Listening Beyond Borders: Dialogue as a Path to Peace

Join us in November as we engage with visual art, film, constructive dialogue, and dynamic reading to deepen our collective understanding of the history and humanity of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Through this series of events we hope to reflect together on the ways dialogue affirms human dignity, fosters solidarity, and embodies the call to be peacemakers in a fractured world.

Art Exhibit and Reception

Kathan Zerzan Art Exhibit: Greetings from Palestine
Exhibit - November 3-26, 2025
Buckley Center Art Gallery, BC 1st Floor

Opening Reception with Artist
Monday, November 3, 2025
6:30 - 8 p.m.
Buckley Center Art Gallery, BC 1st Floor

This exhibit is comprised of a collection of largely abstract charcoal drawings from 2023 and 2024, integrated with vintage photos from Palestine. The vintage photos—a series of tourist posters produced in 1965—were brought back from Palestine by Zerzan’s father, an American who served as a military doctor in Palestine and Jordan in the mid-1960s. Shown together these photographs and drawings present life as it once was, juxtaposed with the pain and loss evident today.

Kathan Zerzan is a multimedia artist with a studio in Northwest Portland. Following a professional career as a registered nurse serving families and communities in South Chicago, Zerzan earned a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art and has practiced as a professional artist in Portland for the past 25 years.

Film Screening and Discussion Panel

Arab and Jew: Return to the Promised Land Film Screening and Discussion Panel
Monday, November 3
5 - 6:30 p.m.
Brian Doyle Auditorium, Dundon-Bertold 004)

Join us as we explore the power of courageous listening as a pathway to peace—across cultural, political, and religious divides. Co-hosted by UP’s Center for Constructive Dialogue.

Dynamic Reading: Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Apeirogon is a novel about two fathers—one Israeli, one Palestinian—who bond through shared grief and seek peace through dialogue. Complimentary copies will be available at the film screening and the art reception.

For further information, please contact the Garaventa Center at: 503-943-7702 or garaventa@up.edu. ADA compliant event.