The Power of Redefining

[Music]

[Music]

hi

everybody salaam my name is

maisado i am an artist a musician and an

actress

well i’m mainly a singer-songwriter i

write

music i sing i compose i play a few

instruments well

play a few instruments i have my solo

work

and i’m a very proud member of kalimi an

international

band and a very proud member of them the

first palestinian hip-hop band

actually the first people to sing

hip-hop in arabic in the middle east

now dam started in 1999 2000

and i was really young back then and i

pretty much

grew up on their music i was a huge fan

i loved

every single song knew all the lyrics

and i remember even at one time

see i already knew of course that i

wanted to do music i always knew that i

wanted to do music

and i remember i was 13 14

and i was standing in the crowd in haifa

and watching a damn show

and i remember thinking will i ever be

good enough

or successful enough to do a song with

them a few

years later 2015 i become a member of

the band

2019 we release the first album with me

as a member

uh it’s called benhano mana i’m

completely in love

with this album and pretty much

changed my life but this is not really

what i’m here to talk about

good yeah this is not really what i’m

here to talk about

what i want to share with you is

actually

how hard it was for me to write the

speech

for today because see when i was first

contacted by tedx to write a speech i

knew exactly at the same

moment what i wanted to talk about what

i want to say

and how i want to say it but then

just a bit later the recent events in

palestine

started taking place and it kind of made

my whole speech irrelevant for the

moment

now the events in palestine what i’m

talking about is what we’ve seen in the

past month

happening in charge in silwan in oksa

in jerusalem

and this is nothing new of course and we

know that this has been happening for

years and years and years but

the thing this time is that there’s a

new light

on it and new actions being taken

and it’s like overnight everybody knew

that we needed to take action we didn’t

talk about it but there was this

unspeakable sink and everybody knew that

we had to take action

and everybody kind of knew exactly what

their role was every person knew what

his or her role was

and the next day we were just doing what

we needed what each person needed to do

and what this created is that it

reunified

the palestinian cause it’s not a gaza

cause

it’s not a west bank cause it’s not a

diaspora

and it’s not palestine 48th cause it

became

again a palestinian cause and it became

international and very spoken of and

it’s still happening and created a very

big wave of change now why did this make

my speech irrelevant

see what i really wanted to talk about

is how hard it is for me

and how difficult and frustrating for me

it is

to be constantly identified as a

palestinian

woman artist rather than just artists

now don’t get me wrong i love being a

woman i love being palestinian

both very huge parts of what i am but

it’s not all

that i am and see

i really i knew that i wanted to do

music before i even understood what

politics is

before i knew what being a palestinian

means before i knew what being a woman

actually meant

in this crazy world i knew that i wanted

to do music

and this comes in many forms well when

we think about it

when we speak about men when we speak

about musicians or speakers but men

we never identify them as men speakers

or men musicians it even sounds weird

saying these two words together

but when we speak about women it’s

almost impossible to not mention it it’s

like we have to

really emphasize that it’s woman

you know this is a whole subject by

itself but this is not the main reason

why this is really hard for me

and why it’s hard for me because most of

the time i find myself being invited to

events

because the event needs a woman’s voice

or because the event needs a palestinian

voice

and that really makes me question my art

sometime

am i being invited because i’m a great

artist like i want to be

or am i being invited because i’m a

woman or because i’m palestinian

if they had other options would i still

be looked at or invited or would i be

put on the side and they just go to get

whatever

first palestinian woman they can get

their hands on

see this happens a lot with me and i was

even invited to the usa a few years ago

to do a show i was the headline of the

show 16 hours flight

you know i get there jet lag everything

excited to do the show but when i get

there

i realized that the people that invited

me had actually

no idea who i was they didn’t know that

i had an album out

they didn’t know my music never heard it

they just knew

that i am a palestinian woman artist

now i really do really aspire really

dream of

being defined as an artist and being

recognized for my music and not because

i’m a woman and not because i’m

palestinian i’m gonna talk about these

things

anyway but i aspire to be able to be

recognized for my music

and to be identified as a musician but

what the recent events

reminded me of is that at this moment

i don’t really have the luxury for that

it reminded me of the importance

of amplifying voices that are usually

mistreated

misheard silenced or even killed just

because

of who we are it reminded me of the

change that this strategy

actually brought upon us and i really do

think

for me personally how i see myself i

really do feel

that speaking about this issue is a big

part of my responsibility as an artist

especially because of where i come from

and because of my background and because

of how privileged i

am see i’ve come from the most

supportive family

that a person can ask for they always

have my back no matter what

i’m forever thankful for them have ivy

and i come from haifa and these two

alone makes it

a lot easier for me to speak where

otherwise it would be

very hard to speak and i feel it’s part

of my responsibility

to document and to speak up and to talk

about whatever is happening

and also well we can’t deny and we can’t

ignore the fact

that being a palestinian woman musician

is great for the image

and i’m going to give an example my band

kalimi if you remember i mentioned us in

the beginning

well we are an international band we are

four women

two palestinians one swiss half

palestinian

and one dominican republic even me with

all these thoughts that i’m sharing with

you i would want to go see that show

without knowing the music

because it sounds i don’t know it sounds

a lot of things

and maybe that’s one of the reasons why

especially our first few shows before we

got

labels and agencies and bookings and

everything why

95 of our shows were fully

sold out without even having one song

out that people can listen to and people

still came

and i’m not really i’m not

underestimating my the music that we do

i’m in love with our music

i really love the beautiful women that

are with me i love the chemistry that we

have i love

the fusion of our voices and our music

genres and everything i love what we do

and i really believe in it

but i cannot ignore this fact

now with that being said

i really think that it’s important that

we take advantage of every stage that we

are giving

that we are given of every platform that

we are given

and to take to take that opportunity to

speak up

and with that being said you want to

invite me because i’m a woman

go ahead you want to invite me because

i’m palestinian

go ahead because i have a lot

to say and i’m going to use every

platform given to me to say exactly what

needs to be said

so let me rephrase it thank you

let me rephrase it hi my name is maisado

i am a palestinian woman musician

and i really think that we need to take

the opportunities that we have

so speak about palestine speak about

speak about silwan about about yafa

about haifa about al khalil about

razi about the diaspora speak about

ramallah

speak about al-aqsa speak about syria

and about yemen

speak about colombia speak about black

lives matter black lives matter

and the indigenous people all around the

world speak about turtle island

and the lgbtq plus community because

a huge change is coming and this

change is not coming from governments

and it’s not coming from political

parties it’s coming from

the people and it’s big and it’s

happening

and this change needs to be and it will

be

worldwide thank you

[Applause]