Street Festival Washington DC March 19, 2016
PAT SARGENT M E N TOR , G E OR G E M AS ON U N IVE R S ITY S C H OOL OF AR T
T
he March 2007 suicide car-bomb attack destroyed the entire perimeter of al-Mutanabbi Street, decimating Baghdad’s centuries-old intellectual and cultural community. In response to this tragedy, artists from all over the world have come to share a sense of solidarity — as well as ownership — in a project that refuses to let that day, and its significance, ever be forgotten. Consider our own cultural street in D.C.’s Northeast neighborhood of Brookland near Catholic University. A thriving hub that contributes a specific type of vibrant energy that feeds the soul of the local community. Imagine if it was suddenly ripped from us in mere moments. How would you respond? How would those on the other side of the world respond? Beau Beausoleil responded, he is a San Francisco bookseller, poet, and community activist for whom the assault on Al-Mutanabbi Street touched a deep nerve. Through his relationship with the book and as a purveyor of ideas and culture, the bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street allowed Beausoleil to see, feel, and experience the distant horrific events of daily news headlines about the destruction in Iraq. Beau’s Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here is a grass roots project that operates loosely through a goodwill-based coalition of hundreds of book lovers, artists, letterpress printers, and community members from across the world. Those participating come to this project to share in Beausoleil’s vision: to respond, reflect, and express through art and community a much larger and human connection to others who have been rendered voiceless by war and violence.
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Detail of screen print bookmark