An autonomous reading circle in Occupied Massachusett Territory
This evening in the basement of Andala Restaurant, I held a circle with courageous students fighting for Palestine in Cambridge and Boston-area universities.
I share a photo taken by my Palestinian sister Salma who helped organize the encounter together with Jude, Cathy, and other weavers in struggle.
I’ve blurred the students’ faces because of the times.
Right down the road, Rumeysa Ozturk was abducted by la migra just a couple weeks ago:
On March 25, 2025, 30-year-old Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained by six masked plainclothes agents from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, and removed in an unmarked car. […] Öztürk, a Turkish citizen, had entered the United States on an F-1 student visa. She co-authored an article in The Tufts Daily, the student newspaper, criticizing the university’s response to protests against the ongoing war in Gaza. The article was written by four students and endorsed by 32 others. Her fellow students believe she was targeted for her involvement in the piece. After her detention, ICE released a statement accusing her of supporting Hamas, without providing evidence. DHS later confirmed that her student visa had been revoked.
Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk, Wikipedia
In our encounter tonight, we conversed nonstop about Palestine 1492 as if we were in a place very other.
The flow was so nice.
The experience was profound and not unfamiliar. We hold circles like these back home in the parks, living rooms, and other places of our everyday lives, turning toward each other and to books, looking for answers, even for remedies. Some of us leave in the middle of our studies only to multiply:
Mark Spencer/Philosophy, presente; Matthew Joseph Urango/Cola Boyy, presente.
I shared with them it is there where I have been teaching-learning since leaving the university, a little bit more autonomously.
And they responded they would hold their own study groups outside of the university, also a little bit more autonomously.
And they robbed flowers for me.
