 Thank you for the introduction art and for inviting me to be part of this panel My history briefly is I was born during a very bloody war called Sort of famously known as battle valgeers in this country was a war of independence against the French My family just barely survived it and My first recollections as a kid then as an artist because I was always an artist I was always drawing We're of these these troubled times and my first drawings. I ever remember making were of Algerian soldiers Soliting the banned the Algerian flag. This is back in the late 50s So I guess I was always a politically engaged artist. I didn't know how not to be I was in my DNA So Art and activism were never really separate for me It was kind of hard for me to separate the two my wife often Wishes I could do that kind of do art without doing politics could be easier. You're not going against power Could make maybe a little bit more money that way But it wasn't meant to be So art is activism the two are really very strongly linked for me Whether it be in my sculpture ceramic work or in the political cartoons for which I'm better known I've always so I've always had the two really inseparable my the first Work I'd like to show you that is about this concept of art as not just activism But art as memory is a picture of a sculpture my first public sculpture Which is in Santa Ana in front of the public library Which was honoring a man by the name of Alex Ode was an activist Palestinian American activist was killed at the age of 40 left three little kids and wife. I Knew him well and it bothered me that It was hardly even mentioned and then LA Los Angeles Times let alone the meet national media This guy didn't fit the the narrative. He was a Palestinian Who was killed by a Jew an extremist of course the of the JDL? Didn't fit them at the narrative. So it just got basically ignored So a few years later. I managed to bring some People from the Arab-American community like Casey Kasem rest in peace. He died last year And we Got the funds together we got the permits and everything and we actually Managed to honor this man who had almost been forgotten Alex Ode in the city where he was killed and where he was ignored pointedly ignored and now he's standing there and bronze nine tall nine feet tall Where all this thing all these things happened. It was important to me and to Casey Kasem a number of people in the Arab-American community that he be honored and he be remembered Ironically, he's still every few years. Some of the fanatics will throw red paint at the statue like they didn't kill him enough the first time and his His assassin end up in in Israel Where he was safe But he later got in trouble there to kill kill somebody else and he ended up in prison So that was my first Example of art as memory Second one is sort of related. It's about the dare yes seen massacre that happened 1948 in Palestine As a way to discourage Palestinians from hanging around from staying where they were the Israeli the future Israelis And the the terrorist of the Ergun Went around and killed people and made an example of this village of 200 people killed everybody and Again, the dare yes seen massacre is something you don't really hear about Much and in our culture in our news media sort of swept into the rug. It's not something really that's sexy to talk about so I was Commissioned by this professor in New York At the Smith colleges and Geneva, New York to do a little something that would Allude to this massacre and I like the first idea I had was to portray this olive tree That's almost completely uprooted, but you'll notice is still hanging by a thread. There's not completely taken out and Represents the Palestinian people and their struggle to Survive not be forgotten So now it stands there in front of the in front of the lake technically on property owned by This is the university the university had refused to put this monument on its campus except that this part of land which I Don't remember the exact technicalities of it, but the professor his name is Dan McGowan Managed to finesse this thing and put it actually on their property But in the portion that he controlled somehow that that became his own where he put his own house and and so this is actually sitting on University property campus property and the last one was It's part of a graphic novel that I co-wrote with An Iranian friend of mine journalist by the name of Amir Soltani Which was published in 2011 made it to the bestseller list on New York Times It was translated in 16 languages including Farsi. It's abandoned and in Iran but it's it exists in Farsi Arabic Hebrew what-have-you and Part of one page on that book is devoted to this Unhappily unlucky young woman who was shot famously this one this one was not swept under the rug But still we feel she needed to be Remembered and the book her name was Neda. Arasultani. She was shot by governance snipers from the roof somewhere like today's done places like Syria and completely unfair and revolting So it not everything happens at the hands of the classic imperialists and colonialists also happens, unfortunately at the hands of Local governments, which is something to remember the populations in those countries often get stuck between a rock and a hard place between a Saddam and a George Bush between You know between the Assad and an Isis and what-have-you So this was one page where we chose to poetically remember Neda Arasultani who struck the Imagination of a lot of people across the world Okay, good That's all I just wanted to share with you a few of these things I've done about on this theme of hearts memory. Thank you