Milwaukee’s Celebrating Palestine festival expands in second year

Celebrating Palestine returns to the Marcus Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, Sunday, June 7.

Milwaukee’s first festival celebrating Palestinian culture is back.

Building on the huge success of last summer’s inaugural event, the Muslim Women’s Coalition produces the second annual Celebrating Palestine festival, Sunday, June 7, 12 – 8 p.m., at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, 929 North Water St., doubling its hours and space in its second year.

This year’s rendition offers more entertainment and audience participation, with extended hours and space for well-known Palestinian singers and dabke dance troupes, a fashion show, an expanded cultural display, food-tasting stations from Milwaukee’s popular Palestinian restaurants and a large Palestinian bazaar, featuring authentic Palestinian thobes and cultural products. It will also include dabke lessons and dancing with the famous Chicago-based dabke star Mohammed Darawsha.

“Last year, we would’ve been thrilled with 500 attendees,” said Janan Najeeb, MWC founder and executive director. “We more than doubled our expectations, with almost 1,500 attending.

“This year we are using an additional floor at the Marcus Center, its large Bradley Center, to host the fashion show and musical groups, and to have room for a community dabke,” Najeeb said. “We are excited about Mohammed Darawsha’s training for everyone who wants to learn our lively, traditional Palestinian dance.

“Another thing we’re really excited about is bringing the Palestinian Youth Ensemble, young people who play traditional musical instruments,” she said. “They have chapters around the United States.”

Also new this year, musicians, singers and dancers will perform the zaffe, a wedding march. In Palestinian villages in years past, the zaffe escorted the groom to the bride’s house or the bride and groom to the church or mosque. In modern weddings, a zaffe announces the entrance of the bride and groom to the wedding hall.

For those attending Celebrating Palestine for the first time, Najeeb likens it to the lakefront cultural festivals—Irish Fest, Polish Fest, Festa Italiana and German Fest. “And who knows, maybe down the road, we’ll become a lakefront festival.”

The second annual Celebrating Palestine festival features an expanded cultural area with more educational exhibits.

A family event for all

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Palestinian American Marcia Mihdawi of Milwaukee called out to her daughters during a telephone interview with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. The Middle School English teacher serves as a volunteer on the Celebrating Palestine organizing committee. “Sorry, the girls are trying on thobes (traditional Palestinian gowns) for the fashion shows. They are participating as models.

“Sorry, hold on,” she said to the reporter on the phone, and then to her daughter, “That fits you so nicely. And the belt works well. Can I take a quick photo?

“Thank you for waiting. So, I think you asked me, ‘What is important about this event?’

“Yes.”

“It’s so important for our Palestinian community. But it’s also really important for the wider community, too.

“I will always remember when my daughters said to me that their favorite thing about the whole event last year was being in the fashion show because they had the chance to meet other Arab and Muslim girls. That was so powerful for them.

“Palestinian people in the diaspora are holding on to memories. This festival keeps history alive in a special way,” she said. 

Mihdawi’s daughter Raya, a Marquette University student who also volunteers at the festival, told WMJ, “I truly enjoyed participating as a volunteer last year, as I got to connect more with my culture and meet lots of different people from all over the city. I can’t wait to volunteer again this year.”

“But this is not an event that’s just for Palestinians,” Mihdawi emphasized. “It’s simultaneously a window for people who may not know much about Palestine and would like to learn. It builds a bridge through food, music and arts, things people naturally gravitate towards.”

“Celebrating Palestine truly has something for everyone,” she said. “For those looking to learn, it offers education; for allies, a space to show solidarity; and for the Palestinian community, a vital opportunity to preserve heritage and pass culture down to the next generation. This family-centered gathering reminds us that celebrating and strengthening our cultural connections is a powerful act of resistance against the erasure of our identity.”

About 40 vendors are expected at Celebrating Palestine on Sunday.

Milwaukee’s own Banat Al-Huriyah Girls Dabke Group will return for this year’s Celebrating Palestine festival.

Marquette University Associate Professor Enaya Othman, Ph.D., a Fulbright scholar, researches the styles and symbolism of traditional Palestinian dress, such as those on display at the Celebrating Palestine festival.