May 7, 2010   ~   8 – 10 p.m.
Eugene and Theresa Lang Performing Arts Center

Program

Welcome
Bennett Lorber '64

 

Poetry Reading
"Shrine"
Nathalie Anderson

 

Moment Musicale
Jandek's "Nancy Sings"
Mark Loria's "Mariella"
Thelonius Monk's "Crepuscule With Nellie"
Performed by Mark Loria '08

 

Poetry Reading
"Red-tailed Hawks"
W.D. Ehrhart '73

 

Dance Performance
"Plural"
Choreography by Pallabi Chakravorty
Lighting design by James Murphy
Performed by Pallabi Chakravorty, Diditi Mitra, and Amelia Sinkin
Music: Poetry by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, sung by Abida Parveen, CD (2005)
The English translation is from M.A.R. Habib's An Anthology of Modern Urdu Poetry. Thanks to Diditi Mitra and S.M. Shahed for helping to locate the translation.

"It is dusk. A pale moon emerges ... bearing hope"—simple words from a poet of complexity. Faiz Ahmed Faiz was a 20th-centur y poet, nominally Pakistani, but in ethos and spirit a voice of the land of five rivers—Punjab. Faiz wrote in Urdu, a language much like its land, a mix of Persian and Hindi, Muslim and Hindu. His poems are Ghazals: emotional landscapes of love, justice, humanism, and hope.

This piece is a dance-theater impression of the poetr y and melody of a Faiz com- position. The dance form is Kathak—like Urdu, Punjab, and Faiz—a synthesis, a cross-fertilization of Islam and Hinduism, pluralism practiced every day.

 

Poetry Reading
"Kissinger at the Louvre (Three Drafts)"
Daisy Fried '89

 

Theater Performance
"Meeley or The Fun of It"
Performed by Earth Speed Productions
With Stephanie Duncan '08 and Nick Forrest '08

"Meeley or The Fun of It" is the collaborative work of Stephanie Duncan and Nick Forrest, the co-founders of Earth Speed Productions. Based in Philadelphia, they create handmade performances that weave together music; experimental theater; and a delight in materials, language, and movement. Earth Speed is also how fast you are moving, right now, at this very moment. "Meeley" includes musical performances by Anna Ghublikian '08, created with Annie Fredrickson '07 and Tiana Pyer-Pereira '07.

 

Poetry Reading
"Untitled"
Kinei Braithwaite '08

 

Dance Performance
"Flight Attendants"
Directed by Jumatatu Poe '04
Performed by Jumatatu Poe and Michele Tantoco
Choreography and text by the performers
Costume design and props by Jumatatu Poe
Music by Special K, TV on the Radio

You are invited into the intense world of Ricky and Roz, two flight attendants on a trip that doesn't seem to be ending any time soon. Dancing to the music of Special K and TV on the Radio, they are at your service, bending over backwards, turning upside down, and fitting into the smallest of spaces to provide you with a comfortable voyage—kind of. Let's kindly take a moment to give them our attention, please.

 

Poetry Reading
"Human Resources"
(Written in celebration of Rebecca Chopp's inauguration as
President of Swarthmore College.)
Rowan Ricardo Phillips '96