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

Kathan Zerzan Art Exhibit: Greetings from Palestine
Exhibit - November 3-24, 2025
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.

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. Remaining complimentary copies are available to UP faculty/staff/students. Contact us for a copy.

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