So, we’ll go again with Open Mic for Gaza! This time on Global Pay It Forward Day, Sunday April 28 2024, zoom from 7-9 pm Irish/Uk time. Read about the first Open Mic for Gaza fundraiser here.
A wonderful line-up of special guests will join the second Open Mic for Gaza along with 15 open mic readers/performers. Scroll down for the special guests’ profiles, and details on how to sign-up.
MICHELLE GALLEN will read from one of her award-winning novels. She grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles a few miles from the border. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and Publishing at Stirling University. Her debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Her critically acclaimed second novel, Factory Girls, won the Comedy Women in Print award and was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. Both books are being adapted for TV.
Michelle Photo credit: Brideen Baxter and Deci Gallen/Simpletapestry.com
ELIZABETH KEHOE is the Historian in Residence for Dublin Central, as well as a tour guide at 14 Henrietta Street. She returned to education in 2015 completing a degree in history at Trinity College Dublin, followed by an M. Phil. in Modern Irish History. She will present Three days in Belfast, the Falls Curfew 1970.
JULIANA ADELMAN is a writer and assistant professor of history at Dublin City University. She is the author of The Grateful Water, a historical crime novel set in nineteenth-century Dublin. She has also published two nonfiction history books, numerous articles and produced several podcasts. The Grateful Water will be published by New Island in May 2024 and Juliana will read from her debut fiction.
CATHERINE DUNNE is the author of one work of non-fiction and twelve novels. Her latest, A Good Enough Mother, won the European Rapallo Fiction Prize 2023 and will be published in Ireland in June 2024 by Betimes Books. She is currently Chair of Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and was recently elected to Aosdána. Aosdána honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland. Catherine will read from Letters to Oraib by Mahmoud Al-Shaer.
Catherine photo credit: Simon Robinson
WALAA SABAH is the project manager of We Are Not Numbers. She previously held the position of community outreach and partnership officer. She works as a freelance journalist. You can read her articles at The Middle East Eye, The Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, The New Arab. Walaa is the organiser for Provide a Meal for Displaced Gazans during Ramadan. She was special guest speaker at the Irish Writers Union AGM held in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin in April 2024. Walaa will share a reading.
DAN McPARTLIN is a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Dublin. His musical style spans genres from dark folk, Irish trad, and rock. He is currently working on songs for his debut EP due later in 2024. Dan was a recent performer at the popular One Voice Phibsboro in The Hut. He will record for Open Mic for Gaza.
Follow Dan on Tik Tok.
All our special guests, myself and co-organiser Denise, and Melanie who designed posters and Q&A, are working voluntarily so that ALL donations will go to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund. Thanks in advance to everyone who helps the fundraiser by sharing this event with their networks. Please use the hashtags if you’re on social media.
#OpenMicForGaza #GlobalPayItForwardDay
X @fionamkorourke Insta @fionaowriter Facebook @FionaORourkeAuthor
Registration/donation/expression of interest in an open mic slot (15 available, max 3 mins each) is at this google sign-up form which includes a link to this must-read Q&A. Open mic slots may be used for reading, performance, art exhibition (you would share your screen and narrate your art), comedy, monologues, we’re open to suggestions, anything that can be shared in 3 minutes or less with you managing the logistics of how to share it on zoom … express your interest and tell us briefly in the sign-up form. Please use the same form to donate to be in the zoom audience.
If you’re low on funds, ask your friends to chip in towards the donation and have a little Open Mic for Gaza party around your laptop. If you want to support the event but can’t attend, remember it’s on Global Pay It Forward Day, and you could gift it to a friend. All details in the google form and Q&A. See you on screen at #OpenMicForGaza on #GlobalPayitForwardDay.
Everything you need to know is in the google form and the Q&A. For all other queries, email expresswritingcommunity@gmail.com
Join us in solidarity.