Uprooting Qahr! Newsletter #7: May 2026

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” – Maya Angelou

Grand Rising UQ members, supporters, and friends!

Oh, the places we’ve been as we wrap up our first year of development for the Uprooting Qahr! project. One year ago, Taishya visited Nablus, Palestine where she first learned of the word QAHR and the seed was planted for this project. QAHR is an Arabic word with no English equivalent that combines the deep sadness, frustration, anger caused by intergenerational displacement, dispossession and disenfranchisement. A dehumanization that sits at the pit of your stomach. Always present as more atrocities continue in the name of another mans ‘dream.’  

Taishya’s Reflections

As we reflect on May, we are feeling the vibrant pulse of our interconnected and intergenerational fights for collective liberation. We closed out the public performances and film work sample screening and gathered rich feedback that will help us get to the finish line. Based on the feedback, we are taking the summer to rework and revise the monologues, accelerate song writing, and finalize the short film. We have held a few public performances and rough cut film feedback sessions. (Note: all signed non-disclosure agreements until we are complete participant consent!).

We have so many ancestors and current leaders who continue provide inspiration and support for this project including Linda Badwan, Renee Chacon, and Curtis Rogers. Each strong justice advocates and values aligned partners. As the darkness before the dawn expancts, let us NOT despair, distract, numb, or isolate. Intergenerational medicine awaits with each breath. As we move into the planning summer, we continue to build bridges across time and space, hearts and minds.

Uprooting Qahr! calls in and restores the ancestral line across time and space. We are one species on one planet – Earth. We are the Earth defending itself. Below are a few ways that our team continues to fight again oppressive systems that harm our human and more than human kin:

Singing our Songs of Sorrow and Celebration

THANK YOU to Laura Badwan, Palestinian activist and the Middle East Justice Project for the invitation to bring our performance and film sneak peak to the First Unitarian Society of Denver on May 12th! This intimate gathering inspired connection, conversation, and collaboration.  

Taishya with Renee Chacon, co-founder of Womxn of the Mountain

Renee Chacon, local environmental justice leader, former city councilmember, and co-founder of Womxn From the Mountain, joined the performance! Founded in 2018, Womxn from the Mountain aims to advance equity & address the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice through policy analysis, transformative education & anti-oppressive programming.

Renee shared her contributions to her grandmother’s legacy by protecting and honoring the land through community organizing, political advocacy, and education. She closed with a retelling of an old indigenous tale about animals coming together to solve a problem that she regularly shares with the youth. The story illustrates conflict resolution and the power of listening to one another, and it truly moved the room.

We were honored to have Renee also table during the intermission. Participant were invited to learn more about the organization and ways to work collectively towards shared goals!

Taishya also shared two new songs for liberation at this performance alongside the company of veteran musicians: Ghanian, high-life artists from Selasee and the Fafa family and, violinist, Nicholas Felder!

Taishya Adams, Nicholas Felder and Selasee & the Fafa Family playing an original Uprooting Qahr! song together on May 12th in Denver

Thank you to our incredible tech crew, production team and volunteers that made the night special! Together we went through a journey of reclaiming our ancestral lineage, interconnection, and collective activation. It takes a village!

Combatting Erasure & Restoring Ancestral Ties

On May 19th we gathered again at the First Unitarian Society of Denver for a film preview and conversation with filmmakers Dewi and Jason, local Palestinian human rights activist, Linda Badwan!

Local Palestinian, Human Rights Activist Linda Badwan speaking to the crowd at the May 19th film sneak peek

This screen required all participants to sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure confidentiality as we continue to finalize the piece and participant permissions. Security of those included in the piece is our NUMBER ONE responsibility. We understand the risk taken in truth telling during times of tryanny.

It was an honor and joy to share these several months of work. This public sneak peak screening welcomed supporters who have journeyed with use from the start as well as people who had never heard of the project before but are values aligned. We were so grateful for the reception of this preliminary work. We appreciated the reflections and feedback provided as we work to finalize this short film this summer.

In Nature (& Filmmaking) You Are Never Alone

Taishya and Dewi explaining the Uprooting Qahr! project to local BIPOC filmmakers!

We got some feedback on the UPROOTING QAHR! rough draft of the short film from the Mountain Media Arts Collective (MMAC) on May 20th at the PBS12 station. MMAC is a Colorado-based organization that seeks to uplift, support and amplify BIPOC filmmakers, photographers, podcasters and other media artists while sharing their stories and experiences.

As MMAC members, our film crew were able to host a Feedback Screening Lab that brought filmmakers and media artists together to share their reflections on pace, emotions, character development, storylines, distribution consideration, and other critical feedback. 

We got constructive feedback and also many of the participants reflected that they were moved and commented that this is inspiring and important work. Our film team are incorporating MMAC, audience, and film participant feedback this month as we prepare for film festival season! Stay tuned!

Podcast Alert: Changing the Frequency

Taishya Adams speaking with Stephen Cowan on the Plant Frequencies Podcast

Taishya Adams, our project leader as well as Boulder City Council member, former Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner, and founder of Mukuyu Collective has spent 30 years at the intersection of education, environmental policy, and community liberation. In this podcast she speaks to Indigenous justice and resilience, the history of Boulder, corporate accountability, policing, climate resilience, and much more…

“Being on council, talking about our new 20 year plan [I ask…] Where is the land back? Where are the commitments we are going to make? It’s more than just deepening our understanding or making an acknowledgement. How are we holding ourselves accountable? How are we getting in right relation? How are we atoning?”

Upcoming June Happenings!

13 Fires: Displacement by Design Panel Series

Taishya is honored to be invited to the panel series titled, “13 Fires: Displacement by Design.” This panel series is in service to the upcoming Colorado premiere of 13 Fires created by Curtis Rogers. This play explore how housing systems have displaced communities—from Indianapolis to Colorado and beyond. There were be five performance of 13 Fires starting on Juneteenth at the Longmont

The panel series invites community members, artists, advocates, and policy thinkers to explore the realities of displacement, past and present, and how systems of redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification have reshaped communities in Indianapolis, Boulder, Denver, and beyond.

Together, we will examine how these patterns are not isolated, but part of a broader design one that extends across cities and even globally. Through shared insight, lived experience, and critical conversation, we aim to deepen our understanding of how displacement operates and whom it impacts most.

13 Fire Performance Information

There will be a total of five performances across Boulder County. Most performances will be followed by talkbacks with the director and cast. Actor bios and additional details will be available on this site soon.

June 19, 2026 – Longmont Theatre Company
513 Main St, Longmont, CO 80501
Showtime: 6:00 p.m.

June 24–26, 2026 – Dairy Arts Center
2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302
Showtime: 6:00 p.m. each evening
Tickets: https://thedairy.org/series/13-fires-june-24-26/

August 8, 2026 – Boulder Public Library (Canyon Theater)
1001 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder, CO 80302
Showtime: 6:30 p.m.

Online Community Spotlights

Our online learning community offers public, free, and paid educational and behind the scene content. Our paid members get access to extended collective-liberation focused learning, interviews, reflections, and behind the scenes. Funds raised through paid memberships support the production team: performers, filmmakers, musicians, and administrative support. This also allows us to offer free and low-cost performances to reduce financial barriers and pay professionals a living wage. Your contributions are critical as we work to complete this project by the end of 2026!! Click here to donate.

Morning Musing: Strength

“This card reminds us that ‘vulnerability is the secret to communal strength.’ That the vulnerability lies in our willingness to be and share our unique wholeness”
Read more here.

Echoes of Home: A Festival of Palestinian Film and Culture

“Held in recognition of World Nakba Day, the festival brings together award-winning films, historians, artists, and community members to reflect on the historical timeline of Palestinian displacement and to celebrate the enduring strength of Palestinian culture.”
Read more here.

Hand painted platter in collaboration with Palestinian artist. All proceeds go to Boulder Nablus Sister City

Honoring Palestinian Lives Lost in the 1948 Nakba and the Ongoing Nakba

“We know, as indigenous people that we are, that the people of Palestine will resist and will rise again and walk again and will know then that, although far away on the maps, the Zapatista peoples embrace them today as we did before, as we will always do, In other words, we embrace them with our collective heart.” – Zapatista Commander Tacho of the Zapatista National Liberation Army. Read more here.

Organization of the Month: People of the Sacred Land

Group photo taken during the premiere of the short film, PEOPLE of the SACRED LAND, including Rick Williams, Dewi Sungai, and Jason Houston.

Taishya was first introduced to the People of the Sacred Land during the City of Boulder’s Indigenous People’s Day event a few years ago. It was the first time Taishya heard about the Tribal, Restoration, Education Commission and the three reports that resulted from this rigorous and necessary work. Most recently, Dewi and Jason worked with Rick Williams to develop a short film about the work of the People of the Sacred Land which premiered at the Dairy Arts Center on April 29, 2026.

Click here to learn more about the PEOPLE OF THE SCARED LAND film and how to bring its wisdom and call to action to your community. The film explores the untold history of Colorado through Native-led research, focusing on land theft and impact on Indigenous peoples. Featuring Richard Williams (Oglala Lakota/Northern Cheyenne), it highlights findings from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission (TREC) regarding illegally occupied land.

Cover photos of the three Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission reports available for free on their website.

Read the Truth, Restoration and Education Commission’s (TREC) reports to learn more about the political and cultural history as well as historic loss. These documents explain the strategical forced removal and displacement through the near eradication of the Bison population. This effort was done as an attempt to starve the Indigenous peoples who depended on the Bison as a main food, clothing, material, and housing source.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for! Act accordingly.

About Uprooting Qahr! Power, Privilege, and Paperwork 

This multimedia experience that follows Taishya Adams – educator, artist, and policy maker – as she confronts colonial cancers spread from Europe to Africa to the Americas and West Asia. Weaving across personal and political  histories, we face the uneven promise of democracy and the possibilities of liberty and justice for all. Qahr (n): an Arabic word for the combined feelings of Sadness, frustration, anger caused by intergenerational displacement, dispossession and discrimination.  

Uprooting as Qahr! is a Mukuyu Collective Production in partnership with eight16creative.  The Climate Justice Hive, a 501(c)3 organization, serves as our fiscal sponsor.