ECH Spring Newseltter

In June the Embassy Cultural House will mark 6 years of programs and publications...

View this email in your browser Incé Husain, From the river to the sea, 2023, Ink on paper  Photo credit: Incé Husain, 2025 Inspired by the liberation chant 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' and acknowledgement of the nautical boundaries imposed by the apartheid regime that deny Palestinians the right to fish in their own sea. Accompanies articles Young Israeli dissidents: "Do anything you can to stop the genocide" and How do I mourn the killings of over 11,000 children? at the theunprecedentedtimes.net In June the Embassy Cultural House will mark 6 years of programs and publications. Our collective has endeavoured to address the many issues of this turbulent time. Having launched during the COVID- 19 pandemic, the challenges continue - the fact that - as Antonio Gramsci wrote in 1930 - "the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born". Rather than lose hope, our collective has tried to confront "the morbid phenonema (symptoms)".  Recognizing that we live in a time of great crisis, we turn to our community. We are publishing a significant text by Salah D. Hassan about the US-Israel war and its global impact. We are grateful for the engagement of a number of dedicated scholars and artists who also have given their time and energy - through ECH's mentorship program with the Department of Visual Arts at Western University. Sarah Bassnett,  Liza Eurich, Tricia Johnston, Christophe Mignone and Alena Robin have supported ECH's programs and we are proud of the many in the Arts & Humanities masters and undergraduates programs who also joined the ECH team and made significant contributions, as well as PhD candidates who have completed and graduated with their doctorates. Thank you for reading! Your care and attention to our work is greatly appreciated. Mona Hatoum, Map (red), 2026 25 mm clear red glass balls, 6 m x 10.30 m Photo credit: Mona Hatoum Award-winning artist Mona Hatoum’s site-specific exhibition Over, under and in between, at the Fondazione Prada in Milan, Italy, from January 29 to November 9, 2026. Notes on the 2026 US-Isreali War - Salah D. Hassan War is the cult of the desperate and the despicable. So much to consider about how this tragic moment partitions again our shared history as people of/from West Asia residing in North America.  We, and so many others like us who study the region or have attachments to Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), are not bystanders to these world events. (I think that we should support the emerging shift away from the terms Mideast and Near East in favor of Southwest Asia). This moment could be as historic as WW II. We need to think about the regional situation, from Desert Storm (the US attack on Iraq in 1991) to Epic Fury (the US-Israel 2026 attack on Iran) as one very long American war, whose prelude was the almost decade long Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). This generational war most probably will not conclude with this latest episode of imperial aggression, but it may possibly bring about the end of the US dominated international rules-based order and the demise of the relatively feeble UN, at least as we know it.  Given the global uncertainty of the present, one of the main questions being asked is: “what comes next,” not only in Iran, but also regionally and globally. Change of regime or not, so much is at stake in terms of what comes next in a world apparently dominated by the US and Israel, political regimes with techno-military supremacy, but bereft of ethico-political legitimacy. Diplomacy, negotiations and agreements - the foreign policy means of civil society - are despised by adherents to the war cult. International relations, long governed by the alliance of the wealthy and powerful nations (Davos), have given way to the naked use of force to protect the prosperity and privilege of the few in the face of the swirling unrest of the “wretched of the earth” (Fanon). Anyone paying attention over the last 12 months to the seemingly endless violence visited upon Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran foresaw the US-Israeli war of 2026. Over the last weeks of February, the US media earnestly prepared the public; the question was not if, but when would the US and Israel administrations launch their joint attack on Iran. A foreign war seemed especially inevitable given domestic crises facing Trump and Netanyahu. Are these heads of state using this war as a diversion from their problems of declining popularity? Or is the war part of a more calculated effort to transform the region? Or both? Is the intrigue about the contents of the Epstein files another distraction from another crime against humanity? Some believe that Netanyahu and Trump envision an Iran that looks more like Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan rather than a stable regional power. Will Iran be partitioned, resulting in an orchestrated civil war stoked by Israel and with US forces controlling oil production? Meanwhile the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—a political and economic union established in 1981 that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—must contend with the consequences of their ill-fated alliance with the US and Israel.  That said, Iranian progressives face an impossible situation. They oppose the regime and the war. They will never embrace neocolonialist royalists who fantasize about installing Reza Pahlavi.  Anybody who welcomes more war in Southwest Asia, believing that the US-Israel war on Iran will produce stability and democracy, is naive and heartless.  Across the region, from the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, US and Israeli military operations have left landscapes of death and destruction. In the context of the ongoing US–Israeli attacks against Iran and the broader escalation in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, how can we best articulate an anti-war position while also acknowledging the failure of political leadership across the region and beyond? Since October 7, 2023, despite massive popular protests across the globe, the international community has with noteworthy exceptions, allowed, or abetted, Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The US has no independent policy. It has long outsourced its Middle East foreign policy to Israel, generally with the cooperation of the US Department of State. This now transparent situation explains why US officials have difficulty justifying their war on Iran.  What are Israel’s intentions? What is Israel’s policy? Even as US public opinion shifts in favor of Palestinians and is clearly opposed to the war in Iran, most US politicians continue to support Israel unconditionally. Conversely, the GCC member states, notably Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have submitted to US military power and signed a formal agreement (the Abraham Accords) with Israel. These wealthy Arab monarchies entered security agreements with the US and Israel on the mistaken premise that having US bases in their countries would provide them with military protection. They were duped into believing that the US presence would protect them from a military attack. Instead, the US and Israel brought the war to the Arab Gulf countries. The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain have surrendered their sovereignty to Donald Trump’s America, and for the time being they are little more than 21st-century US colonies.  Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen, were destroyed because they resisted US domination. The GCC countries are being bombed because they submitted to the US. For Israel, the destruction of Iran and the submission of the GCC countries to US military dominance eliminates all regional rivals —except Turkey and Pakistan. Will this U.S-Israeli Gulf War conclude with uncontested Israeli domination over the entirety of West Asia or with Israel’s defeat? Will the war lead to nuclear proliferation, or more ominously a nuclear attack by the desperate and despicable? Salah D. Hassan is Director of Global Studies in the Arts & Humanities at Michigan State University. He resides in Lansing, Michigan and wrote these notes between February 28 and April 20, 2026. The Eyes of Gaza - Plestia Alaqad Journalist/author Plestia Alaqad ( L) and journalist Laila Shadid (R) in conversation, one year anniversary event for Plestia Alaqad’s book, Diwan Bookstore, Cairo, April 18, 2026.  Photo credit: Jamelie Hassan Written as a series of diary extracts, The Eyes of Gaza relates the horrors of Plestia’s experiences, while showcasing the indomitable spirit of the men, women and children of her community. From the heart of the turmoil, surrounded by falling bombs and widespread devastation, she captures their emotions; their gentle acts of quiet, necessary heroism; and the moments of unexpected tenderness and vulnerability amid the chaos. Purchase Eyes of Gaza As the Crow Flies Kelly Webb, Francis and Harrison Young working on Ron Benner’s garden As The Crow Flies at Museum London. Sunday, April 26, 2026 Photo credit: Ron Benner Spring has grudgingly arrived and it is the 21st year for Ron Benner’s photographic/garden installation As The Crow Flies at Museum London. This year a pair of Canada Geese have built their nest directly adjacent to the south end of the elliptical pond. Please be careful. ECH News Congratulations to ECH contributing editor Blessy Augustine on the successful presentation of her PhD thesis, Four Artworks on the Theory and Practice of Citizenship.  Put on your calendar ECH’s upcoming publication event at Critical Distance Centre for Curators, 401 Richmond St. West, #122, Toronto, on Thursday, April 30, from 6 - 9 PM. Check out the Akimbo website for details. The Embassy Cultural House will be presenting ECH materials at the annual Vancouver Art Book Fair (VABF) 2026 at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre from May 15 to May 17. On Sunday, May 17, Ron Benner and Jamelie Hassan will be participating on a panel during the VABF, which addresses issues of activism / rest / resistance. The fair is free and open to the public. We would like to welcome Siddhesh Inamdar as a contributor with ECH and Incé Husain as a contributing editor. Incé Husain's prints of her ink drawings are available to purchase at $75 each or 3 for $200.  Upcoming ECH Events Scheduled Upcoming Events Thursday, April 30 - Critical Distance Centre for Curators, Toronto, ON, Check out the Embassy Cultural House on the CDCC website Thursday, May 15 - Sunday, May 17 - Vancouver Art Book Fair, Vancouver, B.C, A Roundhouse Partnership with OCCW Arts & Publishing Foundation. View the Roundhouse website for more information. Image: ECH Postcards by Olivia Mossuto, Incé Hussain, Shelley Niro, Jamelie Hassan, Ron Benner, Diana Tamblyn and Mireya Seymour. Photo credit: Ron Benner The postcards are now available at Shop Museum London, Little Wren Books and are coming soon on the ECH website. Price: $3.00 each/5 for $10.00 + postage in Canada Cuba Fundraiser Estamos Con Cuba is a fundraiser organized by the Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association (LACASA) and People for Peace London to deliver life-saving support to the Cuban people, who are being starved and deprived of necessities by the US blockade. A night for London, ON, to come together in support of the Cuban people. There will be performances, a silent auction, food and drink available for purchase, and a DJ and dance. They welcome donations of medical and personal hygiene supplies! All proceeds will be donated to the Canadian Network on Cuba. Get Tickets ECH Online Shop Coming Soon Looking to purchase publications, print materials and artists' multiples directly through ECH? Soon, we will launch an online website that will include not only our current publications, such as Not/For the Money and An Alternative Cultural History of London Ontario, but also artwork from the ECH archive and ECH contributors. More details to come! UpwithArt! Congratulations to UPwithART for another successful year of their annual exhibition & auction for Unity Project for Relief of Homelessness and Museum London. The Legends of Madiba: In Their Own Words May 14th, 2026 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Museum London The Legends of Madiba: In Their Own Words, is a powerful documentary celebrating Black South African jazz singers who created, performed, and resisted during the apartheid era (1948–1990s). This special screening is presented in affiliation with Lido Pimienta: Love and Resistance, on view until May 31, and deepens the exhibition’s themes of artistic expression, resilience, and political defiance. Presented by London, Ontario–based Juno Award–winning artist Lorraine Klassen, alongside TD Curator of Collections Zahra McDoom, the film honours the lineage of Black women whose creativity sustained community, joy, and resistance in the face of systemic injustice. Registration is recommended.  Register Here By Circumstance, Not by Choice Our most recent connection with Yasmin Hussain has led to conversations involving collaborating with her work at the InterCommunity Health Centre through our exhibition climate crisis... no fixed address. The booklet/zine By Circumstance, Not by Choice is the result of a collaboration between four Peer members and four staff members from the London InterCommunity Health Centre(LIHC), two staff from Regional HIV/AIDS Connection London (RHAC), a placement student and local artist Hailey Tallman. Quotes The Maple Whitney Kemble, a member of UTFA and a librarian at the University of Toronto, told The Maple's Class Struggle: “Universities are a special site of struggle for a number of reasons: they maintain research partnerships with Israeli universities to develop military and surveillance technologies; they erase the history of Palestinian dispossession in decisions about hiring and course content; they neglect to act on questions of anti-Palestinian racism, and even criminalize their own students and employees for speaking up on these issues; and they launder the ongoing, violent history of settler colonialism by hosting events and speakers in support of the Israeli government, thus lending these discourses a veneer of respectability.” Adam D.K King Link to full article London Review of Books  "The absence of justification is not incidental. It is a morbid symptom of an international system in crisis. The certainties of the United States’ hegemonic stewardship of the ‘international rules-based order’ have been deformed beyond recognition by the Gaza genocide, but no alternative architecture has cohered in their place. Instead there is a politics of gangster imperialism that has neither international nor domestic consent." Eskander Sadeghi-Boroujerdi Link to full article   Visit the ECH Website Copyright © 2026 Embassy Cultural House, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Embassy Cultural House 514 Pall Mall Street London, ON N5Y 2Z6 Canada Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Embassy Cultural House is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial. Copyright © 2026 Embassy Cultural House. All rights reserved. Our mailing address: 514 Pall Mall Street, London, ON, N5Y 2Z6, Canada Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.