Weekend in Philly

In this photo, it is the spring of 2024, and students at the University of Pennsylvania along with students across the United States, have called upon their universities to divest from Israel and end the genocide in Gaza. Just left of center dressed in neon yellow is a security professional observing an encampment where poetry readings and protest chants occur daily amid Palestinian flags, interactive art installations, and wood blocks painted with calls for liberation and justice. On the left, a group of young women pose for graduation photos which will tell nothing of the encampment behind the photographer. In the second photo, the women in white smile as their graduation photo is taken. In the fifth photo, a police offer leans on the trunk of a tree with his left hand, standing in the heat for hours, watching, waiting, and ready to arrest protestors should things escalate. In the sixth photo, a group of four students has lunch on the hill, looking on at the protest with a mixed air of passivity and curiosity while a few yards in front of them a handful of protestors carrying Israeli flags begin to emerge and face the encampment on the other side of the protest.