EVENTS
Anna Martine Whitehead’s S P R E A D
Recent Events
Daring Curation
This public conversation brings together performing arts curators to discuss how they imagine, support, and build communities and worlds through public arts programming, with a particular focus on how curators take risks.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2024
Dancing Lab: Mga Tsismosa
The National Center for Choreography - Akron (NCCAkron) and Daring Dances join forces for Dancing Lab: Mga Tsismosa! Learn more about this Experiment in Coalition here.
JUNE 2023
Guinea Sweet Suite
Culminating performance by T. Ayo Alston and Ayodele Drum and Dance at the Keene Theater.
MARCH 12, 2022
West African Dance and Drum: Community, Identity, Storytelling
T. Ayo Alston in conversation with guest speakers from the Detroit West African community, Ajara Alghali and Crettia Hunter, as well as University of Pennsylvania dance scholar Dr. Jasmine Johnson.
MARCH 10, 2022
T. Ayo Alston in Residence at UM
T. Ayo Alston comes to Ann arbor for a week of guest teaching, panel conversations and performance.
MARCH 7-13, 2022
Upcoming Events
Artistry & Resistance: Experiments in Palestinian American Artmaking
Wednesday, December 4
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST
Haven Hall 3512
505 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Artmaking is always an experiment– a testing of possibilities meant to create new meanings or forms and/or to teach audiences new ways of looking. Artistic experiments also often re-imagine pre-existing forms and histories and bring these into new spaces or moments in time. This roundtable brings together artists working in film, dance, and sound whose experimentations focus on bringing attention to important themes of Palestinian life, joy, and resistance.
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Wael Buhaissy, Founder and Artistic Director of Al Juthoor;
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Umayyah Cable, filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Arab American/Muslim American Studies & American Culture;
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Leila Mire, PhD candidate of Performance Studies at UC Berkeley and member of Al Juthoor;
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Leyya Mona Tawil, Creator of Lime Rickey International & Curator with the Arab American National Museum, Daring Dances, and Arab.AMP
Moderated by Clare Croft, Daring Dances curator and Associate Professor of American Culture
Co-sponsored by the Arab American and Muslim American Studies program, Arab.AMP ARAB.Amp, the Arab American and Muslim American Studies program, the Arab American National Museum, Daring Dances, and the Global Islamic Studies Center.
Listening for Land - Al Juthoor of the Arab Diaspora
Friday, December 6
8:00 PM EST
Arab American National Museum (AANM)
13624 Michigan Ave, Dearborn, MI 48126
In-person & livestream registration HERE
Al-Juthoor (“Roots”) of the Arab Diaspora from the Bay Area, is a celebrated Dabke troupe that raises awareness about Arab and Palestinian struggle, culture, and art. Their powerful dances are fueled with pride as they cue our collective resistance. Al Juthoor Choreographer Wael Buhaissy will work with local dancers from Thowra Dabke for a group performance and the evening will be layered with performances by Huda Asfour (oud) and Farah Barqawi (poetry), sharing excerpts from “Journey from Gaza to Brooklyn”.
University of Michigan students have the opportunity to attend the performance through the Art Outta Town Program, a subsidized program that provides travel and tickets to art events off-campus. $5 tickets for the Art Outta Town’s trip to AANM for the Dabke performance will go on sale HERE in early November.
Palestinian Dabke Workshop with Al Juthoor of the Arab Diaspora
Saturday, December 7
1:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Arab American National Museum (AANM)
13624 Michigan Ave, Dearborn, MI 48126
In-person: FREE with RSVP
Al-Juthoor (“Roots” in Arabic) of the Arab Diaspora is a Dabkeh troupe that raises awareness about Arab and Palestinian struggle, culture, and art. Directed by Wael Buhaissy, Al-Juthoor empowers our community and youth to take pride in our heritage, our past, and our future by honoring our history and celebrating our resistance. Across the borders of our diaspora, we assert our community’s connection to our deep roots in the land and the people throughout the Arab world, from Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine.
Director Wael Buhaissy of bay-area based Al Juthoor of the Arab Diaspora will lead this Palestinian Dabke workshop. Open to all levels, you’ll be in a welcoming environment to learn basic dabke steps and phrases, with more advanced variations introduced as well.
This event is part of The Sounds We Keep, curated by Leyya Mona Tawil. The Sounds We Keep is a performance series by AANM guest curator Leyya Mona Tawil, Director of Arab.AMP. Experimenting with themes inherent to our diaspora, the artists in this series use sound, voice, composition and movement in an attempt to create a record of our journey and invoke our future. Each program brings together Arab American artists from separate regions of the U.S. This tuning of diasporic forms through music and performance reveals the complexity of our cultural references through the instruments, the approaches and conversations that ensue.