Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Elia Arce
(work) 713.524.7821
(e) elia@vbbarts.org
(url) www.vbbarts.org

Voices Breaking Boundaries presents
2005-2006 SEASON

Houston, TX (September 2, 2005) – This year, Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) will continue its dynamic tradition of packing a full schedule of commissioned work, collaborative programming and political punch through a rich array of ultidisciplinary presentations. Some of the highlights include a commissioned documentary on women from Chiapas, a dance performance by Palestinian youth, and teen art exhibitions and recording sessions. In May VBB will present its fourth Words for Peace, an annual event through which issues of global peace are explored: this year VBB is flying in writer and activist Anthony Arnove to kick off dramatic readings from Voices of a People’s History, a book he coauthored with Howard Zinn. Valiente, our biennial award will be given to writer Farnoosh Moshiri, an Iranian exile who has written extensively against the Iranian regime.“More than ever, we are conscious of the urgent need to bring together people of all ages, races, sexual preferences and class backgrounds to address global issues through a mix of artistic disciplines,” says Founding Director Sehba Sarwar. “It’s important to us to remain grassroots and work on issues that affect people’s lives everyday—whether they happen in Haiti, Iran or right here in Houston, Texas.”

Antzetik lom tulan chi’x yayic: Women with Strong Blood
Dir. Arie Hidalgo, Mexico. 2005. 52 minutes. Color.
Bush’s Beans presents Mariachi MECA
Sunday, October 2, 2005, 7:00 PM
General admission: $5 (no one turned away)
DiverseWorks: 1117 E Freeway, Houston (77002)

Antzetik lom tulan chi’x yayic: Women with Strong Blood is centered on the testimonials of indigenous women from Chiapas, Mexico and features a documentary (commissioned by VBB) produced by San Cristobal resident Arie Hidalgo and Colombian immigrant Carolina Herrera. Also included in this program are: a talk by anthropologist and activist Christine Kovic, co-editor of Women of Chiapas; famous Mariachi MECA under the direction of Alan Arce; arts and crafts from Chiapan women on display and for sale; and snacks and refreshments by Cinia Gonzalez. Strong Blood is curated by Arie Hidalgo, Carolina Herrera, Sehba Sarwar, and Oskar Sonnen. This event is cosponsored by DiverseWorks and Multi-Cultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA).

Haiti: The Untold Story (53 minutes, color)
Directed by: Kevin Pina (Flashpoints correspondent and filmmaker)
Thursday, November 3, 2005, 7:30PM
General admission: $5 (no one turned away)
The Black Labrador Pub: 4100 Montrose, Houston (77006)

Since the forced ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, thousands of followers of his Lavalas Family political party have been killed, forced into hiding or exile, jailed and hunted down by the USinstalled government of Gerard Latortue. All of this occurred under the watchful eyes of the “international community.” This documentary is but a small glimpse into recent events in Haiti that tell the untold side of the story. Kevin Pina will be present for the screening! This show is cosponsored by the Black Labrador Pub and KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM.

IBDAA: Palestinian Youth
Friday, November 11, 2005, 7PM
General admission: $20 general, $15 students, $10 children/seniors/ Free for Katrina Survivors
Texas Southern University, Granville M. Sawyer Auditorium, Houston (77004)

Ibdaa is an internationally acclaimed Palestinian dance troupe composed of youth from the Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestine. Ibdaa's renowned dance troupe of ten boys and ten girls has performed in festivals and events in Palestine and more than ten countries around the world. Through traditional folkloric dance and theater, the troupe depicts the history and aspirations of Palestinian refugees. Proceeds benefit Ibdaa Cultural Center in Dheisheh. This show is cosponsored by Arab Voices, ADCHouston, The Arab-American Cultural and Community Center (ACC), Free Press Houston, and Palestine American Council.

Lee High School Artists: Recording Session
Friday, December 9, 2005, 3:15 pm
General admission: Free (reservations required)
Lee High School, 6529 Beverly Hill Lane, Houston (77057)

Recording Session is a culmination to a Fall Lee High School after-school workshop that incorporated, visual art, writing and music. The workshop will be led by Dave Dove (Deep Listening Institute Director), Leslie Hewitt (Core member, Glassell School of Art), Jason Jackson (Deep Listening Institute student) and writer Sehba Sarwar (VBB Founding Director). During the two months of working together, students who engage in a variety of improvisational exercises will present their final work at an open recording session. This project is made possible in part by the After-School Initiative (ASI) and is cosponsored by Lee High School and Deep Listening Institute Houston. ASI is collaboration between the Education Foundation of Harris County and Harris County Department of Education’s CASE (Cooperative for After-School Enrichment) division.

Double screenings of Kevin Pina’s documentaries
Haiti: Harvest of Hope (1998, 57 min) and
Haiti: The Untold Story (2005, 53 min)
Friday, January 13 and Saturday, January 14, 2006, 7:30 pm
Admission: $5.00 (no one turned away)
Addisaba Ethiopian Restaurant, 7668 De Moss Drive, Houston (77036)

Two of Kevin Pina’s insightful documentaries about Haiti will be served along with delicious Ethiopian food. Haiti: Harvest of Hope is the quintessential primer for understanding the roots of the current crisis in Haiti. The film dramatically captures seminal moments in the history of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Lavalas movement that swept him into the presidency in December 1990. The second screening for the night is Pina’s new documentary Haiti: The Untold Story (previously screened on November 3, 2005), about Haiti after the ousting of Aristide in 2004. Cosponsored by La Nouvelle Generation.

Thirteenth Annual Iranian Film Festival
Presented by the Museum of Fine Arts and Rice Cinema and co-sponsored by VBB
January 20 - February 12, 2006
Admission: Visit www.mfah.org for schedule details and links
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Rice Cinema, and the Children's Museum of Houston

Making Houston a part of a North American circuit showcasing highly-touted Iranian national cinema, the 13th Annual Houston Iranian Film Festival will span four weekends with screenings of more than 20 films at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Rice Cinema; and the Children's Museum of Houston. Programming will feature new and recent dramatic features, documentaries, personal appearances,
and an animated children's film. This Festival is also cosponsored by The Asia Society Texas.

Dosti 2006: A Forum on Peace and Development in South Asia
Presented by Dosti and co-sponsored by VBB
Sunday, January 22, 2006 3:00-7;30 pm
Admission: Free but registration required (http://www.pakindiadosti.org/)
Grand Hall, Ley Student Center, Rice University, Houston (77004)

Dosti 2006 is an occasion for Pakistanis, Indians and people of all nationalities to come together and work for peace. This year is the third such gathering and VBB’s Displaced Corps performance group along with musicians from Houston’s Deep Listening Institute will present the opening act. The performance aims to be in sync with Dosti’s vision: to create a space where people come together to talk about peace and harmony in South Asia. This year, Dosti will focus on exploring the positive impact peace can have on economic and social development. Dinner will be served. Dosti 2006 is also cosponsored by the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America, the Association for India's Development, and Rice University's South Asian Society.

Bellaire High School Students: 3 Dangerously Cool Artists
February 17 – March 17, 2006
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, February 17, 2006, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: Free
VBB Shotgun House, 2519 Holman (77004)
3 Dangerously Cool Artists is the first group show by young visual artists who attend Bellaire High School. Alyssa K. Barrineau, Nuria Bravo, and David Mendoza work in a variety of mediums. Between the three, the work focuses on structural concerns such as composition, form, and lighting; emotional concerns rendered from a personal language; and the intersections of popular and high art trends.

South Asian Writers Speak: Women, War and Trauma
Presented by South Asia Institute and Center for Women and Gender Studies, University of Texas at
Austin; cosponsored by VBB
Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 2:00-5:00 pm
Admission: Free
WCH building, 4th floor, Meyerson Room, UT-Austin, Austin, TX

In honor of International Women’s Day, a group of six South Asian writers (from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) will present a talk and readings to students at the University of Texas – Austin on the role of women in literature in times of war and trauma. The six writers, Sorayya Khan, Waqas Khwaja, Mahmud Rahman, Alka Roy, Sehba Sarwar and Ilona Yusof offer a wide spectrum of perspectives on living through wartime and trauma, either in their native countries or abroad. The topics will range from partition narratives to natural disasters (like the recent earthquake in northern India and Pakistan and the effects of these moments on the female population, domestic violence, religious intolerance, and ethnic and economic exploitation of women). All writers will also present a panel at the Association
of Writers and Writing Programs convention the following day in the Austin Convention Center.

Hardly Soft: a mixed media installation
Anila Quayyum Agha & Marie Weichman
March 24 – April 28, 2006
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, March 24, 2006, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: Free
VBB Shotgun House, 2519 Holman, Houston (77004)

Both Marie Weichman and Anila Quayyum Agha have their art practices steeped in socially compelling works based on identity and gender roles. Agha states: “My current works are a series of collaged drawings that incorporate a combination of translucent and opaque effects on paper, representing the many facets of women in the abstract. The end result of my use of the stylistic overlapping of form, color, and patterning is that of a therapeutic encounter with a sublime excess.” Weichman has created a response to Agha’s work to “make parallels and construct differences that
result from our environment, circumstances and upbringing alongside genetics,” thereby taking dialogue a step further to “find these differences endearing and enlightening, making me understand the importance of diversity within this so called humanity.”

2006 Valiente Award: FARNOOSH MOSHIRI
Friday, March 31, 2006, 6:00-900 pm
Admission: tickets start at $50
House of Linda Marroquin, 3310 W Main, Houston (77098)
Valiente is a VBB biennial event honoring artists who take risks in their work to speak out on social justice issues. This year’s Valiente (courage) Award goes to writer Farnoosh Moshiri. Born in a literary family in Tehran, Iran, Moshiri received degrees from the College of Dramatic Arts of Tehran, the University of Iowa and the University of Houston. She is the author of the novels Against Gravity (just
released), The Bathhouse, and At the Wall of the Almighty and a collection of short stories, The Crazy Dervish and the Pomegranate Tree. Among the many literary awards she has received are the Barthelme Memorial Fellowship, the Barbara Deming Fiction Award for Peace and Social Justice and two consecutive Black Heron Press Awards for Social Fiction. Moshiri fled Iran in 1983 after a massive
arrest of secular intellectuals, feminists, and political activists. She resided in Houston from 1987 to 2003 and is currently an associate professor of English at Syracuse University in New York. The gathering, held at the home of Linda Marroquin will include a talk on immigration issues by Lee High School students, music from youth and the director of the Deep Listening Institute and delectable
refreshments.

Cultural Narrative: David Barsamian
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Admission: $5.00 (no one turned away)
Artery Houston, 5401 Jackson @ Prospect (entrance on Prospect), Houston (77004)

David Barsamian is director of Alternative Radio, the award-winning internationally syndicated program which airs in Houston on KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM, on Wednesdays at 2PM. Over the years, Barsamian has written book-length interviews with many well-known activists such as Arundhati Roy: The Checkbook & the Cruise Missile, Tariq Ali: Speaking of Empire and Resistance, and Noam Chomsky: Imperial Ambitions. Barsamian has written Louder than Bombs and The Decline & Fall of
Public Broadcasting. He is the winner of the Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism and the 2006 Democracy Media Award. An internationally celebrated activist and a powerful speaker, Barsamian will speak on “Another World is Possible: People Power in the Age of Empire.” This event is co-sponsored by the Artery.

Gulf Coast (dis)placed Presented by Houston I-Fest and cosponsored by Voices Breaking Boundaries
Sunday, April 23, 2006, 5pm-6pm
Literary Stage, Houston International Festival (www.ifest.org)
Downtown Houston (77002)

Gulf Coast (dis)placed) features writers from Houston's Displaced Corps: Leslie Guana, Vivek Mittal, John Pluecker, Sehba Sarwar and Nicole Zaza who will reading selections from their work. Displaced New Orleans musicians David and Roselyn will present jazz/folk/blues music. This show is curated by John Pluecker, a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award. This grant is funded by the City of Houston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County.

Words for Peace 4: Dramatic Reading of Voices of a People's History
Sunday, May 7, 2006, 7:00 pm
Admission: $5.00 (no one turned away)
DiverseWorks Artspace, 1117 East Freeway, Houston (77002)

A dynamic multi-media event that features local artists/activists rendering a dramatic version of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Artists include: Paula Anicete, Hitaji Aziz, Duane Bradley, City Council Member Ada Edwards, Chuck Jackson, Autumn Knight, Vivek Mittel, John Pluecker, Sehba Sarwar, Anita Wadhwa, Chris Nevarez and Irma Estrada from Lee High School and Colbe Beaver and Khefren Savannah from Community Builders
Cadre. Event includes talk by Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal and telephone introduction by Howard Zinn. After-party on the dock features open mic and poetry performed by EQuality, graffiti art by Hyroglifx Koncepts, capoeira by Grupo de N'Golo, music by Free Radicals, home-made delectables by Nusrat Malik, and much more. Tabling by numerous organizations
including Jovenes Immigrantes Por un Futuro Mejor (Immigrant Youth for a Better Future) and the Organization of Chinese Americans. This event is cosponsored by DiverseWorks and KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM.

VBB also offers education programs for teens and adults.
Please visit our website, www.vbbarts.org, for information