It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. With us now, Judith Sloan and Najla Said,

who are holding three events in Manhattan and Brooklyn this month,

trying to talk about Israel and Gaza, Jewish identity and Palestinian identity, and engage

in dialogue rather than diatribe, in a different kind of way. Judith is an actor, writer,

educator, and radio producer, and Najla is an actor, writer, and activist and radio producer, and Nodzla is an actor, writer, and activist.

Their project is called Imperfect Allies, Children of Opposite Sides.

It combines a 15-minute theater piece with a dialogue that follows among the audience members

who sign up because they want to engage with people not like them from diverse

backgrounds, imperfect allies, if you will, children from opposite sides as the title goes.

They have three such events coming up in the next week that will tell you about. Disclosure,

Judith Sloan happens to be my sister-in-law, married to my brother.

Najla Said has a much more famous and important relative than me. She's the daughter of

Edward Said, the late Columbia University professor who wrote the seminal book on Western

Attitudes Toward Eastern and Middle Eastern peoples called Orientalism. Before they join us live, we'll hear

two excerpts from performances by each of them. First, here is a two-minute excerpt in which

Najla reads from her book, Looking for Palestine, it's her autobiography, talking about herself and her father.

My father was a teacher of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

I learned to pronounce that impressive sounding title at the age of four, though I had no

idea what it meant.

When people asked me what my daddy's job was, I'd

wrap my brain and articulators around the phrase with great effort and draw it out. I did recognize

the word Columbia, and I knew what that was, the park where we played after school and on weekends.

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