Rick Congress went to a party last night for Norman Finkelstein’s new Gaza book, This Time We Went Too Far, at a bar on Gansevoort Street in New York. His report:
It was really strange. The Griffin is one of those insider no-name black-painted facade clubs that has a bouncer outside and your name has to be on a list to get in. But instead of limos dropping off black-clad beautiful young people, the line at the velvet rope outside the club was full of disheveled movement types with back packs. The area was in the newly-cool meatpacking district on Ganservoort and 9th Ave.
There were a lot of young people, and many Palestinians. I’d say about 200 people were jammed in this very ornate rococo space with divans and stuffed chairs, an enormous elaborate chandelier. A trendy location for a book promotion tour.
Norman Finkelstein has been traveling around the country giving talks. The one he gave I’ve heard before, but it is very good and very effective. He has this deliberate, cadenced, delivery that hammers the points home. He has been improbably accompanied by Arabic and Palestinian hip hop artists. Besides Norman the program featured, Lowkey, a UK resident of Iraqi descent, whose performance segued seamlessly from a brief summary of the political urgencies facing the movement — exposing the key role of the UK and US as Israel’s enablers, and supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement — into a hand clapping, finger snapping, rhythmic rap song. Then a young Palestinian woman who led the audience in call and response raps about Palestine.
The bar did a good business despite the outrageous prices (martini, $16, wine $14, beer $9 –outrageous for activists anyway). The crowd was happy, Norman’s books were on sale, and the whole evening was odd but enjoyable.
Finkelstein’s book tour has already been to a number of cities, including a gathering of 800 people in Chicago. From New York he goes to Raleigh, NC, UC Davis, UCSD (San Diego), Irvine, CA, and Tucson, Arizona among many others. Oh and Berkeley this coming week.
