Gazan Teen Musician Sings for Children Who Endure the Daily Horrors of War 

Palestinian teenager Youssef Saad sits on the rubble of his house as he plays oud to bring joy to children, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip September 2, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian teenager Youssef Saad sits on the rubble of his house as he plays oud to bring joy to children, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip September 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gazan Teen Musician Sings for Children Who Endure the Daily Horrors of War 

Palestinian teenager Youssef Saad sits on the rubble of his house as he plays oud to bring joy to children, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip September 2, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian teenager Youssef Saad sits on the rubble of his house as he plays oud to bring joy to children, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip September 2, 2024. (Reuters)

Braving the constant threat of airstrikes and bombings, 15-year-old Youssef Saad, a Gazan oud player, rides his bicycle through the war-ravaged streets of northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, his instrument strapped to his back.

Saad sings for children who have endured daily horrors in 11 months of conflict, trying to offer them a little joy or distraction.

"The homes in my city were once full of dreams," Saad said, gazing at the rubble of the decades-old urban refugee camp, which before the war was built-up and heavily populated.

"Now, they're gone," he says.

Saad was studying at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in nearby Gaza City before it was reduced to ruins in the war that has devastated much of the enclave.

Now, living with relatives after his own home was destroyed, he is one of five siblings whose futures have been upended.

His father, a government employee with the Palestinian Authority, always supported Saad's dream of becoming a musician.

But now, Saad's focus has shifted. He spends his days at a Jabalia day center, playing his oud and singing for children traumatized by war.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has since killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, displaced almost the entire population and laid the besieged enclave to waste.

"Every house holds a tragedy," Saad said. "Some have lost their mother, others their father, their neighbor, or their friend."

Despite the danger, Saad is determined to continue his mission.

"We try to help improve their mental health, even if it means putting myself at risk," he said. "This is my duty to the children."

And he refuses to give up on his dreams for the future: "We, the children of Palestine, strive to stay resilient, even in the face of genocide."

Saad says he lives by a saying that carries him through the darkest days: "If you live, live free, or die standing like trees."



New England Town Celebrates Being Birthplace of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Bronze statues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters are displayed as part of the permanent collection at the Woodman Museum, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Dover, N.H.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Bronze statues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters are displayed as part of the permanent collection at the Woodman Museum, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Dover, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
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New England Town Celebrates Being Birthplace of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Bronze statues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters are displayed as part of the permanent collection at the Woodman Museum, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Dover, N.H.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Bronze statues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters are displayed as part of the permanent collection at the Woodman Museum, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Dover, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

As the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grew to become a pop culture sensation, the place where they were conceived rarely got mentioned.
It wasn't the New York City sewers, where the Turtles mutated from regular reptiles into a crime-fighting quartet who battled foes with nunchucks, snark and pizza. Rather, it was a small city near the New Hampshire coast.
According to The Associated Press, a new exhibit hopes to put that community, Dover, New Hampshire, at the center of the Turtles' story and, in turn, attract Turtle-obsessed fans or anyone else who grew up reading the comics and watching Ninja Turtles movies and TV shows. At one point in the 1980s, the frenzy around the Turtles was called Turtlemania.
“It's the birthplace,” said Kevin Eastman, who, along with Peter Laird, created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 41 years ago when the two shared a house in Dover. The first issue went on sale a year later. “That’s where the Turtles were created. ... It is very historic and very important to us.”
The Turtles' exhibit opened last month at the Woodman Museum, which houses an eclectic collection that includes a stuffed polar bear and a Victorian funeral exhibit replete with a horse-drawn hearse.
With its explosion of colors and cabinets full of action figures, the exhibit aims to be the place to go for all things Turtles.
It starts with franchise's humble beginnings in Dover, where the duo formed Mirage Studios, a play on the fact they were creating the first comic in their living room rather than an actual studio. Inspired by Eastman's fascination with turtles and martial arts, they came up with the crime-fighting Turtles and self-published their first comic in black and white.
“We hoped that one day we would sell enough copies of our 3,000 printed, $1.50 comic books that we could pay my uncle back,” Eastman said, adding that they had no intention of writing a second issue until fans asked for more.
“We loved our characters. We loved what we did. We told the best story we could. We hoped for the best,” he continued. “But I also could never have imagined that one comic book would lead to any of this.”
Ralph DiBernardo, whose store in nearby Rochester sells comics and games, was among the first to champion the Turtles. He knew Eastman and Laird from selling them comics and was the first person to sell their Turtles comic commercially after purchasing 500 copies. But he said at the time, it seemed more like a favor to friends than a business decision, with him thinking, “those guys are never going to make their money back.”
“To watch them go from two struggling guys just barely getting by to becoming multi-millionaires, it’s that American dream story that just never happens,” said DiBernardo, who remains friends with the two artists.
The exhibit details the emergence of the Turtles as a global phenomenon, featuring pizza-obsessed characters with catchphrases such as “cowabunga” and “booyakasha.”
Among the exhibit's highlights are a video game console where visitors can play Turtles arcade games, vinyl records of soundtracks from Turtles movies and signed, first-run Turtles comics, including some valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. The marketing power of the Turtles is also on display, with everything from Turtles-inspired Christmas ornaments, throw rugs and backpacks to a talking toothbrush.
In the middle of it all is a set of massive bronze statues depicting the four turtles — Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael — along with the mutant rat and resident sage, Master Splinter. The display was one of 12 made as part of a fundraiser by Eastman to benefit a museum in Northampton, Massachusetts.