What do the Women Say?

an evening of poetry & performance exploring the Middle East

Co-presented by La Peña Cultural Center

Friday, March 14 at 8pm

at La Peña Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705 

Box Office/Information
510-849-2568 , info@lapena.org

Featuring:

The Torture Quartet, poetry performance by Elmaz Abinader, accompanied by Tony Khalife, Kamal Ghammache-Mansour, and Timothy Kelly

The Monologist Suffers Her Monologue, written by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Arlene Hood, performed by Sara Razavi. An encore presentation of the ReOrient 2007/08 wry comedy and audience favorite where the Monologist riffs “In the drama of nations…Palestine would be a monologue.”

The Body Washer, by Rosemary Frisino Toohey, directed by Torange Yeghiazarian. A staged reading of an award-winning short play about a young Iraqi killed at a checkpoint. Her death is seen through the eyes of the woman who washes her body for burial, the female soldier who fired the fatal shot, and a journalist who reports on the war for the people back home. 

Arab Woman Talking, A collection of short stories told in prose, dance, and singing by Lana Nasser. 

Getting There, a collaboration in text and image by Haleh Hatami and Bijan Mottahedeh, on "homesickness" as the longing for our physical beginnings and longing for our deeper origins in time.

Celebrate International Women's Day with us!

International Women’s Day (8 March) began in the US in 1909, and is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. Golden Thread productions annually celebrates this occasion with a weekend of live performance.

Archive

(Past Productions of What Do The Women Say? (past productions in partnership with the Shee Company)

2006

Pressing Beyond in Between, written and performed by Soha Al-Jurf
A Palestinian-American playwright and performer's exploration of social, political, and personal boundaries. This autobiographical solo performance examines the challenges of defining personal identity within the context of gender, religion, and nationality. The first reading of Pressing Beyond In Between was presented at the Theaters Against War Festival in 2003 in NYC. She has since performed Pressing at the Women of Color Festival in NYC, the New Freed Woman Project in Boston , at Tunxis Community College in Connecticut , and at Boston Playwrights Theater. Soha Al-Jurf was born in Nablus , Palestine , and raised in Iowa City , Iowa . She has recently returned to the United States after spending the past year living in Palestine where she was working with Ashtar Theater Company on Theatres of the Oppressed techniques. While in Palestine , she also taught voice and singing technique to Palestinian students at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music of Palestine .”)

Is: A unique blend of sacred belly dance and performance art by Lana Nasser.
Her research includes the study of Dreams and Middle Eastern mythology. She holds a Master’s degree in Consciousness Studies from JFK U. , and a BA in Psychology/Fine Arts from George Washington U. She has performed, lectured and led workshops in the United States and Jordan . She most recently presented ‘The Dance of Isis’ at the De Young Museum, SF.”

11:11-Part Three-Now created by Lana Nasser & Torange Yeghiazarian, performed by Torange Yeghiazarian .
Third of three episodes in a performance piece exploring an Iranian woman’s emancipation. She spends the first minutes blowing balloons.”

Goosheh performed by Haleh Hatami.
Goosheh is a traditional comic form presented during Tazieh, an Iranian passion play commemorating Imam Hussain’s martyrdom in the desert of Karbala in the 7th century, the formative event for Shiite Islam. Haleh Hatami will present a new Goosheh mixing contemporary and traditional elements. This is a comic "side show" - a chaotic mix of original passion play characters and modern day villains and celebrities, playing up the theatrical devices of Tazieh. Featuring Alexander the Great, Elizabeth Taylor, and your local meter maid.”

2005

Remains, by Seema Sueko.
In Remains, by San Diego based writer Seema Sueko, an American college student is found dead in Tel-Aviv and her mother uses her journal to piece together her daughter’s journey. Directed by The Shee Theatre Company’s Laura Hope, three actresses portray mother, daughter, a senator’s assistant and everyone they encounter while unraveling the mystery of the daughter’s death. “Thought-provoking and moving theatre…the piece cuts through the Babel of rhetoric and puts human faces on a multi-sided crisis” (Jeff Smith, The San Diego Reader). Remains provides an “authentic glimpse into both societies that you’re just not going to see on CNN or Fox News.” (Rob Hopper, The San Diego Playbill.)

Prostitute’s Song, by Simin Behbahani (Khalili)
Nobel-nominee Simin Behbahani (Khalili), born in Tehran in 1927, was a published poet at the age of fourteen and has produced some of the most significant works of Persian literature in the 20th century. Her struggle for freedom of expression in Iran has been recognized by the Carl von Ossietzky medal and a Human Rights Watch grant. From a country where the penalty for prostitution is death by stoning, Behbahani writes “Prostitute’s Song,” For the first time, “Prostitute’s Song,” will be performed in English translation by Sherri Bass, directed by Torange Yeghiazarian .

Apache Down by Haleh Hatami
Incorporating both current news clippings and text from a Shi’ia passion play, Oakland-based poet Haleh Hatami reads her response to the American invasion of Iraq in the poem “Apache Down .” Hatami also reads works related to the Ta’zieh, a dramatic expression within Islamic culture unique to Iran , commemorating martyrdom of Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad at Karbala in the year 680.

Rope: a Mystical Interpretation of Belly Dance by Lana Nasser
Belly dancing in Middle Eastern culture is a sacred performance ritual by women for women in celebration of the feminine. Lana Nasser’ dance Rope: a Mystical Interpretation of Belly Dance synthesizes personal and collective myths.