this demo website is designed for desktops or laptops. preferably via Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

James Graff Memorial Lecture 2019

October 30, 2019

JGML 2019 – We are excited to share the official video of this year’s iteration of the annual James Graff Memorial Lecture featuring Samah Sabawi. Samah Sabawi is an award-winning playwright, poet, political analyst and human rights advocate. She has written and produced the critically acclaimed plays Cries from the Land, Three Wishes, and Tales of a City by the Sea. She has co-authored the books: Journey to Peace in Palestine, and I Remember by Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi which won the prestigious 2016 Palestine Book Awards.

Samah Sabawi is a multi-award-winning playwright, author, poet and political commentator. Her most recent play THEM was selected for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2018 Cybec Electric season and its 2019 sold-out Melbourne premiere was received with high critical acclaim. Her play Tales of a City by the Sea won two Drama Victoria awards and was nominated for the Green Room Award for Best Independent Production. It had sold out shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Kuala Lumpur, Palestine, and will soon be staged in Toronto. Both these plays were selected for the Victoria Curriculm of Education Drama playlist, bringing Australian students stories from Palestine and from the Arab World.


Sabawi has co-edited Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, winner of Patrick O’Neill Award and co-authored I Remember My Name, winner of Palestine Book Award. She is a policy advisor for leading Palestinian think tank and Policy Network Al-Shabaka, a former cultural ambassador for Melbourne Theatre Company and Multicultural Arts Victoria and a PhD candidate at Victoria University.

This event was co-sponsored by Emmanuel College, a theological college of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

This event is endorsed by:

  • Basilian Center for Peace and Justice
  • Beit Zatoun
  • Canadian BDS Coalition
  • Canada Palestine Association Vancouver
  • Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
  • Christian Peacemaker Teams
  • Just Peace Advocates
  • Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
  • Palestine Just Trade
  • Socialist Action
  • United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI)
Download PDF poster

Remembering Robert

More >

Meet Rana Atie

More >

Palestinian Refugees

More >