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Middle East Solos: Out of Context, Creating a New One

Publication: American Theatre | Posted: Mar 29, 2016

Original post
Amira Chebli's "In-Situ." (Photo by Ian Douglas)

In-Situ by Amira Chebli. Photo by Ian Douglas

“They’re not there to talk about gender, but obviously it stems from a feminine and feminist perspective,” said Hafez. And, as there is a prevalent American media depiction of Middle Eastern women as disempowered, audience members who entered the venue drunk on that spiked Kool-Aid were likely to leave sobered up by the diversity and evident power of the performers. Said choreographer and NYLA artistic director Bill T. Jones, who conceived the festival with Kriegsmann, “We think [women from the MENA region] are oppressed or deluded. Then we see these women expressing themselves as individuals. That’s important for us to see.”