Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 25/May 1, 2024
Happy May Day! In times of yore, in the northern hemisphere, the May Day heralded Winter's finality and the coming of Spring proper. No frosts would come to kill seeds to soon planted, or make perish younglings in the nest. For youngsters now, "May Day" as heard may first evoke panic of a Mayday! Mayday! that since 1927 has been recognized as the universal signal of distress. As international raconteur, and frequent guest on Gorilla Radio, John Helmer, (from whom this introduction is inspired) reminds, the distressful element of the Mayday derives from the French, "M'aidez", literally "help me!" It's a call emanating now across the World for the people of Gaza that is being answered with blunt force by authorities in the countries in support of Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine; a genocide promising to become a 21st Century Holocaust.
In the first half, local voices becoming a part of the global barricade to stop the slaughter and to free finally Palestine.
And; as well as genocide in Gaza, and so far less virulent attacks against freedom of speech and thought at American universities, Israel is too targeting the Palestinian culture, hunting down and killing its journalists, authors, and poets. Fascists have always feared artists and their ability to stir within our hearts aspirations for a more beautiful world, and have always tried and failed to quash that spirit; and in their attempts they reveal themselves and their vile philosophy to be the enemy of what's best about us, and what's best about being alive.
Terry Wolfwood is the Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation. She's served as local coordinator for the Victoria chapter of Women in Black for many years, and has traveled numerous times to the refugee camps in Palestine and Western Sahara to bear witness to those suffering injustice, and to bring the message of the people she meets there back to Canada. Terry is too a poet and author; her articles have appeared at Briarpatch, Peace News, and Third World Resurgence among other places. Her poetry can be found at the Foundation’s site, BBCF.ca, and in her recently released second anthology, 'Passion and Commitment', published by Smallberry Press.
Terry Wolfwood and a life of passionate existence, love, (art) and resistance in the second half.
But first, Palestine's message from Victoria to the World.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Victoria's Gaza Solidarity, Terry Wolfwood May Day, 2024