Blog
Installation at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe
posted on July 03, 2026
The Community Kite Project for Gaza is traveling to Santa Fe, NM! We are partnering with Southwest Coalition for Palestine, Palestine Solidarity Santa Fe, and Santa Feans Justice for Palestine, with an installation and kite folding event at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe. As always, this is a family-friendly event
We will have music by Eileen and the In-Betweens, poetry, and delicious food catered by Noor's Sweets and Eats - Baker, herbalist & activist helping displaced people & refugees. 100% profit goes to people in need.
We aim to make over 1,000 kites during this event. The pledge drive is to help continue raising funds for Among the Rubble Collective who is currently trying to evacuate a family of 12 while the border crossing is open. We are at 70% of the goal. Help us reach 100%! DONATE TODAY.
The Kite Project's One Year Anniversary
posted on June 10, 2026
Number of kites created
2371
Number of remaining kites
19536
For the past year, the Community Kite Project for Gaza has created nearly 2,000 kites by the hands of hundreds of community members. We have held kite folding sessions at ArtWalk, First Unitarian Church, Gorden Bernell Charter School, and in people's homes. As we enter the project's second year, we are scheduling more kite folding events at Albuquerque's World Refugee Day, First Congregational Church, and El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe.
We continue to work with Among the Rubble Collective to help them raise funds for families in Gaza. Among the Rubble is currently trying to evacuate a family of 12 while the border crossing is open. We are at 70% of the goal. Help us reach 100%! DONATE TODAY.
Among The Rubble Collective - Gaza City Evacuation Campaign
posted on April 28, 2026
Only $54k left for the campaign! Every bit helps!
Update, February 2026: Now that the borders are open, we are switching goals to evacuating just ONE family out of Gaza. The family spoke to someone in the government who said registration will begin soon and will be $4,500 per person. We will need around $54,000 to evacuate the entire family. If we are successful, we will evacuate more families.
Unitarian Universalist Church Installation
posted on April 08, 2026
The Community Kite Project for Gaza is partnering with the local Unitarian Universalist Justice in the Middle East chapter to launch a citywide campaign to commemorate the 21,907 children known to have been murdered or starved to death in the first 23 months of the Israeli genocide in Gaza - a genocide funded and backed by the U.S. government. Countless children have suffered horrific deaths since then, including children and their families killed by settlers in the West Bank.
White origami kites each inscribed with the name and age of a child have been created by dozens of local community members. The kites will be hung in public institutions around Albuquerque, starting with the several hundred already created that will be on display at the April 28th event. This project was inspired by the renowned Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die.” In it he anticipates his own later assassination by asking that he be remembered as a white kite of love and hope soaring high in the sky over Palestine.
This project raises funds for families via the Among the Rubble Collective, continues to bring a tactile and visual awareness to the magnitude of this atrocity, and moreover, remembers and honors each child. It is a way for us to collectively grieve together in order to continue the fight for a Free Palestine.
Making the kites together in small groups has proven to be a moving and empowering experience. You’re invited to join a kite folding session. Supportive organizations are likewise invited to sponsor an event in collaboration with The Community Kite Project. Contact info@abqkitesforgaza.art to get involved.
Refaat Alareer's poem If I Must Die
posted on October 31, 2025
If I Must Die
by Refaat Alareer
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale
About Refaat Alareer
The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old, but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global sensation. “If I Must Die” is included here, alongside Refaat’s other poetry.
Refaat wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare and the way Shylock could be appreciated by young Palestinian students; the horrors of living under repeated brutal assaults in Gaza, one of which, in 2014, killed another of his brothers; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, to be the one paying at the supermarket checkout.
Such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat’s closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity.
- from the book If I Must Die, a collection of his poetry and prose
Kite Project Beginnings
posted on June 22, 2025
The Kite Project started in June 2025. Initially, kites were made with red paper. The red kites hung up in rows begged the question, “what is your red line to end the genocide in Palestine?”
Names and ages started off being written by hand. However, because of the relentless killing of innocent children and their families by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces), writing names and ages by hand would take a lifetime.
With the help and support of Nero Ink, we were able to create a design that included the names and ages of children between the ages of 0-18 years old.
A message from Nero Ink:
“No, thank you. You had some of our visitors (and us) in tears. For me it was really important to print their names, and to dignify each one.”