By: Isabela Koebel

On Dec. 3, 2025, Marshall Progressives Club hosted an event about Palestine with guest speaker Brian Bierry, a journalist, photographer, and community organizer. 

Originally having expected only a dozen people to show up, club president Cloud Morgan Clark was surprised to see thirty students in attendance, most of whom were not members of Progressives Club. 

“We had five people signed up [the day before], including me, Maryn, and Emma,” Clark said. “We went around to a bunch of classes, put up posters, and went up to a bunch of people to ask if they’d come. No one knew it was happening. We ended up with 18 people signed up and 30 people came.”

The event was intended to give students the opportunity to have a conversation about Palestine with each other and guest speaker Brian Bierry, who had visited the West Bank in 2008. He was a photographer with the Olive Tree Circus, a group of actors meant to spark joy in children in the West Bank. 

Students who attended the event viewed photos from the West Bank taken by Bierry and read or listened to the accompanying text for each series of photographs. Bierry told stories of his experiences in the West Bank, as well as educating students about the hand that has been dealt to Palestinians by the Israeli government. 

Photographs shown to students in attendance included images of demolished homes, children in refugee camps, Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, and the Israeli-Palestinian separation wall. 

However, Brian Bierry’s photography is only one part of his job. He’s also a journalist writing for the Colorado Boulevard newspaper as well as a self-proclaimed community organizer. He has worked with students at both John Muir High School and Pasadena High School.

“Young people can be a huge help, not only because of the energy and because of the enthusiasm that they bring but because of the skills and the knowledge and the awareness that young people have,” encourages Bierry. “You can help people if you’re good at what you do. Being knowledgeable, being talented, being skilled, being willing to speak up.”