Whispers Beneath the Orange Grove Community Care Under Fascism

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Author and organizer Yaffa joins us to talk about how to create community care under rising fascism. Their latest book, Whispers Beneath the Orange Grove, blends personal narratives with strategies to build a liberated world grounded in mutual aid, community care, and collectivism. Rooted in Indigenous Palestinian culture and guided by love, spirituality, and belonging, Yaffa offers a compelling vision and practical tools for organizers and mobilizers—both new and experienced—dedicated to creating a just world. Yaffa will be in conversation with local sci-fi/fantasy author and organizer Sara Solara, who recently contributed to Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction. Mx. Yaffa (They/Them) is a disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and Indigenous Palestinian. As Executive Director of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), they have earned multiple awards for their transformative work on displacement, decolonization, and equity. Yaffa is also an engineer, peer support specialist, death doula, birthing doula, and yoga teacher. They are the author of Blood Orange, a poetry collection on displacement and colonization; editor of Inara: Light of Utopia, an anthology by queer and trans-Palestinians; and author of Desecrated Poppies a poetry and essay collection about the connections between anti-trans and anti-Palestinian politics. Their new book, Living to 99 will be released Feb 14th and Letters from a Living Utopia will be released in May 14th. Yaffa is also a visual artist, showcasing their work worldwide at festivals and art galleries. Yaffa debuted their one-person show, Harvesting Olives, created with support from Rad Pereira, in NYC, October 2024. Sara Solara is a sci-fi/fantasy author and organizer based in the Chicago area. As a queer and triracial writer (Palestinian, Colombian, white), she crafts stories born of her mixed existence⁠, from a deep-seated rage and a burning hope for liberation. Sara's mystical queer short story is featured in Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction edited by Sonia Sulaiman. She calls on you, reader, to resist ongoing genocide and colonialism.