Hello! We are representing the new student group SESAME (Students Educating Students About The Middle East)! Coming winter quarter we will be a fully recognized group with Student Activities. First, an apology if you saw our flyers and couldn’t find us, much like the rest of the college, our marketing is on point, while our actual preparedness has taken some time to truly develop. Additionally we are all low-income/disabled, and have had to coordinate our own needs in this housing crisis of a town that expects students to make 2.5-3 times the rent to even consider getting a place.
WHO ARE WE?
The Original SESAME group was started in 2003 after Evergreen Student Rachel Corrie was martyred defending a Palestinian family’s home from being demolished with a bulldozer. The original group then became The Middle Eastern Solidarity Project, followed by Students for Justice in Palestine, later renamed to Beldaan who were a formerly unregistered student group that organized the walkout earlier this year in April (See CPJ March ‘22, October ‘23, and May ‘24 for more info).
We are not Palestinians or part of the diaspora! And we are not trying to claim their voices or leadership, instead we aim to directly engage and connect with our community about the Middle East and Palestine due to the combination of misinformation and lack of coverage about the Gaza Genocide to the wider American public.
Within SESAME, we are committed to organizing to be as inclusive as possible, which means actively working against all forms of oppression. Moreover, we are committed to working with and learning from the Evergreen community. This means reaching out to other student and community groups for collaboration as well as supporting other groups in the work that they do. We also maintain connections with groups off campus such as PASS (Palestine Action South Sound), The Rachel Corrie Foundation, and The Islamic Center of Olympia.
PLANS
Weekly zine and mask distro outside of the Greenery in the CAB on Fridays from 11:00 -1:00 as our schedule and supplies permit. If you see someone with a mask and keffiyeh sitting at a table covered in papers it’s probably us! Additionally we are trying to create open drop-in hours during the week to join us making zines, and provide space to answer questions about the Middle East.
TESC originally had a space for this group called “The Middle East Resource Center” we are trying to bring back. While this would obviously provide a space to center information, there’s already places to hang out on campus. We want to build something deeper than an area with some books and a microwave. We want to create a safe community space that isn’t always
locked behind a closed door.
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS:
Remembering Rachel Corrie – Zine (28 Pages) – Available on the zine rack on the third floor of the CAB and at our weekly distros.
