projects. Her films include Severed, There Is a Field, Remembering the Gaza War, Witness Bahrain, One Family in Gaza; Rebuilding Hope, and Darfur Diaries. Jen has also worked on video projects in Zimbabwe, Honduras, Brazil, Gaza, and the United States for human rights organizations including Amnesty International USA, Frontline Defenders, the Innocence Network, and Death Penalty Focus. Her books include The Hour of Sunlight:
  One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker, I Am Troy Davis, and Darfur Diaries.

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