Courage to Be Student Essays. Misbah Awan on Rana Abdelhamid

The anticipation building up to the talk was symbolic of more than just waiting on a guest speaker to arrive on the Bard College campus to plant seeds in young scholars’ minds. I had a personal affiliation to the event’s circumstances that would later unfold that day because I have been anticipating a long time sister and mentor of mine who I have maintained a friendship with since I was in high school. The woman who was the first to affirm me, embolden my character, and train me in the art of advocating for oneself is an Egyptian American Muslim women of color that hails from Queens (the same borough as myself actually!) goes by the name of Rana Abdelhamid. We were reconnecting after 6 long years.

Her lecture was titled “Building a Grassroots Movement,” which highlighted her journey from being that teenage girl who used her experiences and resources as a way to build up her own organization (MALIKAH, previously known as Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment) to someone who is a nationally acclaimed grassroots organizer for gender, racial and migrant justice. Abdelhamid spoke heavily from not necessarily a place of pain, but rather love. She highlighted that building a movement comes from: starting from who you know, starting from what you know, and starting from centering your joy as opposed to only your trauma so that the focus is always on the marginalized folks of the community and not the oppressors of the community. It was clear that her mission echoed past revolutionaries (may they all rest in Power), such as Angela Davis and Nick Montgomery and Mia Mingus.

Rana Abdelhamid, out of her own generosity, handed out zines* on self defense and empowerment prior to the beginning of the lecture to supplement her talk. The question and answer portion of the session post-dinner was lively and proactive, zooming from talking about a favorite food place in Queens and how to combat burnout culture to carefully examining ways to increase efficiency in grassroots impact and how to handle injustices (especially online) from a non-reactionary place. It was great to know that privilege and power were not removed from the context of the conversations on movement building, considering Bard College is a predominately white institution and the demographics are shifting towards more diverse representation with time. Dinner, provided by Chartwells, added to the smiles in the room.

For the first time in a long time of being at Bard College, I saw many students—in both their conversations and interactions—leaving a talk feeling whole. The intimacy in the room was unmatched compared to any other event I attended, considering the aesthetics was set to reflect a dining situation where the lecturer is up front and everyone else seated. For a second, everything felt timeless.