Allston Way
Sunbird, Songs of Nectar—Hanan Masri & Walker Brents III
Hanan Masri & Walker Brents III
Location: Tamalpais Room
Time: 12:30 – 12:50 PM
Berkeley Poet Laureate Hanan Masri and storyteller/educator Walker Brents III discuss Palestinian-American poet and physician Fady Joudah’s poem, Sunbird, which centers birds as culture keepers, sometimes as refugees and migrants, harbingers of “promise notes” to lovers and families separated by currently drawn borders.
Presenter Bio
HANAN MASRI
Born of war and gardens, Hanan Masri is honored to be an ambassador and
devotee to poetry and service learning. A Berkeley teacher for nearly 3 decades,
she relishes the opportunity to support young people in finding their creative voice,
mostly at her school site of 25 years, Berkwood Hedge, the first racially integrated
school in Berkeley. A certified herbalist and nutritionist, her work explores themes
of land as an extension of ancestral longing, particularly the mitochondrial haunt of
her mother’s Palestinian-Lebanese lineage. Finally, Hanan is cofounder of High
Road Scholars, an education engagement business offering programming around
nature, indigenous cultures around the world, the arts, and movement for youth.
WALKER BRENTS III
Walker Brents III, poet, storyteller, oral essayist, mythographer and cultural
educator, has plumbed the depths of classical, mystical, and philosophical lore for
decades. He first came to the Bay Area in the very early 1980s, after studying
religion, philosophy and literature at Drury College and the University of North
Carolina. He teaches and tells stories at Berkwood Hedge School in Berkeley, and
presents monthly lectures on spiritual, counter-cultural, and historical themes at
Bird and Beckett Bookstore in San Francisco. He also tells tales drawn from
ancient epics at the Asian Art Museum.
Splitting Skies: Dancing For the Birds And Our Future
Eco-Performance Lab
Location: 2150 Allston Way
Time: 4:35 – 4:55 pm
“Splitting Skies” is a carnivalesque dance theater performance that delves into our intricate relationship with birds—migration patterns, habitat utilization, coexistence, and the shared spaces we inhabit. We aim to raise awareness about the effects of human interference and climate change on the avian world, while simultaneously celebrating their existence.
Presenter Bio
The Eco-Performance Lab (EPL) is an artistic ensemble and community of practice based on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The EPL creates theatre and dance productions and site-specific performance art that contribute artistic and expressive communication to societal conversations about the ecological emergency. By providing space, resources, performance opportunities, and a sense of shared purpose, the Lab empowers students and communities to take action, exercise their creativity, and overcome anxiety, despair, and overwhelm. The EPL is sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and funded by The Green Initiative Fund.
Flight Lessons: A Story That SingS
Deborah crooks
Location: Tamalpais Room
Time: 1:20 – 1:40 pm
Deborah Crooks details the inspiration behind and performs songs from “Flight Lessons,” her modern-day, mult-character folktale-in-song based on a true story about an urban pair of Peregrine falcons and the people with whom their lives intersect after one of the birds is shot.
Presenter Bio
Deborah Crooks (she/her) is a Bay Area-based performing songwriter, writer, master birder and longtime hawkwatcher for Golden Gate Raptor Observatory who performs and records under her own name and with the band Bay Station. Place-based and rooted in practice, her music has been described as “imaginative, cinematic, informative and entertaining.” Along with her solo work, she’s contributed to Deborah Slater Dance Theater, curated bird-themed art shows, produced 19 Voices in Solidarity fundraising concerts and written for multiple publications including No Depression, Northern Lights and Seal Press. Her most recent projects include the multi-character, bird-themed folk opera ‘Flight Lessons’ for which she received a Puffin Foundation Grant, and a new record with Bay Station, Mystery Ride.
A Dream of Flight: Scenes from Aristophanes’ The Birds
A Dream of Flight: Scenes from Aristophanes’ The Birds
The Eco-Performance Lab at UC Berkeley
Location: Goldman Theater
Time: 2:20 – 3:05 pm
A semi-staged reading of scenes from translations and contemporary adaptations of Aristophanes’ classic Greek comedy, The Birds, which imagines humans seeking refuge in an avian utopia amongst the clouds. Full of wisdom, irreverence, and vitality, The Birds takes a hard satirical look at the human tendency to build “castles in the air” instead of embracing the challenges and joys of living in the world as it is.
Performers Bio
The Eco-Performance Lab (EPL) is an artistic ensemble and community of practice based on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The EPL creates theatre and dance productions and site-specific performance art that contribute artistic and expressive communication to societal conversations about the ecological emergency. By providing space, resources, performance opportunities, and a sense of shared purpose, the Lab empowers students and communities to take action, exercise their creativity, and overcome anxiety, despair, and overwhelm. The EPL is sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and funded by The Green Initiative Fund.
