Moving out of Stuckness
An Interview with Palestinian-American Writer, Activist & Actress Dana Saleh Omar
Dana and I worked on a musical about planes for thousands of seventh graders in Miami in 2017. The talent onstage far outpaced the script: In particular, Dana played half a dozen characters and even more instruments (including the singing saw). At night, we sat in hot tubs under the flight path in the humidity.
We hadn’t talked in several years, but Dana became a voice I turned to repeatedly on social media this last year amidst the accelerating genocide in Gaza. She has been speaking out and “educating the masses” (as she says in this interview) with immense knowledge, clarity, and courage.
A few weeks ago, Dana launched a fundraiser for her project Stuck, a semi-autobiographical pilot (in the style of Ramy or Master of None). The show follows Dana, our protagonist, on one crucial day: October 7th, 2023. On that day, she must overcome her fear and anxiety—her stuckness—and speak out for her people. “As she looks down the barrel of those who have lost their jobs, livelihood, and reputation before her,” the description reads, “can she find the courage to break her silence?”
I spoke with Dana about this project, moving out of stuckness, activist narratives, love, and revolution. I highly encourage you to contribute to her fundraiser (4 days left!) and keep your eyes peeled for this show.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Jesse: Tell me about Stuck.
Dana: Stuck started about eight years ago, roughly after 2016. I wrote it inspired by the letters that my father and I wrote to each other—questions I had about his immigrant experience and the things I never got to ask him. Before that, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, which I knew, at some point, would affect his writing and speech abilities. So I just started asking all the questions, and I told him about my experience as a first-generation kid in the backdrop of the Trump era coming to power. Stuck came out of me leaning into my identity and finding my voice. It follows the journey of somebody who has not found that yet, who operates from a place of avoidance and anxiety.
When I'm asked to talk about the project, the first thing that I ask people is, “What's a moment in time when you feel like you could have spoken the truth but you were too scared to?” That's something that we all identify with. And that's what Stuck is basically based off of—finding your voice and unlocking the things that stop us from doing that.
Every single person on this planet has that moment where they think to themselves, Man, I could have said that, and I could have changed the trajectory of that particular moment in my life, in that person's life, in that whole group's life.
“What’s a moment in time when you feel like you could have spoken the truth but were too scared to?”
Jesse: As you’ve described it, this story takes place on October 7th; this protagonist (who is sort of you) needs to choose to speak up, culminating in an activist rally. What happens to this character on that day, and why did you choose this day-in-a-life format?
Dana: So it wasn't always October 7th, obviously, since I've been writing this for, you know, eight years. Previously, I sent the drafts to other people. They had said—and I think this comes from, maybe, lack of knowledge, lack of education, lack of experience—that there weren't enough stakes involved. Which…I just think that they didn't actually understand what it means to be Palestinian in the world—especially now, more than ever. The stakes are always, and have always been, incredibly high for us to speak truth to power. Even our fierce accomplices in America—you look at someone like Angela Davis, who got her award taken away from her just for simply saying“Palestinians deserve to live.” Mark Lamont Hill is another fierce activist, who on CNN said, “from the river to the sea”—those words, those words alone. He got fired for doing that. So I chose this day for a variety of different reasons, but for one: no one can ever tell me that the stakes are not enough.
It was a horrific day for a lot of different types of people, but I can only speak from where I'm coming from. The challenge in that day for Palestinians and Palestinian Americans was that I felt myself immediately shut down. I felt myself immediately not be able to speak because I knew what was happening. With the amount of death and the tragedy that happened on that day, how could I speak? How could I?
But the truth of the matter is that this has been happening a lot longer than October 7th, and that doesn't justify any violence whatsoever. But to think about the liberation of Palestine—that's existed for decades at this point.
So, all this is to say: I wanted to provide the perspective of what it was like to be someone in my place, in my skin, in my identity on that day. And particularly what it would be like to have to get up in front of other people, not knowing what the response or what the reaction would be, if I had to say “My people deserve life, my people deserve freedom.”
Jesse: What are your activist practices, and how have they grown or changed?
Dana: So, when it started, it was initially, you know, protests, which I think is where a lot of activists start. And then there's a community called We the People in the script; it exists there because it’s something that I had started with my friend Aja. In 2016, immediately as a response to Donald Trump getting elected, we put up this kind of community night, where people got to get up and speak about what they were feeling and make the art that they were feeling in response to a fascist dictator getting elected into our government. And so, that kind of spiraled into something a little bigger. And in 2020, we did another version of that, but it had to be online, obviously. And we raised, like, $11,000, which was pretty incredible. Then we started this podcast during the actual pandemic, which is now in a hiatus.
My activism takes a lot of different forms. I particularly have to work on not doing too much, and doing what I can sustain—which I think is an issue for a lot of us. There are too many faucets that are leaking, and we have to try and fill all of them. And while that is true, we can't do everything; we can do the things that we can do.
“Now I feel as if my activism can shift and change into making art, opening empathy doors, and reminding people at the height of our dehumanization campaign that we are still human. And sometimes we're stuck, just like everybody else.”
So that's, that's the shape that it's taking now. Obviously, I see my people in destruction and horror. And I've done everything that I could in the last ten months. I think my activism is at its best when it's about educating the masses, so that's what I tried to do. For the last ten months, on my tiny, tiny platform, I’ve tried to educate as much as I possibly can about the knowledge that I have. Because I've read many books on this, and I think a lot of people have not. So that's what I tried to do, and I hope that I had helped in some shape or form.
Now I feel as if my activism can shift and change into making art, opening empathy doors, and reminding people at the height of our dehumanization campaign that we are still human. And sometimes we're stuck, just like everybody else.
Jesse: Thank you—I've appreciated your education of the masses, me being part of the masses. One thing that struck me in your project description was that there aren't very many cinema stories about activists. Why do you think that is and why do you think it's important to create those stories?
Dana: Yes. So…my experience is that it's either a biopic or it's set in an alternate universe. So many people love Star Wars or The Hunger Games. There are so many people that connect with these stories without actually connecting to the fact that those people exist—they just exist here on our planet. And if it's not those types of alternate realities or universes, then the character is this loud-mouth side character—like, Britta from Community; she becomes a joke.
We've never really had, at least to my knowledge, a character where we actually peel back what they went through, why they are the way that they are. Why is it that they are so radicalized in this way? It's like…if James Baldwin was a lead character in a movie. Wouldn't you want to know every single thing about this human being because it's so fucking fascinating? That's the type of character I think that we're missing and that a lot of people could identify with.
“I needed to make this now because there's no other option. I've sat on this long enough.”
Jesse: You name specifically this experience of coming out of stuckness and burgeoning into activism. How is that specific dramatic moment different from once someone is already established in their practice, well-known, or glamorized?
Dana: I find it incredibly fascinating when it happens in real life. I liken it to when Michael Jordan is up, and he's about to make a shot, and we're all just watching the ball. We're like…is it gonna get in the hoop? Is it not gonna get in the hoop? I feel like that happens when someone says something contentious, or when there's a moment—in our culture, in our community—where something is said that is so clearly wrong. That moment is like…well, is someone going to respond? Are we going to respond as a culture? Are we going to move and change? Are we going to succeed? Or are we going to stay in this place of stuckness?
That moment tells me a lot about a human being and where they are in their life. Like I said, I had avoidant tendencies. Oftentimes, I think about my younger self and how she would avoid saying something. She would avoid rocking the boat, even though she knew that it was the truth. Even though she knew that her intuitiveness and her perspective were telling her instinctually exactly what was happening. But she was too scared, or too fearful, or too avoidant, and too anxious to say something.
But once you do actually say something, that’s the exciting, surprising part. I think as an audience member, people would relate to that moment, and then root for that moment. You root for the Jedis, you root for the characters that were too scared to actually come into their full selves. You're coming into your full self when you're able to use your voice in its full power.
And it's not only just about justice. It is, but it's also about justice for yourself. It's also about finding yourself and who that person is inside of you.
Jesse: That makes a great deal of sense. I resonate and find it very, very moving.
Obviously, this last year has been completely excruciating. I'm curious what has been what's been supporting you in this artistic process and this political process?
Dana: The thing that I thought that I could help the most with is tapping into what's going on for Americans internally—at least the ones that have not spoken up or have not joined the fight for liberation for Palestinians…which really means the fight for liberation for everybody. I can show people the internal human struggle: how we all go through it, how we could push past it, and how we could all get to the point where we all are fighting for our revolution, our liberation—because none of us are free until all of us are free.
If we're being real real, if I’m being my most vulnerable self, back in October, I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping. The survivor's guilt was very strong. I don't ever want to make this about me. That's the trouble, the kind of the trap that I keep having to fight past. I want me—or an alternate version of me—to be the center of it so that people can learn from what I've learned from, but I don't want it to be about me. That's the artist's internal struggle; I have to keep fighting past that, knowing that in my art, I can express that.
I needed to make this now because there's no other option. I've sat on this long enough. At this point in time, people who I am speaking to understand the stakes and why this project is so important—not just to me, but to more people who I can affect.
Jesse: Is there anything else you’d like to share about this work?
Dana: Back in October the only person I could stand to listen to each day was James Baldwin. He is a figure who was not always liked. He is a figure who should have won a Nobel, who should have won a Pulitzer, but didn’t simply for speaking the truth. I revere and idolize him for a variety of different reasons, but the one big one was that he continued to follow what he saw as true, the perspective that he had, and the instincts that he had. I just hope that that’s actually what I elicit with the project that I’m doing. The last thing that I’ll leave you with is the fact that he said “Love has never been a popular movement.” that alone really is something that should marinate for everyone in this current moment.
Once again, donate to Dana’s fundraiser now to make this show a reality.