Refugees

“My name is Marwan Abdelhamid,” he said. “Born in Jerusalem, raised in Gaza. Left it at seven and haven’t been back since. This is the story of so many Palestinians.” He sounded a little nervous, but it soon dissipated. On stage, he marshalled that same mischievous energy that runs through everything from his social media clips to his music videos. In between songs, he addressed the crowd, bringing it back to the fraught political moment, to Gaza. Often, he told them, he would be told: “Shhh, don’t talk about Palestine.” Often, he admitted, he asked himself how he could be singing and dancing when his people were dying. But joy in our culture was our right, he said.