NOMADIC SIGNALS: JOURNEY FROM GAZA TO BROOKLYN FEATURING HUDA ASFOUR & FARAH BARQAWI

ISSUE partners with Arab.AMP and 2020 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow (SFCF) Leyya Mona Tawil to present the sixth installment in her NOMADIC SIGNALS series, Journey From Gaza to Brooklyn, featuring composer Huda Asfour alongside poet and performer Farah Barqawi. The evening will begin with a reception at 6pm, followed by a presentation of work and Q&A moderated by the curator. NOMADIC SIGNALS is a vessel for sonic performance operating in what Tawil refers to as the “diasporic imaginary,” a description of how sounds change in the diaspora: how they tether to their environment, accumulate, synthesize, and adapt at each location.

After recently sharing the stage to perform words, tunes, stories and songs, Asfour and Barqawi – lifelong friends united by sisterhood and shared histories – have been living a revival of their first moments together back in Gaza City. Learning songs and performing them together on their stage from middle school (the “Latin Patriarchate School”, aka Dier Al-Latine as it was called), they have been expanding their work right in front of the church that is now housing hundreds of displaced people.

This Summer, the unique environment of ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater provides an ideal laboratory for experimentation, where the audience can experience projects in-process. In service of our community, ISSUE invites artists to engage with a space in transition, and to question infrastructural and curatorial boundaries.