West Bank youths, with cameras, visit CGIS

Four teenage participants from the Picture Balata workshop made a stop at Harvard this past Wednesday evening (April 11) as part of their two-week tour of the United States. The teenagers, Palestinians from Balata Refugee Camp outside of Nablus, West Bank, visited the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), where they displayed their work and spoke about their lives and experiences.

In leaving the West Bank for the first time, the teens hope to educate Americans (the tour also includes stops in New York, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco) about the Balata Refugee Camp.

The tour also aims to raise funds to purchase cameras, computers, and Internet connectivity for the workshop participants, who number nine total. In supplying teenagers with the necessary tools to not only take the photographs, but also to edit and publish them online, project organizers say they hope to give these young people the opportunity to further pursue photography and other media as a form of self-expression and resistance.

A photography exhibit of the work will run through April 21 at Fisher Commons, CGIS.