Donkeysaddle Projects

Our Palestine Grassroots Distribution Project (PGDP) is now the Grassroots Community Network (GCN)! GCN grew out of our commitment to never engage in “hit and run storytelling.” The success of our work depends on trust with the communities whose stories we were telling. A long term commitment to the individuals and families we partner with is necessary. For this reason, many of the families who collaborate with us in our documentation work and the team members who help us tell these stories receive ongoing stipends. Many of our storytelling partners are from Gaza, but our storytelling is not limited to Gaza. We have also partnered with people in Sudan and multiple places throughout the US. With this wide community in mind, we wanted to change the name to better reflect the work. “Grassroots Community Network” (GCN) is an accurate reflection of the rich community of storytelling partners we work with throughout the world. As many of our storytelling partners live or have recently evacuated from areas of crisis, the ongoing stipends provided through GCN are lifelines. You can learn more about our storytelling partners and how they use these stipends by visiting donkeysaddle.org/GCN. We needed to raise $10,000 each month to continue to provide these lifeline stipends to our storytelling partners. Your contribution will allow us to keep offering this support. You can donate at the link in our bio. If you are interested in sponsoring stipends for a particular storytelling partner (typically $300 a month), email [email protected] for more information. Thank you for all your support! Your partnership enables us to do this work. #grassrootscommunitynetwork #donkeysaddleprojects #palestinegrassrootsdistributionproject

We’re honored to welcome @dianafakhoury as one of the three visionary artists participating in the talkback TONIGHT, Saturday, May 16, right after The Horse of Jenin screening, 7:30 pm, at @cherrystreetvillage Diana will also serve as moderator for the talkback. Here is Diana’s bio, in her own words. 📍Diana Fakhoury is a Palestinian designer, artist, and organizer whose creative background spans music, fine arts, and multiple design disciplines, including industrial, jewelry, and user-centered design. 📍Her work is shaped by the intersection of modern diasporic life and ancestral cultural practices, including song, dance, tatreez, and Palestinian foodways. She brings her creative experience into movement work through large-scale community-based art installations developed with @wa4pj —the Palestinian-led advocacy organization she co-founded and where she also serves on the board. 📍Diana is also a core member of @cut_ties_wa , a local divestment campaign that won Caterpillar divestment in Washington state, and recently began serving as Executive Director of the @rachelcorriefoundation Join us tonight, May 16, 7:30 pm, at Cherry Street Village, 720 25th Ave, Seattle 98122, to hear Diana share her creative experiences across music, art, and design, and with grassroots organizing. For tickets ($15), see link in bio. Tix also available at the door. #dunyaproductions #palestine #design #grassroots #activism

BALTIMORE: Join our Community Engagement Manager Taylor Lamb on Thursday, May 21st at 6pm for the panel “Telling Stories to Strengthen Community & Promote Civic Engagement.” This is going to be a lively conversation about the power of storytelling—through journalism, fiction, theater, and advocacy—to engage community members and prompt action on important issues like homelessness in Baltimore City and beyond. Taylor will be talking about Donkeysaddle Projects’ work integrating art/storytelling, organizing and advocacy, and political education, as well as her own personal work as a writer and theatermaker.  The panel is convened by author Amy L Bernstein. It will be emceed by award-winning storyteller Alanah Nicole Davis and moderated by Dawna Cobb, Co-founder of Return Home Baltimore. The panel will feature Aditya Desai, Program Officer of Literature for Maryland Humanities; Barbara DiPietro, Senior Director of Policy on the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council; Mark Council, an advocate for the homeless in Baltimore city. The panel will be followed by a Q&A and small reception with refreshments. Register at telling_stories.eventbrite.com or by following the QR code in the image. Hope to see you there! #baltimore #donkeysaddleprojects

What better way to follow our screening of The Horse of Jenin this Saturday 5/16, 7:30 pm, @cherrystreetvillage —featuring Palestinian actor, comedian, and unstoppable creative @alaashehada_ —than with a talkback with three of the Pacific Northwest’s most intriguing and community-minded visionaries? Come and hear @halasalehtatreez @kamari_bright and @dianafakhoury for a lively discussion that will feed your own imagination and activism.💫 Limited seating, so grab your ticket soon! Link in bio. Presented by @dunyaproductions @donkeysaddleorg and @rachelcorriefoundation Special thanks to @55bproductions for arranging this virtual screening tour. #dunyaproductions #art #palestine #liberation #community

Today is the last day to donate and help us win $1,000! Our fiscal sponsor @fractured.atlas is giving out $1,000 to 20 projects, and every donation we get is another chance to help us win. No matter the amount, each donation is like buying a raffle ticket for DSP to help us improve our odds of winning the match. Winning the match can go a long way towards supporting our projects that integrate political education, art/storytelling, and organizing and advocacy. You can make a donation at the link in our bio. Thank you! #donkeysaddleprojects

May’s read for the Abolitionist Futures Reading Circles is “This Mouth is Mine” by Yásnaya Elena A. Gil. If you’d like to join us, you can do so by visiting tinyurl.com/abolitionistfuture or following the link in our bio. Our global virtual discussion about this book will be Sunday, May 31st at 1pm EST. 

Our Abolitionist Futures Reading Circles are a place to come together and read texts across genres to help us imagine the future we want to live in, and define what is required from us to get there. There are local circles, with monthly virtual transnational gatherings.

We currently have reading circles set up in Mexico City; Ramallah; Washington, DC; Baltimore; Seattle; San Diego; and Northwest Arkansas. If you don’t see your city on the list but would like to have a local space, you can be the point person in your own city!
 Sign up to join a circle (or help start one locally) at tinyurl.com/abolitionistfuture or at the link in our bio. #donkeysaddleprojects #bookclub #PICabolition #abolitionistfutures

Will you help Donkeysadle Projects win $1000? Our fiscal sponsor @fractured.atlas is giving $1k to 20 different projects. Every donation you make via the link in our bio between now and Friday gives us an extra chance to win! This money will go a long way towards supporting our projects that integrate political education, art/storytelling, and organizing and advocacy. Whether you give $1 or $100, every donation is meaningful and increases our odds of winning. You can make a donation at the link in our bio. Thank you!

Help Donkeysaddle Projects win $1000! Our fiscal sponsor @fractured.atlas is distributing $1k to 20 different projects as part of their annual Spring Match campaign. Every donation made between today and Friday, May 8th gives us one extra chance to win! A donation of any amount (even $1) improves our odds—each donation is like buying another raffle ticket for DSP, giving us a better chance of being one of the 20 projects to win! Will you make a donation at the link in our bio to help us get there? In incredibly difficult times, DSP’s work of connecting political education, art/storytelling, and organizing & advocacy to fight state violence is more important than ever. We’re so grateful for your continued support. Thanks for helping us get closer to this $1000 match! #donkeysaddleprojects #fracturedatlas

Saturday, May 16, 7:30 pm, at @cherrystreetvillage ~ @dunyaproductions @donkeysaddleorg and @rachelcorriefoundation present the exclusive Seattle screening of The Horse of Jenin, a riveting 80-minute one-man show created and performed by Alaa Shehada from Jenin, Palestine. Combining storytelling, standup comedy, and mask performance, The Horse of Jenin is constructed from fragments of Palestinian actor and comedian Alaa’s own memories—including the actual Horse of Jenin sculpture built from rubble after the 2003 invasion—and stands as an ode to the power of imagination and the resilience it brings. 🇵🇸The backstory: @55bproductions arranged an in-person tour for The Horse of Jenin across the US, including Seattle, but in November 2025, Alaa was denied US entry by Customs and Border Patrol and sent back to Amsterdam—despite having a valid O1-B visa for individuals “extraordinary ability in the arts.” The US has since issued a ban on entry for individuals traveling on Palestinian Authority documentation. 🇵🇸By screening this film, we’re protesting this action and ensuring that Palestinian voices will not be silenced. By sharing this event and/or attending the screening, you’ll be helping to ensure that Alaa’s remarkably creative voice is heard. This is how the arts and activism can work in tandem. 🇵🇸Right after the screening, we’ll present a talkback featuring three local artists whose creative liberation work closely parallels Alaa’s perspective: @kamari_bright multidisciplinary artist, including videopoems and sculpture, and recipient of the 2024 Artist Trust Innovator Award; @halasalehtatreez tatreez artist, founder of @yahalaseattle and voice for responsible tech; and @dianafakhoury mixed media artist, poet, and Executive Director of the Rachel Corrie Foundation, who will also moderate the talkback. 🇵🇸Many thanks to 55B Productions for organizing the screening tour and to @kc4culture and @seaofficeofarts for their support. 🇵🇸For tickets ($15), see link in bio. All ages. We look forward to seeing you there! #dunyaproductions #thehorseofjenin #palestine #comedy #actor

At Donkeysaddle Projects, we use art and storytelling as one point of entry to invite people into the work of building a liberated world free from state violence. We’re grateful to be able to connect with many talented artists using art to support the building of a liberated world, including Patty and Miguel—two members of Son los que Son! Son los que Son are three musician friends that love to share the joyful sounds of Latin rhythms like son Cubano, salsa, cumbia, and merengue with others in the community. We’re so grateful to Patty and Miguel for this beautiful performance of “Patria (Motherland)” by Rubén Blades at our Creating the Future We Deserve fundraiser. If you didn’t make the event but would still like to contribute to the fundraiser for our Grassroots Community Network, you can make a contribution at donkeysaddle.org/GCN. #donkeysaddleprojects

At Donkeysaddle Projects, we use art and storytelling as one point of entry to invite people into the work of building a liberated world free from state violence. We’re grateful to be able to connect with many talented artists using art to support the building of a liberated world, including Nabra Nelson. Nabra Nelson is a writer, community organizer, and theater creator from Nubia, Egypt, and California. Her Nubian side is from the Fadijja tribe of the village of Abu Simbel. As a playwright, arts administrator, director, and teaching artist, she works with theaters, universities, and community organizations to create positive change, strengthen community, and amplify under-heard voices through theater. She is the Artistic Director of @goldenthreadplays in San Francisco, a founding company member of @dunyaproductions and Heard Space Arts Collective, co-host of the Kunafa & Shay Theatre Podcast, and co-leads the Nubian Foundation for Preserving a Cultural Heritage. We’re so grateful to Nabra for performing this poem at our Creating the Future We Deserve fundraiser, which is part of the national tour of HERitage emBODYment’s “Sekhmet Unraveled,” performing in the Egyptian and Nubian wings of US museums May-August 2026. Follow the performance by following @heritage_embody . If you didn’t make the event but would still like to contribute to the fundraiser for our Grassroots Community Network, you can make a contribution at donkeysaddle.org/GCN. #donkeysaddleprojects

We’re thrilled to fulfill our pledge to contribute 10 percent of the income from our 2025 mainstage event, “Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin,” to Palestinians in Gaza by donating $2,777.00 to @donkeysaddleorg Grassroots Community Network (GCN). GCN provides ongoing lifeline stipends to Donkeysaddle Projects’ storytelling partners in Gaza and beyond. As Donkeysaddle explains, “We do not believe in ‘hit and run’ storytelling.” 📍GCN lifeline stipends have provided regular income for Donkeysaddle Projects’ storytelling partners since 2011. This includes Mohamad Saleh and his family, whose lived experiences are featured in “Severed,” the 2025 documentary produced by Donkeysaddle and screened this past fall by @dunyaproductions Donkeysaddle’s storytelling partners also include over a dozen other families who have been featured in films or articles, their Gaza support team (drivers, translators, photographers), and more. 📍To everyone who bought tickets to our 2025 mainstage play, “Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin,” we thank you for your part in contributing to this donation. 📍For more information on GCN, including details about Donkeysaddle Projects’ and their storytelling partners that this initiative supports, visit: donkeysaddle.org/gcn #dunyaproductions #donkeysaddleprojects #humanitarianaid #gaza #palestine