Tentative Schedule

• Theater Festival
• Film Festival
• Literary Readings
• Workshops
• Dance Festival
• Music Festival

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Theater Festival

Eleanor Roosevelt: An Historical Performance Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 11, 1884. In 1905 she married Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a distant cousin). After Franklin became president, she joined the Women's Trade Union League, and began championing women's causes within the Democratic Party. From 1945 to 1951 she served as a United States delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and In 1946 she was elected chairman of the UN's Human Rights Commission, where she helped draft the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She also helped found UNICEF. She died in New York City on November 7, 1962.

Fear Opp: Stories from Baghdad and Guantanamo Bay, which includes a spontaneous reading involving the audience.

Killing the Boss, by Catherine Filloux. A writer on a grant to work in an unnamed country decides to buy a gun and kill the head of state, a war criminal. This wicked farce of logic and intention explodes like a caustic party popper when Eve—the American innocent in a garden of evil—tries out of fury, frustration, and addiction to her cause, to assassinate the Boss.

Little Red Riding Hood, An adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood that uses puppets, actors, pantomime and spoken text to focus attention on the plight of children in war zones and zones of conflict.

Movement Chair: Audience created dance and theater piece which examines how creative moments help build our culture, and look to movement and culture to find common ground.

Words of Choice: A woman's right to choose soars in a tapestry of 14 powerful 'shorts'—serious and comic.

Absolutely Amy (John Morogiello): about an apolitical girl who discovers on the eve of her wedding that her fiance was a black site torturer. By the end, she heeds the call of activism to stop torture and extreme rendition, and to punish those responsible.

The Beauty Inside (Catherine Filloux): this searing drama follows a promising young attorney who passes up a lucrative offer at a big American law firm to defend the survivor of an attempted honor killing in her native Turkey.

Crossing the Line (DAH Theater Company, Belgrade, Serbia): is based on the book Women's Side of War. The Piece includes selections from 120 authentic testimonies, reports, letters and memories of women about the wars fought on the territory of former Yugoslavia from 1991-1999, and focus on confronting the past and reconciliation, as well as individuals. All the testimonies are in the form of monologues. The DAH Theatre performance is an inspiration and introduction to informal open dialogue with the audience.

memor I am (Dennis Deter Performance, Germany): deals with an ongoing physical presence of staged dying. There is perhaps no more desensitizing aspect of contemporary culture than repetitive, staged violence passed-off as "entertainment." memor I am exlpores this insidious dynamic.

I am a Drum (Sybil Roberts): a one-woman reggae drama that addresses police brutality and women. It is a new play that chronicles the events surrounding the arrest and imprisonment of a pregnant Rastafari woman that is so brutal it threatens the life of her unborn child, and forces her to question her "heritage" as an "African" American citizen of this country.

Mosaic (Quest Theater Company): Dressed in identical black trench coats, five expressionless actors dart randomly across the stage. Gripped with fear they find security in their sameness. So begins Mosaic, an exploration of societal pressure to conform and the individual's need for freedom. Performed by Quest's international touring compan, Mosaic incorporates mime, movement, gesture, dance, and sign language.

White Noise (Wanderlust Theatre Lab): Written by Art Festival Producer Tom Block, "White Noise" follows an African-American painter on spiritual themes, Tim, as he struggles with interior demons, an increasingly bizarre exterior reality and , a scantily-clad Simone Weil, an historical figure that metastasizes as a figment of his own imagination. Having abandoned true faith, Tim grasps for "faith in faith," and in the end finds dubious consolation, alone in a bathroom.

The Last Sacred Place (John Becker): Jack Horner is a philosophy teacher whose pregnant wife is shot at random by a confused teenager. In between visits to his wife’s hospital room, he becomes convinced that society has snapped. In order to advance the cause of civilization, he decides to literally attack what he deems the most egregious aspects of society. He targets the NRA, an obnoxious day-time talk show host, and a right-wing politician who killed programs Jack felt would have, in their way, advanced evolution. A wanted man, he contacts a small town reporter, Ray Goldman, for an exclusive interview.

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Film Festival

A Blessing to One Another In the course of his papacy, John Paul II shattered the chain of 2,000 years of painful history between Catholics and Jews, becoming the first pope ever to enter a synagogue, officially visit and recognize the State of Israel, and formally engage in an act of repentance for the Catholic Church’s historical treatment of Jews.

Cities of Light: Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain Over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed land of southern Spain was was home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, living together and flourishing. Their culture and beliefs interwined, and the knolwedge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. Here were the very seeds of the Renaissance.

The Drum Major A short documentary film that explores Martin Luther King’s call for “a radical revolution of values” in his last and most challenging year: April 4, 1967 to April 4, 1968.

Encounter Point is a feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict.

Exiles in the Promised Land: The Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou looks at exile and promise, through the artistic lens of Jean-Paul Sartre. A raw and courageous look at humanity in existential crisis.

Power of Forgiveness: explores the role forgiveness holds in various faiths traditions. It provides an honest look at the intensity of anger and grief that human nature is heir to. We see in the film that there are transgressions people find themselves unwilling or unable to forgive.

Golub: The Late Works are the Castrophes: This Kartemquin film captures an
historic artistic journey, shared with his wife and studio partner of 50
years, the prominent anti-war and feminist artist, Nancy Spero. In some
wonderfully comic and touching scenes we see them as each other's most
valued critic and most ardent supporter. Golub continued in his later
paintings to "report" on what's going on in the world, but he does it with
the kind of dissonances and discontinuities that led Theodor Adorno in his
essay on Beethoven to proclaim, "In the history of art, late works are the
catastrophes."

Labor Stories (Kartemquin Films): Following the epic struggles of three separate unions, this
anthology includes three of Kartemquin’s classic labor films from 1975. The
collection not only serves as an important cultural artifact, but continues
to move and inform while carrying on the time-honored tradition of using the
camera as a force for social change.

Operation Lysistrata (Michael Patrick Kelly): Documents the theatrical protest that took place in March of 2003: The Lysistrata Project, the simultaneous readings of the play Lysistrata (in which the women of Athens organize a sex strike to stop a war) as a protest of the then-approaching war in Iraq. Lysistrata was performed over 1,000 times in all 50 states and 59 countries around the world on one single extraordinary day.

Prisoner of Her Past (Kartemquin films): Sixty years ago, Sonia Reich was hunted by the Nazis in Poland. Today, she is living those horrible times all over again. Her son, Tribune reporter Howard Reich, sought to find out why, and his search into her past is chronicled in this special report.

Race to Execution (Rachel Lyon): Explores the disturbing link between race and the death penalty in America. Following the stories of two Death Row inmates, the film reveals how race infects our capital punishment system.

Sterile Dreams (Jehan Harney): This original film features Elena, her neighbor, cousin, and friend as they try to cope with their forced sterilization. Their fate mirrors more than 80 other illegally sterilized minority Roma (Gypsy) women, whose cases were substantiated by the Czech Ombudsman and countless others in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Taylor Chain (Parts I & II) (Kartemquin Films): Part I depicts the gritty realities of a seven-week workers’ strike at a small Indiana chain manufacturing plant. In Part II, the filmmakers return to the Taylor Chain plant ten years later, in the middle of a recession, to capture the collective bargaining process. Amid anti-union legislation, global competition, and increasing pressure on both sides, labor and management must work together – against great odds – to save the plant.

Transition to Survivor (PAVE): Produced and directed by PAVE's Angela Rose, this powerful documentary features sexual assault survivors who tell emotional stories about their personal experiences, from reporting the crime to dealing with the aftermath of the violence.

World Vote Now (Joel Marsden): Explores at the possibility of building the first global democratic system so that every man and every woman can have an equal vote and decide on the biggest issues facing humanity together. The film takes the stance that a global democracy would guarantee and strengthen human rights around the planet.

Crossing into Dominica (Irene Herrera): a documentary on migrant women in the Dominican Republic whose children are currently stateless.

Impact (Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert): is an animated video project that describes the experiences of family members of prisoners on death row, in their own words.

Out of Cordoba (Jacob Bender): Profiles people of faith struggling against the hijacking of their religions by extremists. The film centers on individuals who, inspired by two medieval thinkers — Averroes the Muslim, and Maimonides the Jew — are promoting the values of democracy and tolerance.

Women in Refuge: Stories from a Border (Irene C. Herrera): a documentary on women that have fled Colombia's internal conflict and have made their way to Venezuela.

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Literary Readings

Sidney Axinn - A Moral Military: In this new edition of the classic book on
the moral conduct of war, Sidney Axinn provides a full-length treatment of
the military conventions from a philosophical point of view. Axinn considers
these basic ethical questions within the context of the laws of warfare:
Should a good soldier ever disobey a direct military order? Are there
restrictions on how we fight a war? What is meant by "military honor," and
does it really affect the contemporary soldier? Is human dignity possible
under battlefield conditions?

Amani Elkassabini - The Barber's Son: When the evening sky gave birth to a
crescent moon above the small village of Qalyub north of Cairo, al-Hagg
Ridwan found himself outside the barbershop. He turned to his wife and
daughter and said, "Wait here." Come and hear what happens next . . .

Angelica Harris - Excalibur Reclaims Her King: Come hear Angelica Harris
read from her most recent book, Excalibur Reclaims Her King, where she tells
the story of a woman escaping abuse, conquering the rage, and becoming a
hero in 6th Century times.

Linda Rabben - Fierce Legion of Friends: A History of Human Rights Campaigns
and Campaigners: "A stirring history of human rights campaigns over the
centuries—vividly described, intelligently assessed. There is both
information and inspiration in this valuable book." —Howard Zinn

Caryn West - The Trouble with the Alphabet: The book illuminates the world’s
injustice in a compelling and unforgettable manner. It invites the reader to
consider these issues through vibrant portraits illustrating the emotion
and vulnerability of each child. It challenges indifference and apathy
through poetic messages delivered as if through a child’s eyes; messages
that cut through the rhetoric and pierce the heart and soul.

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Workshops

The arts festival will offer a learning component, and a series of workshops, talks and lectures. They will explore the intersection of art, activism and the general society. These will be opportunities to exchange ideas with activist artists, as well as expand understanding of how art can be used for positive social transformation.

• Sybil Roberts (Playwright, Catholic Univeristy): A panel about Black and Latino female playwrights.
• Words of Choice (Pro-Choice Theater): Creativity workshops, including poetry, theater, spoken word and film.
• Theater of the Oppressed (activist theater): a series of workshops, audience participation scenes and introduction to Theater of the Oppressed.
• Karen Bradley will run a workshop on embodied peacemaking, which empowers people to become peacemakers.
• Karen Bradley will present Crossing Borders, which examines non-verbal information regarding others and how we can learn to change our initial, often pejorative reactions.
• Kiva Fecteau: there have been different ideas through time and geography about whether using one's left hand is just different, or wrong, dirty, or even evil. This workshop highlights those differences and uses them as an example of how we can learn to understand, tolerate, and eventually value differences. Kiva will also demonstrate interactively the oppressive nature of making people act in ways unnatural to who they are by involving everyone in an exercise using their dominant and nondominant hands.
• Linda Kronman - workshop participants expand their action space through fun activities where war related clothes are transformed to artifacts that promote human rights.
• Jason Reed will give an introduction to his Borderland Youth initiative, which uses creative mediums to add the personal perspectives of youth from backgrounds such as Sudanese, Native American, Latino, Burmese, Iraqi, Filipino, Rwandan and many other cultures who live in the US/Mexico borderland region.
• Amnesty International's Advocay Home Base: stop by and write letters, sign petitions and get involved with Amnesty's non-violent struggle to bring social transformation to a world desperately in need of it.
• Borderland Youth: co-founders Jason Reed and Ryan Sprott will lead a workshop on participatory photography practices in public schools and local communities.
• Pyramid Atlantic will run a series of papermaking workshops.
• Scott Langley will give a presentation about his work documenting the implementation of the death penalty in America. He has been onsite at many executions and offers a unique perspective on this horrifying example of American justice.
• Tayla Ealom (University of Colorado) will run a workshop about transforming the pain of true-life stories from the Rwanda massacre into an art project that uses art for socially-transformative purpose. The workshop utilizes video and poetry, as well as interactive performance.
• Jay Fuhrman will run a workshop concerning making political art: turning the specific into the universal. Mr. Fuhrman has been creating his own tranfsormative art for nearly 50 years.
• The International Domestic Violence Memorial will run two workshops. One is entitled: Inside/ Outside and uses created art to explore and notice the self that you let people see on the outside and the self that is on the inside or underneath. The second is entitiled: Helping Hands, Healing Hands Mandala, and involves creating hand-shaped works of art that are collected into a Mandala.
• JumpStart Media will introduce a film they produced on their experience of living, show it, and then have a discussion with the filmmakers—Ward 6 (Washington D.C.) at-risk youth.
• Claire Schwadron (Project Youth ArtReach) will run a a panel on using the arts as a means of restorative justice and/or “restoration” within correctional institutions.
• Theaters Against the War (THAW) will show screen film "Five Mondays" about a series of vigils they have undertaken to expose the current effects of the “war on terror” in eroding human rights and civil liberties here in the US. This will be followed by a discussion.
• Anne Bouie: will run a hands-on workshop using mixed media, assemblage, paint and drawing to express and advocate for social change.
• Gandhi Brigade: Will screen 2 short documentaries made with peers in El Salvador from their Crossing Borders youth media exchange project. The screening will be followed by a panel of Gandhi Brigade youth and a skype conversation with the Salvadoran youth producers.
• Rob Gerhardt: Photographer Rob Gerhardt will run a portfolio review/group critique that will discuss not only the work, but issues surrounding photojournalism.
• Serenity Knight: The presentation will use video, poetry and discussion to discuss transforming the pain of true-life stories about survivors of the Rwanda massacre, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, political prisoners of Ethiopia and the lost boys of the Sudan and the Congo into a form of visual social commentary and a long suffering series of artworks that transform the human condition.
• Michael Mack (Palatine Hill Production Company) will lead a discussion about stereotyping in the arts and media.
  
• Michael Mack: In his talk "A Thread of Drama," social artist Michael Mack ("The Drum Major") shares what he believes to be the role that drama has played as a life tool from prehistoric times to the present.
• Michael Mack: "Escape on the Pearl From Book to Screen: A Conversation with Filmmaker Michael Mack and Author Mary Kay Ricks." Michael will lead a discussion about Mary Kay Ricks' book concerning the largest attempted slave escape of the underground railroad. He will lead a discussion with the audience about translating this history into a compelling film.
• Michelle Johnson Major: (ATC) workshop. Artist Trading Cards (ATC) are small works of art the size of a playing card. People create these works of art and trade them with others to build a collection-kind of like a modern day baseball card. Often times the ATC is a collage piece using photographs or stamping in addition to painting or drawing. The ATC can be anything, even expressive writing!
• Angelica Harris: Finding your Hero within the Rage, Angelica Harris fought
  against her rage for years until she found her inner heroine within the
  fabric of the characters she wrote about. Angelica can inspire you to
  explore your rage and find your hero through creative writing and character
  development.
• Scene and Heard: is a youth theater collective that experiments with giant puppetry, spoken word, theater, music, dance, videography, and other forms of art to produce community events and shows committed to recognizing the truth of history and the preservation of social justice.

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Dance Festival

Jessica Chen (NY): “Essence,” which is a trio inspired by a story of a woman in China, Mao Hengfeng. This woman, breaking China’s one-child policy, gave life to three beautiful girls. Against the Chinese government’s demands, she protects and provides for her daughters. This athletic piece sheds light on Hengfeng’s struggle with the government.

City Dance Ensemble II (DC): a professional dance company and the main performance group in CityDance’s extensive community outreach programs. CD2 has taken the stage in New York City and Dance Place in Washington, DC.

Liz Lehrman Dance Exhange (MD):

Movement of the People (NY): dedicated to unearthing historic and present socio-political issues that plague the world we live in, through the healing elements of dance. This dance group believes in the power of humanity, and its ever present capability to change through the recognition of our unfinishedness.

Eugenia Park (MA): Tango Zen: Tango was severely persecuted with dance halls being closed and milongueros (dancers) arrested during the times of Perron in Argentina. Argentine tango is not the same as show tango, but rather a dance of connection between people without words.

Silk Road Dance (DC): women's dances from the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, China and the Caucasus. The ensemble's performances offer a unique glimpse of the life, culture, and art of little known regions.

Urban Artistry (DC): the growing reflections of the street legends, strangers, and visionaries who had a story to tell about their cultures in hope that someone would see, remember, and hear their voices. Years of research opened the doors to a wealth of historical content, vocabulary in movement, along with the freedom to diversify.

Vijay Palaparty: A classical Indian dance titled Mahashakti, which is a spiritual piece rooted in Hinduism. It relates to notions of equality and peace.

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Music Festival

Aligning Minds
Andalusian Dog
The Andalusians
Maria Jose Ugalde Alcazar (singer/songwriter)
Harry Appelman Trio
The Black Sparks
Club Scout
Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer
East Coast Caravan
Karla Lara
Ben Lear
Little Bigheart and the Wilderbeast
Lucky Dub
Melonheads
MEM Music
Musica Viva
Rattlemouth
Roya Bahrami
TNTrio

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