Immigrant Artistry: Home-Cooked

APRIL 18, 2019
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: POTLUCK DROP OFF + INTERACTIVE STORY SHARING
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM: PERFORMANCES

Curated by Gibney’s Equity Action Committee, Immigrant Artistry: Home-Cooked is a celebration of food, performance, and stories on April 18, 2019 as part of Gibney’s observance of Immigrant Artistry Week. The evening will include salon style performances by Frank Malloy IV/Harambee Dance Company, Silva Dance Company, Suku Dance Lab, video by Kayhan Irani, and visual art by Farah Mohammad. The evening also includes a Gallery exhibition with audio from the Queens Borough Public Library archive, and interactive storytelling components. Food and drinks will be served, and we encourage attendees to bring dishes they grew up with to contribute.

Pictured (left to right): Silva Dance Company, Suku Dance Lab, Frank Malloy IV.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kayhan Irani is an Emmy-award winning writer, a cultural activist, and a Theater of the Oppressed trainer. She creates art to build community and connect audiences into social justice issues. She regularly partners with NGOs, government agencies, and community based organizations to use theater and story-based strategies for organizing, engagement, and education. Kayhan was one of ten artists named by President Obama’s White House as a 2016 White House Champion of Change for her art and storytelling work.  Her one-woman show, We’ve Come Undone toured nationally and internationally, telling stories of Arab, South Asian and Muslim-American women in the wake of 9/11. She has trained hundreds of groups in Theater of the Oppressed and participatory storytelling tools over the years, both nationally and overseas, in Afghanistan, India, and Iraq. In 2010 Kayhan won a New York Emmy award for best writing for We Are New York a 9-episode broadcast TV drama used as an English language and civic engagement tool for immigrant New Yorkers. She created a linked, community-based conversation initiative that brought thousands of immigrants, throughout the five boroughs, together to practice English in volunteer-led conversation groups. She also created comic books based on the series which were translated into 5 languages and distributed in NYC public hospitals, courts, CBOs and local meeting places. Her published work includes a volume of essays, Telling Stories to Change the World: Global Voices on the Power of Narrative to Build Community and Make Social Justice Claims (Routledge, 2008) and a chapter in Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way. (Routledge, 2015).

Farah Mohammad was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and now lives and works as a printmaker and social worker in Brooklyn, New York.

Founded by renowned dancers Leandro Santos Silva and Janete Silva, the Silva Dance Company provides a masterful look into the art of Brazilian Dance. Borrowing from capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance traditions, as well as contemporary and modern techniques, the Silva Dance Company offers an evolution in dance – a fusion of distinctly beautiful and rich art cultures. Pieces showcase the grace and fluidity of motion now common in western theater, while interweaving the inherent artistry of Brazil, a palpable rhythmic spirituality that captivates and compels audiences.

Suku Dance Lab is a New York based dance-theater company founded by Talia Moreta and Belinda Adam. Our works have been presented with 100 Bogart, Dixon Place, WMAAC Moving Beauty Series, APEX, Pushing Progress Showcase Series, and with WAXworks. Suku Dance Lab aims to create accessible and relatable performances rooted in dance and theater. Holding collaboration at the center of our process, Suku Dance Lab calls upon various dance lineages, elements of voice, and live music to establish a dynamic and nuanced lens through which to examine community – how human experiences can be deeply unique and simultaneously universal.

GIBNEY’S EQUITY ACTION COMMITTEE

The Equity Action Committee (EAC) is a self-selecting group of Gibney staff members dedicated to addressing issues of equity, access, and inclusion within Gibney and the dance field at large. We envision a community of individuals and institutions actively working together toward an intersectional, anti-racist, and non-discriminatory world.

ACCESSIBILITY

The accessible entrance for this location is located at 280 Broadway. Please note that this is a shared entrance with the New York City Department of Buildings. To access the elevator, attendees may be asked to provide a valid photo ID and go through building security, including a metal detector.

Requests for reasonable accommodation or for access to the 280 Broadway entrance after 5:00 pm or on the weekend should be made three days in advance by contacting Elyse Desmond at 646.837.6809 (Voice only), or by e-mailing elyse@gibneydance.org.