December 2nd MAPP | CEASEFIRE NOW

In our December 2nd MAPP, 20 artists are coming together to hold space to acknowledge the tragic loss of thousands of innocent civilians, Palestinians, and Israelis, including countless children.

We invite our Mission District community, all communities, to this live, inclusive act of fundamental respect for life and liberation.

The evening will be led by artists and activists who have been rooted in this struggle for years.
They will be joined by local actors, poets, visual artists, and musicians to create a resounding active symphony of resistance, and healing.

We reject the dissonance of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, oppression, and all forms of violence.

In the tapestry of existence, each life is a precious thread, weaving a narrative of inherent worth and boundless dignity.

Our canvas is peace,
Our palette is understanding,
And our space is a world where dialogue and compassion paint the future.

Red Poppy Art House team

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Curator: Dina Zarif
Thanks to Amal Bisharat (Co-Curator) and Sahar Assaf (Golden Thread productions)
Presenter and space holder: Arielle Tonkin (Jewish Artivist)

7:00-7:05 pm      Opening note by Arielle Tonkin
7:05-7:35 pm       Clashes (Naima & Excentrik trio)
7:35-7:45 pm       The Gaza Monologues (Short play)
7:50-8:15 pm       Longing for Palestine (Violin, doumbek & Voice)
8:20-8:30 pm      Poetry reading with Priscilla Wathington
8:35-9:10 pm       Mornings in Jenin Musical (Amal Bisharat and collaborators)
9:10-9:20 pm       The Gaza Monologues (Short play)
9:30-10:00 pm     Melodies of Resilience (Ensemble with choir)

Altar installation “Fuego Creador” (Fire creator) by Arturo Méndez-Reyes
Live painting by Chris “C” Gazaleh, visual artist and muralist

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

MAPP (Mission Arts & Performance Project)

Launched in 2003, the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) is a homegrown bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural event that takes place in the Mission District of San Francisco. On the first Saturday of every even month of the year, the MAPP transforms ordinary spaces, such as private garages, gardens, living rooms, studios, street corners, and small businesses into pop-up performance and exhibition sites for a day/night of intimate-scale artistic and cultural exchange among a kaleidoscope of individuals and communities. Due to COVID-19, we had temporarily changed this dynamic program from an onsite to an online series. Thanks to the mastery and innovation of the presenting artists and curatorial vision we were pleased that the kaleidoscope of cultural exchange continued to be an incredibly enriching experience for the presenter and the viewer. We are glad that the days that we can safely present at our neighborhood venue have finally arrived and we are grateful for everyone’s ingenuity in making the online presentations meaningful and unique experiences.
This program is funded by the California Arts Council Impact Project Grant.
We will continue our work in presenting unique artistry to the communities that we serve.

RED POPPY MAPP TEAM:
Artistic Director | Managing Director: Dina Zarif
PR and Digital Marketing: Jennie D. Legary, Anjali Varma

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Arielle Tonkin | Presenter and Space holder
A mixed Ashkenazi/Sephardi and Arab Jewish artist and activist

Arielle Tonkin (they) is an artist, Spiritual Director, and scholar of art and Judaics (MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago) based on Ohlone land in so-called Berkeley, CA. Their artwork, rooted in painting, fibers, and social practice, centers on ritual and healing. Recent exhibition highlights include Morocco to the Bay: A Diasporic Prayerformance (2023) at Albany Bulb, CA; A Fence Around the Torah: Safety and Unsafety in Jewish Life (2021-2022) at the Jewish Museum of Maryland; Queering Jewish Diasporas (2019) at the Omni Commons, Oakland, CA; Orienting Action (2018) at the Rubin Frankel Gallery, Boston, MA; and Orienting Practice (2017) at the Sullivan Galleries, Chicago.

As a Teaching Artist, Arielle facilitates classes and workshops at universities, secondary schools, and organizations locally and nationally. Arielle is a Museum Educator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Prior, Arielle was a Public Programs Coordinator at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley and an administrator at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. Arielle also works as a Jewish educator and ritual facilitator, or a “para-rabbinic artist” primarily working with multi-faith and multiracial families, both independently and through various communities of practice. They are currently a Fellow in the Teaching Kollel at SVARA, they recently gave a workshop with Dr. Leyla Ozgur-Alhassen at UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and they teach on faculty at various organizations.

As a mixed Ashkenazi/Sephardi and Arab Jewish teen growing up in the Hudson Valley, NY, Arielle co-founded a Musim-Jewish dialogue project and learned that arts and cultural programming supported relationships grounded in dignity. Arielle continued to explore Muslim-Jewish arts organizing throughout the next 20 years and has been collaborating through the Muslim Jewish Arts Fellowship (MJAF) since 2014. Arielle exhibits artwork nationally, with some recent highlights including the Jewish Museum of Maryland; Omni Commons, Oakland, CA; the Sullivan Galleries, Chicago; and the Rubin Frankel Gallery, Boston, MA. Arielle’s activist organizing through arts and culture work is situated these days in the Mizrahi Collective, Tzedek Lab, and Jewish Youth for Community Action. Arielle weaves relationships and materializes conversations within specific networks of accountability, collective power, and care. Arielle’s artwork formalizes the belief that healing relationships can shift the fabric of social space and eventually, maybe, shift the physical world.

Clashes
An improvisational project for Palestine

Longing for Palestine | Poetry
Violin, darbuka, and voice trio

Music has long played a central role in Palestinian life, particularly during celebrations and festivals. Musical instruments like the oud and the qanun are beloved traditional instruments popular in Palestine and the wider region. Palestinian music came to regional prominence in 1936 with the launch of the Here is Jerusalem radio station. The political events of the 20th century have led to many songs about Palestinian feelings of exile, homesickness, and longing for freedom.

The years following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war saw the growth of nationalist music.
Some songs are commonly performed for specific occasions like the harvest season, weddings, funerals, and lamentations. Sometimes songs are introduced with a mawwal — a musical tradition in Palestine and neighboring countries in which the singer expresses sentimental feelings, often lamenting or longing for something like a place or a lover, over a slow rhythm with drawn-out pronunciation.

Featuring:
Loay Dahbour – Arabic hand percussion
Georges Lammam – Violin
Shaden Amleh – Vocal

Shaden Amleh, A Palestinian female and a music enthusiast. Grew up in the West Bank in a family who played music on different types of occasions. Participated in yearly musical concerts throughout school years. Moved to the United States and joined Aswat Ensemble. Directed the youth ensemble in San Jose in the year of 2019.

Georges Lammam of Palestinian descent, born in Beirut, Lebanon is a solo violinist exemplifying the Arab style of instrumental improvisation. A recording artist, composer, and artistic director for the Georges Lammam Ensemble, Georges is a featured artist in other musical groups – Ancient Future, Wobbly World, Shabazz, and Pena Pachamama Artists’ Ensemble and has recorded with outstanding singer/songwriter, Holly Near and Azam Ali (Niyaz). He is on the faculty at the Mendocino Music and Dance Camp in California.

He toured in Bolivia with renowned artists, Eddie and Gabriel Navia and joined stellar performers organized by Marcus Lovett, to support refugee families and humanitarians in the refugee camp in Chalkida, Greece, housing thousands of people from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Mr. Lammam, as an artistic emissary brings Arab arts and his cultural heritage to the fore in supporting Palestine – both the culture and the people. The Georges Lammam Ensemble brings the music of the Arab world to support Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza including performances at Dar al-Kalima University for Arts and Culture in Bethlehem, Palestine.

His compositions and performance excerpts are included in scores for two award-winning documentaries: “Occupation 101” and “Tea on the Axis of Evil”, and he recorded a well-known folkloric dabke in a 2016 feature film, “Wrestling Jerusalem” by Aaron Davidman. His CD discography is available on iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon.

Loay Dahbour, a Palestinian artist born and raised in Kuwait who immigrated to the United States in 1992, is a lead percussionist and percussion instructor for the Aswat Ensemble, and a videographer of short documentary films. He has played the doumbek (percussion); riq (tambourine); and daf (frame drum) for the Aswat Ensemble, and its smaller ensembles since 2007. He performed a fusion of jazz and Middle Eastern music in museums and other key venues in the Bay Area when he led San Francisco’s Sababa Band between 2009 and 2011. He has performed and toured with the Georges Lammam Ensemble. In 2013 he performed in the US tour of the Hanonah Palestinian Folk Band, one of the oldest and most prominent folk dance bands in the world. Loay has introduced both adults and youth to Middle Eastern music in both private and group lessons on the doumbek, riq, and daf through Zawaya and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2015 he recorded educational music tracks in the form of lullabies and folksongs for children. In 2019, he toured the US with the muwashshahat singer Noor Mhana and his band. Loay studied at the Middle Eastern Music Institute in Kuwait, the Mohsen Al Sawaf of the Massi Band in Egypt in 2003, and with Reda Darwish of the Hani Mhana Band in San Francisco.

 

Priscilla Wathington | Poetry
Palestinian American poet

Priscilla Wathington is the author of the chapbook, Paper and Stick (Tram Editions), which draws from her work with NGOs such as Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the Arab American Action Network. Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, Salamander & elsewhere. She is a Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) board member and an MFA candidate at Warren Wilson College.

 

 

Mornings in Jenin Musical
Alt-pop musical in development based on a Palestinian refugee

Selected songs and scenes from “Mornings in Jenin Musical” by Amal Bisharat. This new alt-pop musical in development is a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the internationally best-selling novel by the same name by Susan Abulhawa.

Featuring:
Amal Bisharat – Writer, composer, director, singer, guitarist
Sasha Saeed – Actor, singer
Mohamed Chakmakchi – Actor, singer
Maya Nazzal – Actor
Denmo Ibrahim -Actor

Amal Bisharat (she/her) is a Palestinian-American multidisciplinary artist: a theatre director, theatremaker, musician, actor, photographer, and yoga teacher. Bisharat holds a BA in Music and Theater and for 12 years worked as a director and music director in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District. She is currently in residence at Golden Thread Productions as co-producer and director for the 2023 ReOrient Festival of Short Plays. She is also currently in the process of creating her first musical, a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the best-selling novel Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Bisharat is a recipient of the 2022-23 Theater Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency Grant, the 2022 Theater Bay Area CA$H Creates Grant, and the 2023 San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant.

Bisharat is also an award-winning photographer, with her own arts-focused photography company, capturing the magic of professional dance, theater, and music performances for Bay Area groups like Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Sarah Bush Dance Project, and Alonzo King Lines Ballet. Bisharat believes in the transformative power of art and storytelling whether on a stage, in a photograph, or in the stories we tell ourselves.

 

Gaza Monologues
An International Project Advocating For The Rights of Children in Gaza

The Gaza Monologues were written in 2010, after the first war on the Gaza Strip. Youth From Gaza Tell Their Personal Stories About War and Siege. Tragically, these monologues are still accurate today. They highlight the experience, hope, and resilience of 31 courageous Gazan youth voices.

Two talented actors, Maya Nazzal and Denmo Ibrahim, will perform a few monologues from the Gaza Monologues project.

Maya Nazzal is a San Francisco-based actor. She is a first-generation Palestinian-American and is a fluent Arabic speaker. She received her BA in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University and recently trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. Her SFSU stage credits include Top Girls, The Laramie Project, The Baltimore Waltz, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, and Forever Chasing Smarts. When she is not on stage, Maya loves to spend her time solo backpacking around the world! She is beyond excited to be joining the Golden Thread Fairytale Players and is grateful for this opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

Denmo Ibrahim is an award-winning American actor and playwright of Egyptian descent. Regional acting credits include Berkeley Repertory, American Conservatory Theater, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, and Cal Shakes. Her plays have been developed and produced by Golden Thread, Noor Theatre, Arab American National Museum, Amphibian Stage, The Civilians R&D Lab, and Crowded Fire. Her audio-immersive children’s book, Zaynab’s Night of Destiny (Fons Vitae, 2021) toured public schools throughout Louisville and is now available in classrooms everywhere at zaynabbook.com. Denmo holds an MFA in Lecoq-based Actor Created Physical Theater (Naropa University) and a BFA in Acting (Boston University).

denmoibrahim.com\

 

 

 

 

 

Melodies of Resilience
Palestinian music showcase

Featuring:
Basma Edrees – Violin
Loay Dahbour – Arabic hand percussion
Ala -Oud
Hashem Abdel-Hadi – Guitar

And Aswat singers:
Amira Kotb
Shaden Amleh
Rana Mroue
Mohamed Nasser
Nasser Meerkhan

Basma Edrees is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her Masters in Violin Performance and Mannes School of Music where she received her Bachelor’s degree. She studied with Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Sally Thomas, and Catherine Van Hoesen. Basma has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Alan Gilbert and Daniel Barenboim. Basma has served as Associate Concertmaster of the Oakland Symphony during their 2015-2016 season. She has also been invited to sub for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Opera Orchestra as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony. Basma has performed as a soloist in various countries including the USA, Montenegro, Ethiopia, and her native country, Egypt.

Equally at home with Arabic music, Basma is the founder of Music in-Takht; an instrumental ensemble dedicated to preserving Egyptian musical heritage in the SF Bay Area. She performed with renowned musicians from the Arab world and has been invited to give Arabic Music workshops at UC Berkeley and Stanford. She has taught Arabic music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has also been a member of the Arabic Music faculty at Labyrinth; one of the leading educational institutions of modal music. In early 2023, Basma was invited to play on the soundtrack of Assasin’s Creed Mirage alongside members of the New York Arabic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2019, Basma Edrees held the position of Music Director of the Aswat Women Ensemble, an all female Bay Area community ensemble specializing in Arab music. She also served as the co-manager and instructor of the Aswat Women Empowerment Program during their 2019 Fall season; a program designed to empower women of Arab descent through the study of their own rich musical tradition.

Basma’s proficiency in Music Theory earned her assistant teaching positions as well as teaching fellowships at The Juilliard School while she was a student there. She studied Counterpoint with Robert Cuckson and Philippe Lasser. She has passed this knowledge on to her students as a member of the Music Theory faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she taught the art of Counterpoint herself. Basma is also a certified Suzuki violin teacher with expertise in starting beginner students of all ages on the violin. She also teaches the violin at the collegiate level at Santa Clara University.

Ala is a talented musician who brings a unique blend of cultural influences to his music. Raised in Tunisia, he began playing the traditional Oud instrument at a young age and comes from a family of master Arabic classical vocalists. His impressive career has taken him to stages around the world, including the Belford International Music Festival in France, the Cairo Arabic Music Festival in the Opera House of Egypt, and various music festivals in Tunisia. He has also performed with Aswat in the Bay Area since 2008, showcasing his expertise in classical Arabic music from the early 1900s, particularly in Adwar and Muachahat styles. With his rich musical heritage and diverse performance experience, Ala Kallel is a must-see musician for anyone interested in world music.”

Hashem Abdel-Hadi Hash is a Palestinian Musician, born and raised in Jordan. He loves practicing freedom of expression through all types of art, including Music, Art, and Architecture. He began his music journey at a young age, exploring what different instruments have to offer.

 

LIVE PAINTING BY MURALIST CHRIS “C” GAZALEH

Chris “C” Gazaleh is a visual artist, musician, writer, organizer, and educator from San Francisco. Gazaleh (38) has come a long way on his mission dedicated to promoting cultural, political, and social awareness about the history, people, and struggle for freedom in Palestine. Reigning from an upbringing submerged in hip-hop culture, he was dedicated to creating his style from a young age, starting with graffiti letters, and then characters. When Gazaleh was about 19 living in Detroit at the time he started to learn to read and write in Arabic, being the language of his ancestors he picked it up within months. At 21 Gazaleh decided to move back to San Francisco where he joined GUPS at SFSU and helped put up the Edward Said mural. After this Gazaleh began painting murals in the community eventually finding his own walls, one wall in Clarion Alley has been Gazaleh’s practice wall since 2012, the wall was given to him by the late graffiti legend CUBA. Since then Gazaleh has been working to spread awareness throughout the community and working with the youth in San Francisco with the hope of spreading knowledge and love, and to combat the negative stereotypes affecting people’s perspectives of Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians worldwide. Gazaleh uses many mediums to create his art, from ink to paint, digital illustration to spray paint. From murals to illustrations on paper and from graffiti-style pieces to brushwork on canvas, Gazaleh’s art comes from all angles.

 

 

MAPP GENERAL PROGRAM

IN PERSON EVENT DETAILS

Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Admission: Free 

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