Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Artful Impact: Bridging Communities through Movement and Theatre

 


Q: Please tell me little bit more about yourself, where you're from, what you studied, anything you want people to know:


A: I’m Libby Wellington, a current Bond Street Intern and Program Facilitator. I am a 24 year old graduate student studying Public Policy at NYU and lifelong dancer. Although I am currently based in Brooklyn, I grew up in South Salem, NY, as one of three daughters to my Mother and Father. My parents were never artists or makers themselves but loving patrons of the arts who instilled that love in me and my sisters early on in our lives. The tots ballet class my parents put me quickly bloomed in dance classes everyday, theatre on weekends, and countless performances with my sisters. Growing up, arts spaces are where I found community and they were an integral way my family connected. However, it was not until I arrived at college did I start to understand dance, theatre, or performance in general as a means to a larger good. At Bates college I studied both dance and politics and was not only able to but encouraged to explore the ways these two areas served as lenses to better understand the other. It was during this time that I solidified that fact that I didn’t want to be a performer but wanted the arts - performance specifically- to be the method through which I leave an impact on the world - public, social, or political. 


After graduating and several random jobs later, I found myself at NYU Wagner as a public policy and nonprofit administration student focusing on social advocacy and political organizing. I went into this degree with the goal of developing methods through which the arts can act as policy development and implementation tools. In my quest to find opportunities to gain experience and learn from those who are doing this work I found Bond Street - an organization that has been relying on theatre and performance to discuss social issues, resolve conflict, and spark conversations since the 80’s. Since starting my internship at BST in late May of this year, I have been welcomed into the BST family and had the opportunity to try my hand at so many different tasks. From witnessing the grant writing process, helping with the creation of projects final reports, fundraising brainstorms, issue research, and writing problem statements, to the development of a program I helped see get off the ground. 


My summer with BST has solidified my desire to continue this line of work both in my studies and post graduation this coming spring. I am looking forward to staying connected with BST this fall as I work with Women for Afghan Women and help facilitate their seniors program!



Q: How did this collaboration come to be? What led to you working with Women for Afghan Women in NYC? 


A: It was evident from the moment I started working with BST that Afghanistan and specifically Afghan women were pivotal to the organization's makeup and fed the soul of its founders Joanna and Michael. Early on in my internship, I learned of how BST had to end their 20 year long work in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 as the Taliban took over and how the company worked that summer to support their in-country artists and partners. Although this work was necessary, I could tell that the organization missed creating with this community. In meeting former interns Maihan and Rukshar and hearing about their ideas for programing that could reach women and girls in Afghanistan virtually that never quite got going, I started to work on figuring out a way for BST to still engage with the Afghan community. Due much to Maihan and Rushar’s brainstorming and guidance, I was able to connect with Women for Afghan Women, an organization that supports Afghan Women both in Afghanistan and here in the states. I hoped they would want to collaborate on a NY based program as a way for BST to continue our connection and support of the Afghan community. Thankfully, they were interested and excited about the incorporation of physical theater and the arts into their seniors program. Throughout the summer I have been working on developing program sessions in which dance and theatre are used to help build community and spark joy among the senior community of Women for Afghan Women. 



Q: Why movement therapy? Why theatre? 


A: Dance and theatre have always served important but very different roles in my life. I grew up dancing everyday and loved the physicality of it. Growing up it was the best way to express myself, work through my own emotions, and develop a very deep sense of self. Once in college, I realized how being a dancer had fundamentally altered my perception and understanding of the world and how I function in it. I believe I owe dance, in part, my sense of empathy, my desire for community and connectedness, and my continued curiosity in how the body plays a role in our social, political, and cultural lives. 


Doing theatre never gave me this same feeling. I was alway shy when it came to singing on stage, and awkward when interacting in a scene with others. Performing this type of storytelling did not click for me in the same way. However, watching theatre, witnessing people in real time tell a story this way, always packed an emotional punch. As much as I loved the act of dancing I’ve loved watching theatre. Seeing stories be told in real time in the codified space of a theatre has made me a more hopeful, emotional, and compassionate human. 


I have been lucky enough to experience both this doing and witnessing and understand how powerful a force both have been in my life. Performing as a way of communicating, understanding, and being in relationship with others has purpose and importance outside of the theatre and I hope workshops and training like the ones held by BST can help bring that purpose to manifest and it excites me to be a part of that process. 


Monday, August 21, 2023

Creativity in Action: Promoting Gender Equality In Cairo

 In October 2021, 6 BST members had the opportunity to conduct a theatre project in Cairo with a group of experts. Together with Noon Creative Enterprise, we conducted a three-week cultural exchange program promoting gender equality through the arts.

The artists we worked with were true artists – Luka, an incredibly talented musician and songwriter, Carol Ackad, a theatremaker and director, and Hany Taher, a social theatre artist and keen comedic deviser. We clicked in a heartbeat, and got talking very deeply at our first dinner together.




Dawar Arts, an arts and wellbeing organization, was our daily meeting spot - a beautiful rehearsal space in downtown Cairo. Post-COVID, working together in such energized space with other artists was a novelty. The rooms were large with ceiling to floor windows, essentially doing some of the lighting work for us! The team really appreciated the opportunity to work in-person so soon after lockdown, and because of this, you could sense the excitement and motivation from everyone to use our hearts, bodies, and mind to create.


One of the most memorable parts of the entire project was spending time at Dawar Kitchen, an extension of Dawar Arts, run by Syrian women refugees. The food was magnificent, some of our favourite dishes were the baba ganoush with walnuts, spinach sambusak, stuffed vine leaves (we LOVED these!), fried kibbeh and other glorious treats.




Eating together definitely helped us overcome language and cultural barriers, it was a way for both teams to get to know each other better and stimulate important discussions that we brought back to the workshops. We learned a great deal about their experiences living in Cairo and some of the social issues faced by women in that area and our final performance was informed 100% by these discussions. 


The project began by co-creating a play around gender roles in Cairo - it was an hour-long performance that promoted gender equality and the ideas from scenes came straight from conversations about the realities women face, the performance creation flowed quite seamlessly. We played theatre games as an ensemble and focused on improvisation, comedy, non-verbal storytelling, and image theatre. 



 A short description of the final play:

“We meet a heroic married couple, Superman and Superwoman, who save the world together, but are unfortunately held to different standards in their home life, as the woman is ALSO expected to cook and clean. We come to know a husband who angers his wife, forcing her to leave him to do the housework for himself, which turns out to be a massive disaster. We learn more from a father who wants the best for his daughter and supports her decision not to marry an aggressive and arrogant man. Our scenes are interdisciplinary in approach as the diverse team uses physical theatre, music, and dance to look into gender issues faced by women in Egypt today.”


Having Hany and Carol as the narrators allowed the audience to engage with the performance easily! They were a huge help in facilitating the post-performance discussions, especially with the challenging questions like: “Who decides what counts as news? What do we learn from witnessing these stories? And What role do women play in these stories?”



After each performance, the team hosted theatre training workshops that were focused on advocacy techniques. We worked mainly with refugee women from Syria living in Ezbet Khairallah, one of the largest and most densely populated informal communities in Egypt. We ran sessions for women and their daughters. Half of the team ran the children's sessions downstairs, and the other half ran the sessions for the women upstairs. We also invited the women who worked in Dawar Kitchen to join our workshops, and for the final session, we incorporated objects that they were familiar with into our activities. For example, “What are 100 things that you can do with a cooking spoon?” We were impressed with how imaginative everyone was!


This project was a true collaboration of artists and showcased the strength that is found in community spaces. We hope all of the wonderful people at Dawar Arts and Kitchen are well and thriving. Have a look at the artists we worked with and the work they are doing currently, I’m sure it will not disappoint.