Alicia Keys will play Israel, even though Alice Walker doesn’t want her to
While fellow artists have called for her to cancel her July 4th performance in Tel Aviv, Alicia Keys announced Friday she will not be changing her plans.
(snip)
The appeal to Keys to boycott Israel came first from Alice Walker, in an open letter posted on the writer’s website. “It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists,” the “The Color Purple” author wrote.
(snip)
In a piece detailing why he thinks “Walker’s attack on Alicia Keys for playing in Israel is ignorant,” Liebowitz brings attention to the portion of Walker’s letter in which she tells Keys that a performance in Israel would be an affront to the American Civil Rights movement. Then Walker suggests that, because of her age, Keys may not even be familiar with the American Civil Rights movement. “Google Montgomery Bus Boycott, if you don’t know about this civil rights history already.”
As Liebowitz points out, Keys graduated from high school at 16 and was accepted at Columbia University. Chances are she’s heard of that whole civil rights thing. And chances are she doesn’t like being condescended to.
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/06/03/arts-entertainment/alicia-keys-will-play-israel-even-though-alice-walker-doesnt-want-her-to#ixzz2VxuDMexs
