Friday, May 8, 2009

THE TAXI PROJECT

The community and race relations committee of peterborough (CRRC) is proud to present
THE TAXI PROJECT
a play about exile

When: This Saturday May 9th at 7 pm
Where: Prince of Wales Public School Auditorium, 1211 Monaghan Rd (at Sherbrooke)
FREE
Not recommended for young children

An original play exploring issues of freedom of expression and the complex realities of living in exile, the play follows four characters forced to leave their home countries and the struggle to create a new life in Canada.

Weyni Mengesha (Director) is a Dora nominated director and composer who was born in Vancouver to Ethiopian parents. Her credits include Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun (Soulpepper Theatre Company/Theatre Calgary); director/dramaturge of d’bi.young.anitafrika’s Dora award winning play blood.claat (Toronto, Vancouver, MontrĂ©al, New York); director/co-writer for Blink (Soulpepper Theatre Company/Luminato); and director/composer of trey anthony’s hit play da kink in my hair (Toronto, New York, London).

Emma Beltran (Playwright) is a poet from Mexico. Since 1994 she has been involved in the struggle of indigenous peoples, facilitating poetry and popular theatre workshops for women and children throughout Mexico. Beltran was a founding member of the first community radio station in Mexico’s history during the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1999. Exiled in Canada since May 2002, Beltran was an award-winning artist selected for Artscape’s Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency Program in 2005.

Martha Kuwee Kumsa (Playwright) is an Oromo, born and raised in Ethiopia. She worked as a journalist there until being imprisoned early in 1980. She spent 10 years in jail and was released upon the intervention ofPEN and Amnesty International. PEN Canada adopted her as an Honorary Member while she was in prison and helped bring her to Canada after her release. Martha completed her PhD at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfred Laurier University.

Sheng Xue (Playwright) grew up in Beijing. She moved to Canada soon after the June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. In 2000 she won the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Investigative Journalism and the National Magazine Award. In 2001 Sheng Xue investigated China’s most prominent smuggling case and published a book (in Chinese and Japanese), Unveiling the Yuan Hua Case, which soon became a bestseller in Chinese communities outside of China and created shockwaves both inside and outside the country. Sheng Xue is a member of the Editorial Board of June 4 Poetry, a collection of poems commemorating the June 4th Movement.

Goran Simic (Playwright) was born in Bosnia and has published many volumes of poetry, drama and short fiction. His work has been translated into nine languages and published and performed in several European countries. One of the most prominent writers of the former Yugoslavia, Simic and his family were trapped in the siege of Sarajevo. In 1995 they were able to settle in Canada as a result of a PEN Freedom to Write Award. In 2003 Brick Books published Simic’s first full collection of poems in Canada, Immigrant Blues, translated by Amela Simic.

PEN Canada works on behalf of writers, at home and abroad, who have been forced into silence for writing the truth as they see it. To find out more please visit: http://www.pencanada.ca/

For more information, please contact racerelation@gmail.com / 647 822 4105

part of peterborough's first annual Asian Heritage Month