 Good afternoon again We are here gathered for the Mina Theatre Makers Makers Alliance fourth annual convening at potato stage in San Francisco, California Part of the reorient festival of short plays at Golden Thread Productions Just for the folks who are tuning in now for the online session just to give a little bit of context here This is the first public session of the convening and We did a last-minute change because of the situation that's happening today in Palestine. My name is Sahara Saf I'm the executive artistic director of Golden Thread Productions, and I would like to start. Thank you By acknowledging that we are here gathered on the Ramayitush Oroni land non-colonially today at San Francisco, California and We cannot make this acknowledgement today without acknowledging the Settler colonialism and the genocide that is happening in Gaza right now as we speak We're very Moved by the Palestinian artists Responding to this call that we put out to say we want to give the space of the first public session which was supposed to be a Different session post theater post COVID But we made this last-minute change because we all need to hear from the Palestinian artists And I want to thank so much our Palestinian artists here on the stage and also via the screen Hanna Aideh Maya Nazal and Mama Ghanouj and Manar Zrek forgive me And I'm here gonna be facilitating this session with Andrea Saf from art to action who are co-producing the Minatheermakers Alliance convening this year I Want to before we before I give the the mic to Andrea I just want to invite our founder to run Jagazarian to give a little bit of context about the Golden thread has is this is our 27 28th year. I can't do the math right now we were founded in 1996 and We've been a place for diverse stories and also a voice against injustices Everywhere and of all kinds. So I want to just give the mic to Torange to speak a little bit about the Our mission and golden threads support of the Palestinian cause Hi, everyone. I'll be I'll be brief. I just wanted to Remind us that golden threads inaugural production was an adaptation of this Estrada called operation no penetration where Palestinian and Israeli women unite to bring about peace which feels like Something we might need soon We have a long history of producing plays by Palestinian playwrights I believe that we have produced more plays by Palestinian playwrights than any theater company in the United States we hosted a Weekend of Palestinian plays from Playwrights who Palestinians who reside in what is known as Israel today 1948ers to those who live in the occupied territories to those who live in Diaspora, so we have produced a range of of Palestinian voices And I would say that one of the greatest assets that golden thread has is our audience and our diverse community of artists because You know preaching to the choir is not a big Deal in my mind. What we bring is diversity. We bring dialogue. We have also produced plays by Anti-occupation Israeli playwrights and we have hosted dialogue sessions Among our community in fact for many years Reorient festival would feature a play by a Palestinian playwright and a play by an Israeli playwright Which was our way of bringing a diverse audience to the house so that we could facilitate dialogue So I take pride in that that is sort of the legacy that I have brought I'm kind of a historic figure in the room And That's our legacy. It's in your hands now. So you take it where you think it needs to go but I feel like we need each other more than ever And I'm interested in this space and I'm proud of all of you. Hi, Hannah and Yeah, eager to hear. Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Saff and Despite this rumor. We're trying to start. We're not actually related As far as we know And I'm just here to remind us for a moment that we did make community agreements in the morning and To keep those fresh and I will remind us of them if that is needed However, we will be really using our time to listen to the panelists who have joined us And we won't be opening opening a full dialogue So this is a practice of deep listening and then we'll have lots of opportunities to dialogue throughout the rest of our time together I also want to acknowledge that we are being recorded live streamed and Archived on the internet through howl round so that's something folks might want to keep in mind and That one of that when we were making the decision to change this panel Part of that process was a conversation of board members and committee members were having about how we were just checking in about how we were feeling and Taran raise the question that I that I would like to offer as a framing question for our conversation today, which is What is the role of the artist in times of war? crisis and genocide What is our role in this time? And that's just may or may not thread through the conversation as as we share time today Okay, Andrea. All right, so we're gonna begin Directly with introductions and I would like to invite our artists here and we'll start we start with you Hanna By the screen, please introduce yourself feel free to say your name artistic practice Where you're from and where you're based now, whatever those mean to you Let's keep it brief at the top and then I'll come back with the second question. So Hanna Thank you. My name is Hanna. Idi I'm a theater artist Mostly directing plays but somehow the pandemic Made me a Discipline playwright gave me all the time I need to to write so I've been writing for our Company that I founded in Seattle do any of productions I'm a Palestinian from a Palestinian village in the north close to you To Lebanon The name is bukaya And I'm based in Seattle now in the US Thank you so much for being here Maya Hello, I'm Maya Nazal. I'm Palestinian American I am an actor and a screenwriter and I grew up in San Jose in California my whole life But I also grew up in Syria Damascus Syria and I'm on Jordan So I had experience in both the east and the west and I went to school there as well So my upbringing kind of has influenced the way I approach my art in terms of what how I know a Middle Eastern From the Middle East would approach The stories of Palestinians and how someone from the outside who's never even heard of the country would approach it and that's Something I take into account with everything I create. Sorry. That's my introduction, but it's very in-depth Hi, I'm Mama Ghanous. I'm a drag artist. I'm a drag queen. I am based in San Francisco I am black and Palestinian my Palestinian heritage comes from Raza where most of my Mother's family are right now and my Palestinian heritage also comes from Yaffa Originally, but they're all refugees in Elibrish, which is a refugee camp that is in center Raza since 1948. I grew up mostly in Cairo, Egypt Because both of my parents were not allowed to enter Palestine and now I am Based in San Francisco for the past 14 years. I have house Ghanoush It's a drag house full of Swana queer folks and I run the events and an open mic called vocal af at queer arts Featured, which is the Harvey Milk Camera shop in the Castro And I'm glad to be here Hello, everyone. Marhaba. Salam My name is Manar Esraic and I am a minister for the soul. I lead the humanity to Connect with the divine aspect of themselves Based on the Sufi traditions, we have there are 99 names of Allah and these are attributes that Lives in every single one of you every single one on this earth And so I'm gonna offer a chant Song from from the Islamic mystic tradition known as Sufism I'm Palestinian born and raised in Israel in 1948 The village where I'm from and I live on north of Palestine Israel We became refugees in Lebanon and we are we are the first and the only Second to two villages returned after the 1948 back to the land and I live on is one of them. I Say that because it's important to go back to the roots. And so I have many identities I am in Israeli. I'm Palestinian. I'm atheist. I'm Christian. I'm Hindu. I'm none of it I'm all of it. I am the chaos and the mess and I am the peace as well so I'm very grateful to be here and thank you for inviting me. Thank you Thank you Okay, I should have left the mic with you, but is that working for you great Manat our next question for everyone on the panel is how are you really and how are you holding up in this moment? And Marat would like to start with you and I know that you wanted to offer a Prayer, so I should pray or answer first I Pausing because I have many feelings coming through and many thoughts. How am I I am in conversation with my beloved family every night I Talked to them from my mother three generations four generations all the way until a 13 year old nephew, George I listened to their stories and what's going on in their bodies as a somatic healer, I like to help them as much as I can and But I felt that trembling even though I'm so far away from the land the mother land the wounded land I Just listened to their stories and their bodies and tried to help with some Different methods how to breathe how to to Tune in to self-care how to get away from the mind so I am Constantly doing that as part of my work So I feel very blessed to be living in a retreat center where I have all what I need and more for comfort and and Yes, self-care is the number one Method that I you know anything from writing bathing in water praying Talking to a friend processing the The rage and the the sadness. There's a lot of Sadness coming through and grief It's the mind does not it's unfathomable. So how am I dealing with that? Utilize my method day in day out as I'm Talking to my family. I take it. I take from them to me. I carry this and then I dump it back I like energetically I release it Because of what's happening. I started my own Online it pushed me to do my healing sessions Every Friday on zoom and in person in Sebastopol I just I do all that I know how to do to be grounded and centered and that being said Breathwork is really the number one tool key that I use constantly But as I said, I have been doing that so it helps me kind of like Yeah, listening to the body and releasing that anxiety in fact I will be sharing at the end of the panel a sample an experience for all of you to To to join me. Thank you so much for asking. I hope I answered. Yes. Okay song song. Okay prayer This prayer is called in Arabic I'm gonna speak it and then sing it and Ask you to join me on the chorus Allahumma Adjhala fi qalbi nooran Wa adjhala fi aqli nooran Wa adjhala fi hayati nooran Wa adjhala fi jassadi Nooran nooran is light place light in my heart Place light in my mind in my life in my body In every aspect of me. I'm calling for the light to enter me. This is this is this chant So for those of you feel comfortable to join the chorus He goes like that. So noor. It's the root. It's light and nooran is like saying Shukran and shakoor shukur. It's the same nooran noor. So I'll sing the chorus just for you to hear it and feel free to join me. Let's try together. Okay. Thank you Adjhala fi qalbi nooran Adjhala fi jassadi At this moment, I feel really good after this. Thank you I'm okay It's like in Western medicine they say like they always differentiate about how we feel and your physical symptoms and things like that and It just doesn't work for me The soon as the Palestinian Genocide that it slowed down. It never stopped, but it escalated in Gaza recently and also the West Bank I had a full-blown MS relapse. I have multiple sclerosis. I live with it I had a relapse three months ago and I've been struggling with it and all that stress doesn't doesn't help So this morning I have pain all over my body and I feel deep inside me that my my genes Are screaming Epigenetics says that you inherit your parents trauma their DNA You also inherit their strength your ancestors strength and their stories, but today the trauma has been triggered I lost a hundred and seventy Over a hundred and seventy people. Sorry not lost Israel killed a hundred and seventy two people and trauma warning The past like two weeks Since like the raza escalation started and for the past six days We don't know anything about my family's both of the my families are in raza the Yaffa side our refugees in a camp and Raza side are it's all 25 miles with 25 kilos So that has been really scary And I feel very helpless And I feel very devastated with all the media and everything else like I'm very disappointed But I realized we live in a colonizing nation And I was like oh gosh. Yeah, I never felt this way This is a colonizing nation that we live in and our president is a war criminal So it's it's been really sad I also felt today coming here. I saw a protest. So I felt I was like maybe hope is not what we need to do right now for me at least because help comes with me with My connection with God and deity and Unfortunately after the injustice in raza that was the last strike of losing faith in any deity for me Because if there is a God he would have protected these people It is just straight up injustice But what I'm really leaning into right now is dignity and I feel like my family I had to be in this place just because I was born from Palestinian parents and I have to advocate for them and that's part of my dignity. So I'm here to honor the my my family's losses and the Palestinian losses and also the Armenian losses and the HN losses that are happening right now due to this country So yeah, but I am very grateful and at this moment right now My body is very much in peace. So thank you. I appreciate you. So sorry for your losses. I can't imagine What it's like to have All of your family there and Your roots are there But you being here right now you are a survivor of that and that's something that I remind myself And that's how I've been feeling as a survivor Because being Palestinian is not It's not being on that land it's not about land like to me It's never been about land and I don't even believe in Telling all of our Palestinian family to stay there and fight for this land because I'm not there fighting for this land Why am I telling you to die for this land? I think being Palestinian is is just existing in the world with that culture with that spirit and with that name and Everything you do and everything you are like your storyteller. You're a Palestinian storyteller your Palestinian actor your Palestinian Author, you know, that's that is what it means to be Palestinian. It's holding that Culture in that history and everything that you do So that's just for you to know you are you are all of that I think how I'm feeling is Just suffocating that's the word I can the only word that I can describe is I feel I'm suffocating. I have no words I Honestly was even scared to speak today because I don't even have words. I don't even know how to talk about it but Calling my grandma she is a refugee my all my grandparents were refugees from Palestine to Syria and She's in Syria, so she can't even talk about it on the phone like she's scared to talk about it and This is their history. They're reliving it and she can't even speak Like she's literally just staring at me and I'm literally on the phone and She's the only person I want to comfort. I'm like, how are you? Hamd Allah Hamd Allah Hamd Allah, that's it. That's all I can get and her eyes are crying I mean, she's not really crying because she has to numb herself so much that she doesn't even have to talk about it anymore But she used the word suffocating she's like I'm not in it and That's the after she said that that's the only way I could really describe it I Feel so cynical. I feel like the only way to deal with it is there's no human way to justify what's happening I can't say I don't even feel like fighting with people I don't even feel like telling people that That it's wrong I have to be cynical I have to be like this is just God's plan Like it makes me more religious and just say this is how it has to be. I feel numb to it I feel like I have to just numb all emotions and accept it as Part of life like it's happened before and it's gonna happen again and it's gonna happen to someone if it's not Palestinians So I yeah, I feel like it's dark I I hate saying that even because it takes away so much from the feelings of what's happening right now, but I Didn't like it's helpless like I don't know there's nothing I can do posting feels like Preaching to the choir. I don't know everyone who follows me is knows I'm Palestinian so they probably wouldn't befriend me if they Hated Palestine so I'm just preaching out to people who support, right? But I don't know Yeah, I Feel really good to be able to talk right now because it feels like it's Effective I'm talking to people and I'm we're able to share a story So this makes me feel a little bit better. So I really thank you guys for having us Hanna Well, just like everybody else who's far from home. I Called home. I call my family. I Called my mother She she talks more than anybody else, but all the young all the brothers and sisters Long pauses of silence. He's just don't say much And I Called him also to get the news. I feel like I'm living in a free country where there's a lot of news You know 150 TV stations on my TV and I get nothing Except lies and propaganda. So I called them to tell the to get the truth from them sadly And I am trying to Stay busy with with one show we planned to open last Thursday a show by Palestine their return and Had nothing to do with the with the crisis that we're living in now, but We considered Canceling but then I thought Why I mean Display is so so timely was timely still timely and will always be timely as long as the panathena people are not free We should go on so the show goes on. So what we do every night As a group of artists is Another moment of silence before we do the show how many a moment of silence we go through How many breaks can we get how many wars we have to endure? We also hold a Support group at the same building where the theater is My daughter is a therapist and she called a lot of young people Palestinians and Lebanese and Egyptians and Jordanians a lot of the Arab community here in Seattle To see if they want to get together and we were surprised how many people wanted to come They all showed up just to hold each other and cry together Unfortunately, they're all women men somehow don't want to cry, but I on the phone they Mentioned to me that they are looking for an address. They're looking for a place where they can feel safe to cry because somehow We are expected to be a polite victim a Victim that doesn't get angry. We have to be careful what we see what we say and what we do Sadly we are probably the only kind of a victim in this Era that lost its humanity It's It's a victim that Has to censor itself before we say anything. I know friends of mine in Palestine Can't even click like on Facebook because they're afraid that can be they can be picked up from home by the Israeli police And it's happening They're warning them not to even share anything on Facebook. So That's what we do From far away and I was actually surprised that you know, we call them to comfort them because we're safe I was surprised that members of my family who lived in 1948 Reached out. These are the real refugees the real the first victims of the Israeli colonization of Palestine They are calling To comfort us Imagine, you know people who've been homeless for 75 years calling Palestine and Palestinians to comfort them to be okay So That's where we are We have to be selective here of what we see and what we watch because Because it hurts or hurts a lot to to screen through the lies and and screen through the media that is a Participant an active participant in this war crime Sadly, so thank you for creating this platform for us to express ourselves and our feelings Appreciate it. I want to remind everyone to breathe take a deep breath and that This is a space where it's okay to cry. I Mean we're theater people we can scream and cry And to stay grounded because we know How hard it is to witness and We can only imagine how hard it is to live everything That we're talking about. Yeah So I'm just gonna remind us to keep breathing And a bit of moment of transparency to say we wanted to just start with the question. How are you? Because Because of the media censorship of Palestinian stories because we Don't actually know what it is on the daily to be in Palestine and We wanted to begin there with just like the humanity of How are you right now in this moment and to be able to talk about that right and Now we're gonna continue that conversation into How are we how are you as artists? Because I just want to say that censorship is real and censorship happens in so many ways through the media Through funding through what gets produced and what doesn't through what we feel like we're allowed to say through What we're allowed to like on social media. I mean the extremity of that, right? So how the question next question is to just an invitation to tell us about your lived experience as a Palestinian artist in this moment and what it means What that means to you and how and or how you address Palestinian experience in your work as an artist Really anywhere you want to go with that question, that's a very good question for me because I left Jerusalem in 2006 and For those of you who know me or know some The history of a Palestinian Israeli. It's very very Narrow place to live in it's at your compromise Constantly because you are a minority So being in that narrow place Living in the holy land from birth until I was 31 I wasn't able to express myself As an artist yes, honey Thank you, but one thing I can say that all my struggles you know as a Bilingual by racial by by sexual by everything Gender to spirit. I Never really fit anywhere and I was living in that narrow place and I Was not able to sing back home not even a drum However, all my frustration I channeled it on a judo mat and I became the national judo champion first Of Israel for seven consecutive years So I'm a black belt and if you want to mess up with me That's that's fine. All I can all I can do is protect you now. I don't fight anymore but that being said I Lived in Jerusalem after being in the national championship and being the only Palestinian there and holding the title for so long Not being able to just to voice Myself my my body spoke but not my voice until I moved to Jerusalem And I became a Waldorf teacher and there with all these amazing tools from the Dr. Steiner I was able to open up My chakras and sing my voice opened my truth everything opened that being said I Had to leave so I can be a singer so I can be true to myself so I can follow my Calling as a healer. I help people open their voice so To free Palestine you have to free women That's something I heard the lesbian Jordanian couple who came to San Francisco because they couldn't be They couldn't share publicly the love that they have for each other so they moved and They said why not freeing women freeing Palestine? It's the same thing kind of like much more important actually all of it all of it but for me to free women is to free their voice and that's What I'm focusing on to free my voice and being transparent in speaking everything how I feel and What I want and what I desire it's all of it and help others access that through chakra Because that's the truth you hold the truth. It's also the expression of your heart. This is chamber of the heart It's the God within you. So Speaking singing is what I'm here to do on planet earth is to sing to heal and sing to empower you And so I continuously doing that Everywhere I go here in the Bay Area, and I have such an amazing support. I literally live in the retreat center I can host retreats but I Yeah, wanted I want to Expand my service and so hope hoping that this stage will help me manifest that It's important to speak your voice no matter how troubling no matter what what What is the Energy the What locks you in what what present you we all have a prison inside of us We all live in this prison right in the mind and We're afraid of judgment and how people see us and what if I say my truth What if I have this need and blah blah blah, so it's just like just all To free Palestine free your voice First of the woman the beloved next to you Or the man next to you please free yourself You have the power so yes to voice voice your everything Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing and I felt you when you're talking about how Being like being a Palestinian who ended up in Israel a lot of people don't talk about the traumas that Palestinians that stayed in 1948 the green zone as they call it Have survived deportation Something very similar to what Stalin did to a lot of Jewish folks and Polish folks and Ukrainian folks In World War two. This is what happened to Palestinians who stayed in Israel. A lot of them were deported They had a lot of limitations Israel is not a state that is very Progressive when it comes to their own citizens There is a lot of history about sterilizing flash Jews like black Jews similar to what the US did like the country who invented eugenics So I just I heard you. I'm yeah, sorry if I startled you apologies As an artist it's really difficult to be a bearded drag queen It's really hard to be a gender fluid trans person Siskay's are very angry about non-binary pronouns. I don't know why It's like You know God invented Adam and Steve not rainy and Reese, you know, they're very angry Yeah, and this is the same we call them vodka soda gays they give good tips of the bar But you know, it's a lot of cis white privilege like a lot of testosterone But it's been already hard so being Palestinian to That's been really hard because people literally boy cut me now because I'm Palestinian and then asked me to Explain Hamas and explain Palestine for them. I was like I'm a drag queen. I literally do I flip wigs I do Diana Ross Like not Nina Simone really a lot. She's I'm a Nina person I do a lot of sabah a lot of word a lot of like Arabic divas that we love But also coming from a family that's like pretty much like We are Activists by birth like we so we have to give something political if it's not about Palestine It's about Armenia if it's not about Armenia It's about like any anything like black folks in America That's part of my heritage to and Latin Americans and Asian Americans all of these people However, the past two weeks has been really really stressful We have safety our safety is compromised like we we I got death threats. I'm a drag queen I get Things like that. I also got really angry folks that are unfortunately Gay like I'm not talking about like you're like cis hetero next door neighbor It's your gay next door neighbor That I was surprised by the the pink washing that's happening in this country So really I'm really focusing on educating people about two things in my art right now about You can't really have queer rights human rights in Raza or the West Bank because these are concentration camps These are not cities. These are not well-governed cities Raza is the biggest open prison in the whole world So if you go to Tel Aviv pride and have fun, it doesn't mean that this is the gayest more queerist area Experience Israeli gay scene as a trans queer person and you will understand how Horribly misogynist how horribly discriminatory it is similar to a lot of different gay scenes This is not gay heaven and it also reminds me of How in the US they had? Filipinos Captured basically and brought into human zoos that the US had and then when they have Filipina refugees coming here Or Vietnamese or anyone else they would call them like they liberated them. They're coming for liberation while you have literally Showed them around as animals so I just wanted to educate the queer community and And liberals in this country that the problem in Palestine that this is a concentration camp like also Palestine was a well-governed like country a state before the colonization that that never had any saddemy laws Like we did not have any laws against being gay or queer in Palestine in our constitution after the Ottoman Empire We never had any of this The other thing I'm focusing on in addition to pink washing is really representation we are In our form of art They all advocate in different ways and we need to talk about trans folks and queer folks as Palestinians because we also exist We're not just dehumanized Women like yelling over their their their destroyed homes, which is basically unfortunately That's what Israel has been doing though as the entire time. We also people who live and survive So as an artist right now really pink washing is a big deal for me and the other thing is also Representation for other unheard voices and again, I bring back Armenia. Armenia is a country has been like Genocide of the hundred years ago in the past two weeks. They have hundred thousand over Armenians deported from their lands and Azaris are using Israeli weapons So we need to talk about this and this country doesn't even mention that because they're benefiting from this so I Really would hope anyone else in the room here was an artist just to kind of advocate to our allies First that are basically against us at this moment, which makes it very difficult Thank you as an artist. I've always liked fairy tales. I love magical things and I love stories that have like very enchanting Characters that are ridiculous like I love ridiculous things that happen and I was just in Palestine a few months ago and I Was in Jerusalem and this man this very very old man. I mean he looked like a wizard He really looked like a wizard me and my sister are walking past and he comes out of the shop And he's like you can come in and he just knew that my sister wanted to go in She didn't say anything she didn't look at the shop She didn't even tap on my shoulder and he's like you can come in and she's like oh my god I actually wanted to go in there and we were in there for two hours For two hours just mean her and he put us in a little nook and he had I'm not sure what it was called but like a respirator right and So he couldn't speak and his voice sounded like It was such a character voice. I don't know like you could kind of hear him, but it was very it was yeah but it was it was like a character and He brought out this genie lamp and he gives it to us and he's like make three wishes in Arabic and He's like putting my sister in front of the mirror and he's brushing her hair And he's telling her all of her insecurities and he's like am I right and she's like yes And she starts crying and he gives us necklaces and lockets and then he sends us on our way and he He it was a wizard It was just the most magical experience of my life and it was on the holiest land of the world It was in Jerusalem and he's told us his family name it went back so far like from the beginning of Palestine and It was the most beautiful start to my trip there. I went there for research for screenwriting So with that same energy I got from this wizard man I went to visit my family in Calculia So Calculia is my actual city. There are 10,000 Nizals, which is my family name my entire family is there and It is a circle completely surrounded by the wall like the apartheid wall There's one way in and where there's one way out and IDF Everywhere, I mean like going in there from Jerusalem like the holiest most magical place It was like a nightmare like a horror horror story and so we go in there and You can tell that these people do not feel the presence of this wall at all like there's no holy site anywhere It is a wall the beach is five minutes from my aunt's house. She has no access to it The airport is 10 minutes away They have to literally go all the way to Amman Jordan to fly to another country and the airport is 10 minutes away So they are in a suffocating occupation my family like it is not a minor occupation. It's suffocating But they are so happy in there. I mean like they're like, let's go get smoothies. Let's go get milkshakes Let's it had the same energy as this wizard man And I remember being like I felt more oppressed than them and I'm not even from there, right? I'm I was born in America. I'm coming to visit and I don't know what it's like But obviously someone from the outside is gonna feel it way more. They're so used to it That's why they call us and they check on us to see if we're okay because they're used to it They they don't feel it as much anymore. They feel scared. They feel sad, but they don't feel it and I just got all these ideas for this show that I'm writing and I think the main thing that I want to Focus on as an artist is the humanizing of these people as as like dreamers as people as As people who like chocolate or like hate the sand at the beach Like they just hate the feeling of sand like I I don't want to see Palestinians as just these people that are suffering and dying Like I don't want our our legacy to be that even though that is a huge part of who we are and it should always be talked about I I Want to show the humanization of that and I think that's what I want to do as an artist and so I'm writing a TV show I've been in theater for ten years, so I'm like I'm a theater artist, but I'm going into film and TV as well, but I Got the idea for this show really quick. I'll tell you this beautiful story of my family my Grandpa was a month old and my grandma had seven kids and They were exiled out of Safod, which is now completely Israel like there's no Arab there ever and that's where my entire mom's family's from that entire city They were exiled and she had to walk her seven children from From Safod all the way to Damascus and she couldn't bring anything with her and my grandpa was a month old He was crying. He was sick. He was he was such a burden so she actually considered putting him on the ground and leaving him to die and She did she actually left him there and they walked and then his dad came back and grabbed him and was like There's no way we are leaving him. That was my grandpa like I literally would not even be alive right now They keep walking they get to Damascus the only thing she was able to bring was a gold necklace And so when they get there, they're all sharing seven seven kids and two adults all sharing one bedroom after a while My grandma comes up with my great grandma comes up with the idea to sell this gold necklace for a sewing machine She sells it for a sewing machine and everyone thought she was absolutely insane Because a gold necklace right she teaches all of her kids how to sew and Eventually they created the biggest fashion empire in all of Syria and They are Refugees they had no money and the whole idea actually came from my grandpa who was gonna get left on the sand He ran the entire thing along with his brothers, but he was like the big boss like succession man and and I just thought that story is so magic like that is a Palestinian story like that's courage That's bravery. That's like risk-taking like that is Palestine and that's what I want to do as an artist. I think Obviously want to touch on war. I want to touch on oppression, but What happens after that like we can do more we can overcome that like let's show them what we can do and like what he did and I'm so proud of my family. I'm so proud to be Palestinian and I want to represent that. Yeah Hannah, what about you? Well, that's the Palestinian experience through my work. It's it's my life. Basically, I I've been doing theater At a younger age in the village before I left Palestine and I think I felt the impact of doing theater at a younger age that it just stayed with me for the rest of my life It was a village that you know didn't have running water or electricity the only form of entertainment was Festivals, you know holidays and we did a play at the village square, you know right by the spring in the middle of the village where people watched the play from from their balconies and roofs and and And the day after Little kids would be running after me chanting some of the punchlines and I knew there was something about theater and From there on I Continued with you know, professional theater company in Haifa and then I left to the US to study theater To find out whether Shakespeare was an Arabian poet or an Englishman Because we thought he was an Arab an Arab poet And it stayed with me. I mean I really think my life in theater is is like somebody who's Has a disease that can't rid of it And I've been doing plays Whether there is war or not, but I somehow got the accusation or reputation if you will That every time I do a play a war breakout um I wish that's true. I wish I have that power then I can stop the play to stop the war but I can't There's um There's something about starting a play when you are in the middle of War because I I'm actually remembering that even the play that we just opened last thursday Had its premiere in Haifa When an arabic theater company held me down theater in Haifa Took it and I insisted at the time That we can find an Israeli uh translator to translate the play to hebrew So the Israeli audience can come and view the play and understand it. So Luckily the artistic director there or the manager Adnan Tarapshi agreed with me and we found somebody who translated the play and for the first time In Haifa at Al-Midan theater A play in hebrew in front of a mixed audience calestinians israelis and and jewish israelis in the same space Watching the play And it was very powerful to to the point where the minister of culture made a reggae at the time That was uh 2014 Actually, we were rehearsing While bombing were falling on gazda in 2014. That's just another war um She decided the minister of culture to close the theater After three performances Not just because of our play, but there was another play with uh about palestine in the theater company and the company is still closed The theater is closed since 2014 And that's been my my life story in 19 actually even before that in 1991 I took one piece from the mind troupe the san francisco min troupe um after mandilla was released from prison And we opened january 15 When the bombs were falling on bagdad um And now we're doing a play when the bombs are falling on on gazda, so I don't know when We can get a break. I don't know if we if we have to wait for the war to be over As a theater artist to do a play we would be waiting for a long time There's always a war There's always conflict. There's always crisis actually What's his name? Oliver stone said that that the us conducted 14 wars in the last 3d years um So How do we deal with it now? I mean, it's so hard for us to to do anything You know you as an artist as a somebody who who would like to write a play I mean, I ask every night And I am asked every night. What are you writing right now? Even, you know on npr. They asked me So what's your next play? I said, I don't know. I I have to wait for the war to be over I have to wait for the dust to settle to find out whether my people survived or not. I mean, this is a genocide You can't just sit down and take a quiet moment and and write You have to wait it To to stop and you have to give it a break and And I think it's almost like when you when you're writing a play you have to dig yourself out of the rubble Out of the news out of the noise of the war to be able to write Um It writing and play is almost in the same process You have all these ideas and all these images that just fall on you And then at the end you say, okay, now I'm ready to write and what you do is really Throw away some of it And find the one that catches you find that image that says, okay This is it my play is about that That what what I call commanding image that is just gonna Grow into a play whether that image stays with you at the end of the play or not Whether it ends up in a trash can you don't know but but we really have to wait For for uh for it to to be over and I hope it it's soon We're going to we're going to wrap up soon and we want to save a little time to end with some breath work Before we all move from the space But I have one more question and I'm gonna ask us to answer Like speed round like a couple words, okay And it's it's this question what is the role of the artists in times of war crisis or genocide And I want to lift up what you just said Hana about in fact there has never Been a time in u.s. History that we have not as a country been engaged in a war Either fighting it or funding it or in a proxy war There has never been a time in us history That we have not as an imperial power been engaged in war Yeah, not always on this land But in the yes you can look Look it up But I really so what is the role of the artists and not just The Palestinian artists or the artist that is Under bombardment now, but all of us as artists couple words This is huge what you just said Absolutely incredible give us homework Okay, so as a two-spirit being being oppressed repressed in the holy land I wasn't able to speak the masculine part of myself only on the judo mat. That's why I won However voice I did not have a voice. I was told it's hype Meaning shame on you to even think that you Hype is arabic word for shame Every other word in arabic at least my experience is hype. You don't know how to deal with something is hype Anything that is not god is hype Chalas is dead, and I know it's very tiring, you know Well, I'll be so when I found my voice in Jerusalem And I saw that wall built around Jerusalem to to separate Palestinians from coming to The land of what we know to be israel And just remind you on both israeli and palestinians so and on both genders and so That voice that was shut down by Both my family my culture the arab culture and being a palestinian And shutting my voice as a minority because now it's the time for the israel to to take on the land take on This is their narrative. This is their land. This is their country. La la la la la so if we Come like I look at myself as a two-spirit both gender transgender I gave Myself a gift. I came to this country so I can free my voice and unfold allow my masculinity to really To be expressed in whichever way that I needed knowing that back home. I was not allowed to so We all have both We have many voices, right? So I freed myself and I'm really I hope I'm leading the way to encourage you to leading the way with my methods and with my healing and my story To find that repressed voice in you That As he said beautifully we inherit from our parents the good the bad and the unique And so the ancestral wound we all carry that genetic Makeup and we have ancestral wounds from whatever heritage you are coming from Escaping coming to this land immigrant of three generations five generations two generations. I don't know I'm just saying this is a human story. We are all immigrants. I mean it's still happening If I'm not going to take your home down. I'm going to ask you to Leave and start over your story start somewhere else And so the women's voice We need to empower women and the immigrant voice because we carry all these wounds of re Um Re Rebuild your life restart over recreate yourself The beautiful story of the Syrian like a beautiful transformation But the voice the voice of that repressed energy if it's still in you it's your responsibility It's our responsibility. We're all artists. We're all spiritual being we're all have creative forces My voice was shut down. My creative voice was shut down back home, but I found a way to To to voice it and Gosh, I am just about to publish my first book by the way I say that because it's like so much creative power within us all And I encourage you to voice that and encourage so many others to do so Thank you for allowing me to speak on that. Thank you. Thank you so much The judo mad thing I I flooded the basement multiple times. I was like, this is so good I need you. Yeah, we're gonna talk about also the vocal piece I would love to do that. But thank you so much It's so awesome to be around these Palestinian and queer artists and everyone else here. It's pretty awesome So I want to just mention one thing and I'd be very brief. I promise We are writing history as artists And history is usually written by people who are in power But also at some point In the future version of UC Berkeley or something else You will find some book about these bunch of people like golden golden threat theater Who did this play about Palestinian indigenous folks and oh by the way these people were like indigenous So you are as an artist part of writing history Um, so always remember this Um, and I have three things that I feel like is our responsibility as artists right now is first honoring ourselves So to honor yourself means if your existence is an act of resistance as most Palestinians are Armenians women queer folks trans women everyone else Then you need to self preserve like take care of yourself Um, and if honoring yourself means honoring who you are by expressing art Then do that And what I what my capacity right now with my MS relapse like I'm usually the buffoon like in theater terms I always I love being the buffoon and I love being Like the person I'm an improv theater actor And I do a lot of shows with rat queens about making fun of like stereotypes and things like that But right now I'm not I don't have the capacity to do this So I run a healing circle with a bunch of queer and indigenous folks on mondays at queer arts featured the harvey muck store So that's my part of honoring myself The second one is honoring your community, which means standing up for everyone else was oppressed So you have to voice the voices of Um, Armenians again, I have a deep love to Armenians You have to voice also the suffering of Lebanese folks under like very dramatic Loss of economy and inflation You have to honor syrians. You have to honor Even Ukrainians. I know they have a lot of attention, but still these are people who are getting so much suffocated by everything else Um, so standing up also for women. There's a lot of even in the queer community There's a lot of misogyny felt and it's expressed around transphobia Um, there's a lot of like gaslighting for bisexual pansexual folks. There's a lot of lack of representation So if you're honoring yourself and honoring your community means honoring everyone else is oppressed And always standing for what's right and what's right is everybody is allowed to be Whoever they want express whatever they can however would whatever Whatever sorry with whatever tools they have Um, and then as a radically queer person myself I believe in radical consent. I believe in radical feminism. I'm sorry not turf. I'm sorry I'm a turf repellent But um, but yeah standing up for turf standing up for people for Misogynist people whether they are gay or not standing for anti-semitism Is it a disease and remembering that anti-semitism? Is a reason of false information Like the Vatican church started that Centuries ago with like false information about Jewish folks and that result is an anti-semitism for years And suffering and what's happening right now for Palestinians is also false information So just remember that and that's the last thing so honoring yourself honoring your community and honoring history Contribute towards history with something And that's your art and that's extremely valuable because this would live beyond all our lives. So thank you That was beautiful um What was the question What should you do? um Sit with yourself and think I just think everyone needs to sit and just think Empathize empathize with yourself like figure out what is happening to you. What happened to your family? What does this mean? What do I feel about it? Take that anger take that rage and then when you're ready channel it into something But don't force yourself now because it's going to come out from an emotional place That's really heavy that you don't even understand yet. I think you need to sit and think And that's what I've been doing. I've been wanting to write and work on my show But it's just been too heavy. Yeah, like you we can't write um Only a few days ago in that calculia that city. I was telling my families from The idf stormed and murdered my 19 year old cousin. I mean three days ago And I like I cannot write And sometimes I get artist guilt because I'm thinking well if I'm not talking to people about it Maybe I should channel it into my work No, I don't have to channel it into my work. I don't have to do anything right now I can just sit and think about it and figure out what this means and who that person was to me And what that whole situation means to me and even if you're not from Palestine like you can sit and empathize with What about your family like what are things that you can connect to in those feelings? It doesn't have to be the same trauma. Everyone has different levels of trauma and different experiences. So Just sit and observe yourself. I think and talk to yourself in the mirror I think Hannah uh, I'll be brief In 2006 I was in fennelstein Planted on monday and on wednesday israel invaded libanon one more time the 2006 destruction of libanon And one thing stuck with me since then when marcel califi Guarantee the for for an angry moment. Can you imagine marcel califi angry on tv? but all he said This is not an attack on libanon on bayrut On building on structures on bridges. This is an attack on our culture This is an attack on libanon because it's the leading country in the middle east with art and culture I think This is the same thing about palestine palestine was the leading country in culture And and and the only civilized nation in the middle east for for many centuries Even before they discovered the oil we were Shipped to the gulf countries to teach them how to read and write palestine had a symphony had a soccer team had had A radio station had an airport. This is before even the zainas Immigration to palestine. I think we as an artist have a role Very important role. I'm committed to do theater work, but not just to you know make people laugh In a vague A vacuum, but but I think we have to tell our story to be so effective To to make audience change their attitude to to make To do a play where your stomach will turn and and to to make the audience Feel like their their the skin on their face is about to fall because the truth was told to them just two yards away on stage And and continue to this kind of work without any fear Uh, I know theaters will not be shut down here because you know, uh a sentence or a line just like they do in israel But you know the the hardest and the worst um censorship If you if you well here is lack of fun. So let's support each other with fun support each other to produce our pieces And and produce the unspeakable topics on stage And and good luck for all of you with all your projects and thank you for golden trade Thank you so much Palestinian people have been teaching life as Rahab Ziyadeh say for the last 75 years and you just Showed us what that means. I want to thank you so much for teaching us so many things And for sharing your voices. I just want to uh say that we're on time for our next session, but We think this um breath work is important for all of us So we're going to take five minutes from our next session everyone And folks tech folks if you can let the speakers in the room, that's fine. Just let them know that we're running a little behind Thank you very much Miranda and Wendy And i'm gonna hand it over to you manar and uh, we'll follow your lead. Thank you very much everyone Okay. Thank you. Shukran. Shukran jazeelan. So The invitation is to be comfortable right now I want you to scan your body Ask yourself Ask your body what is comfort? and Just take the moment and Follow the breath cycle just allow the deep inhale from your nostrils to take Deep inhale lift your upper torso as possible and then release through your mouth For those of you who have masks it's okay to keep wearing them or remove it just keep From your nostrils breathe in And release through your mouth by slightly opening keep the mouth open And the focus is on longer exhalation So you are responsible for how You are going to manage your inner landscape your energy This beautiful cycle that breathes breathe you so I want you to focus on letting go of Oh, here's my me thinking. What am I doing it right? I don't know Just just allow that thought to dissipate and stay focused on your breath And again the exhale Imagine you have a straw in your mouth And you're you're sending that out breath through the straw all the way directed to mother earth. You're doing fine Just breathe And back again deep inhale And exhale your way your comfort The longer you exhale and remember to slightly open your mouth with your exhale And allow sigh or just exhale feel the texture As you breathe out Listen to that dragon breath And drop your energy when you exhale As soon as you feel like you need oxygen you lift any part of you that needs to Enhance the in breath so you can lift your shoulders Head hands arms or just your internal being Breathe in. Yes yawning is wonderful stretch and then relax and that's where the focus go Please exhale The longer the better Just keep doing that you're doing great And remember that breath is breathing you You are not in control of how breath is breathing you you're moving out of the way To allow the cycle of breath To just Become that awareness When you drift into sleep Once you fall asleep you have no control not so ever about how the breath is breathing you so that's where This invitation is going to taking you on allowing the After all this information that you took in a lot was shared Just allow the focus to be on your Exhale That's a foundation from there. We can build up another layer, but before I hear a real exhale Follow your own comfort and follow that which is Breathing you allow that another exhale and sigh just sigh any opening Relax If it's hard to sigh just say Hold that out breath with the ah one syllable Keep ah Remember there's no right or wrong Way to do this just ah follow the out breath follow that Your way your pace Very good keep opening opening to your body opening to the breath and definitely Ah open to the syllable the vowel ah altogether. Ah Very good one more time. Ah open open to the breath open your mouth Ah just exhale. That's okay The longer you hold it the better Ah And any tension you hold in your jaw or your cheek you can massage facial massage is important A lot of the tension we hold in our shoulders and neck Let go with ah Release ah You can take care of you Ah open your jaw Bring attention to the breath and ask your body How else how can I bring more comfort to my body right now? Is it a stretch? Is it more oxygen? Is it a facial massage? You are in charge Of how you want to feel in your body more stretch Yes wiggle any part of you stand if you need to and let it go let it go let it go let it go Allow to scream very good very good one last ah everybody say ah arabic the word nefas means breath And the word similar to nefas nefs means soul And so I leave you with that that your breath Is the it's the key is the most important thing because it brings you closer to your soul And the truth of the light that you hold inside of you In fact also in Hebrew. I must say it's the same thing. They are the Three sister languages aramaic arabic in Hebrew and the word in Hebrew is Neshima for breath and listen to this soul meaning in Hebrew Neshama Nafs and nefs Neshima and Neshama Thank you so much for allowing me to do this. I appreciate that keep opening to the ah to the Allah in you It should probably take five minutes Next