A protest art exhibit titled “Let It Be A Tale” was displayed Oct. 8 by Sacramento State’s Students for Justice in Palestine club at the California State Capitol building, in memory of the lives lost in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
The exhibit portrayed the three stages of a Palestinian girl’s life during the genocide in Gaza, from birth to death.
Junior journalism major identified as Zoya, who helped organize the event, said that the exhibit’s intention is to not just spread awareness of the war but to make people understand what the life of a genocide victim was like before they died.
“The main reason we chose to do this event is because we have been doing protests for the past year, and no one would just listen to us,” Zoya said. “We’re just hoping that this art could make you feel and do something and create action.”
Zoya also explained why the exhibit was broken up into three separate parts.
“You would walk through the exhibit, through the stages of evacuation, just to feel how it was for a child,” Zoya said.
The first stage of the art exhibit was a young girl’s room filled with toys, clothing and colorful decorations. The second stage displayed a green tent that the girl was now living in after being displaced from her home.
The third and final stage of the exhibit was a large assortment of various toys painted with red paint to resemble blood. The third stage also held a memorial for the victims of the genocide in Gaza, showcasing the names and faces of those who have died.
Zoya said that art is an important medium that can inform people in a way that traditional news cannot do.
“If you look at the dress in this little girl’s room, her toys, the teddy bear or at the small things like her prayer mat, then it just makes you feel like she was just a normal child,” Zoya said. “No news could explain this, so we can only show it through art.”
Michael Lee-Chang, a junior political science major, explained how Sac State’s new limits on free speech would have made this event challenging to hold on campus.
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“It would be very difficult to have an event like this on campus due to the new time, place and manner policy from the chancellor’s office,” Lee-Chang said. “It is incredibly restricting, not just on student activism, but on educational events like this one.”
Lee-Chang said that the core message of this exhibit was to show the devastation happening in Gaza, as part of a historic tradition of anti-war protests.
“Simply put, it’s an art exhibit showing the pain and death that Palestinian children are suffering,” Lee-Chang said.
Senior psychology major Hafsa Omer said that she hopes there will be more events like this in the future, so she can show that she is still here and fighting for the cause.
“There are a lot of people who have begun to lose hope in anything changing,” Omer said. “So events like this one are done to let them know that people still remember and are still fighting.”
Senior Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Omar Altamimi, said the exhibit shined a spotlight on the history of the conflict.
“This event is in response to the one-year anniversary of October seventh, right?” Altamimi said. “But what people don’t talk about is October eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and the year that followed, or the 75 years that preceded it.”
Altamimi said that the capitol building of Sacramento is meaningful due to how California’s policymaking can impact the entire nation.
“It’s really important for folks to show up here, and to send a message to those in the halls of power that the Palestinian movement is here to push for their issues and make sure they are heard,” Altamimi said.
