#iraqi american

[totallyhussein-blog]

New Heather Raffo play to explore migration at the Arab American National Museum

From the Tigris to the Detroit River, The Migration Play Cycle written by and starring Heather Raffo, is an epic map of a play linking the world’s migration patterns to the daily transactions of our lives. An ambitious theatrical experiment, it invites us to imagine a new relationship to human value, by first unpacking what we value. Uncovering a world where all populations must confront not only global migration, but their own.

Heather Raffo is a singular and outstanding voice in the American theater whose work has been championed by the New Yorker as “an example of how art can remake the world.” Having helped forge a new genre of Arab American theater, she’s spent her career writing and embodying stories of Iraq: from the lives and dreams of Iraqi women in her seminal work 9 Parts of Desire (2003), to the suicidal ideation of an Iraq war veteran in the opera Fallujah (2012), to the restless longings of an Iraqi refugee architect in Noura (2018).

“As an Iraqi American playwright, migration is personal to me.  In 2003, I had over one hundred family members living in Iraq, I now have two cousins left in the country.  In the last decade, my Iraqi relatives have scattered across four continents. My family understands what it means to be rooted to a place for thousands of years, then to scatter in less than ten.  While many audiences feel sympathetic to those impacted by war, the trajectory my family took can be traced to economic factors to which we all contribute.”

The Migration Play Cycle: A New Theatrical Platform by Heather Raffo is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by the Arab American National Museum and NPN. This project is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

U.S. Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, takes a moment to pose for a photo with his sniper rifle during one of his four deployments to Iraq. He remains the deadliest sniper in American military history with 160 confirmed kills.

Kyle survived his 4 tours in Iraq, but would be killed at a Texas gun range on February 2, 2013, by a veteran he was trying to help overcome PTSD.

Fair winds and following seas, Legend. You will never be forgotten.

[myfootyrthroat]

Americans Talk About Foreign News Without Shoehorning It Into A Familiar American Framework Challenge.

[stuckinapril]

My mom and grandma telling me stories about having to deal w American soldiers in Iraq & how they were scared for my uncles (Iraqi men were at high risk of being imprisoned or killed) & how the US literally sliced Baghdad into pieces and Iraqis had to tiptoe around them every day is actually insane. I’m literally in awe listening to these like the trauma goes so deep

[sciderman]

I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with so much Iranian hate and drama <:[

oh anon. hate to break it to you (a lot of people make this mistake) but iran and iraq are two entirely separate nations.

and also i think reducing it to the words "hate and drama" kind of doesn't cover it, anon.

[captain-price-unofficially]

M1 Abrams from Dragon Troop, 1st Squadron, 3d Cavalry Regiment “Brave Rifles” guarding a checkpoint at COS Kalsu, Iraq 2010

[greencarnation]

lesser evil for who? because i don't think it's the lesser evil for the gazan children being massacred or for the millions world wide who have been ravaged by us imperialism regardless of who was in the white house. the system is rotten to its core and simply voting blue once every 4 years will never save us

[killyridols]

singing “you & i my love” in arabic by maryam yousif, 2022, glazed stoneware, 14.5 × 11 × 5 inches

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇶⚔️🇺🇸 🚨

💥ISLAMIC RESISTANCE IN IRAQ STRIKES TARGETS ON ILLEGAL U.S. BASES IN SYRIA💥

The official Syrian Arab News Agency is reporting the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched strikes on two illegal U.S. occupation bases in Syria: "Green Village" base and another in the Koniko Oil field in Deir Ezzor Province in the east of Syria.

In a statement, the Iraqi resistance said that "in continuation of our resistance against the forces of the American occupier in Iraq and the region, and in response to the massacres of the Zionist entity against our people in Gaza, resistance fighters targeted with drones the American bases in the 'Green Village' and the Koniko oil field in Syrian territory."

Yesterday, it was reported that Iraqi resistance forces ordered drone strikes targeting the Ain al-Assad airbase in Western Iraq.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[wearepeace]

“Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.” ― William Shakespeare

[sandrabullockthehedgehog]

born too soon to be brainwashed into believing the war on terror, born too late to not be forced to "mourn," born just in time to shamelessly post 9/11 memes with zero guilt 💪💪💪

[totallyhussein-blog]

“Iraq, you are in our hearts”

The Awafi Kitchen is where Arab and Jewish cuisine are one. They are part of the Iraqi Jewish community and are based in Boston, USA. All of their family were displaced from Iraq between 1950 and 1970. The following statement and photograph were posted on the Facebook page of the Awafi Kitchen, and was titled ‘Our Return to Iraq’.

“Last month, after five decades away, members of our family finally walked the streets in Baghdad, the city they once called home. Out of hundreds  of us in diaspora across the world, we were the first in our family to set foot in Baghdad since our waves of displacement between the 50s and 70s.

The trip was every feeling all at once. Pure joy, gratitude, and reconnection, inextricable from the grief and pain of facing our decades of separation, and seeing much of our family’s hometown deeply changed. 

Our whole lives we’ve dreamed of witnessing the beautiful Baghdad we have been painted in memories. We found beauty, but also bore witness to the impact of decades of war, the US occupation, and ongoing resource extraction, and how this has limited the place’s ability to thrive.

That being said, the people we met were incredible. We spent two weeks surrounded by an abundance of love and warmth everywhere we went. There's beautiful new realities rebuilding. Iraqis returning, Iraqis who have stayed through it all. 

Tender moments of mutual curiosity and excitement: younger Iraqis eager to learn about the old Baghdad of our family’s youth, the lost Jewish history of the city, and in turn our family eager to learn what it’s like to live as an Iraqi in the contemporary world. And ultimately, as friends reminded us, we accomplished our goal: it was just about touching foot to earth, and that we did.

For any Iraqis considering returning like we did, know that you can count on us for advice or perspective. Don’t hesitate to reach out. And for Iraqis with a reluctance to return, for those who still cannot, we empathize with you. Iraq, you are in our hearts.”

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

"Alright, well if I don't see you down there, make sure I don't see you again."

(American Sniper, 2014)

[stuckinapril]

About to get really annoying ab Dunya Mikhail. I am dead serious you will never hear the end of her w me

[captain-price-unofficially]

An M1A1 from Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines rolling down an Iraqi highway, 2 January 2006.

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday!

Stan Honda is a notable New York-based Asian American photojournalist who has worked for several publications, especially Agence France-Presse. In 2011, he collaborated with Minnesota printmaker and book artist Fred Hagstrom to produce this artists book, When I First Arrived in Baghdad, from Hagstrom’s Strong Silent Type Press in a limited edition of 35 copies signed by the artist/printer. Hagstrom silkscreened Honda’s images and reflections from his assignments in Iraq, and bound them between printed metal covers using a wire-edge binding. The font is Futura. Fred Hagstrom writes:

I first contacted Stan Honda . . . in the days after September 11th. He took some of the most moving photographs of that day, including some of business people shrouded in dust and trying to get home after the collapse of the towers. These have become some of the most iconic images of that day. I was struck by the human qualities in his photos and invited him to speak at my school. We stayed in touch, and I have seen that same quality in much of his later work, including his photos from the gulf after Katrina, and from two trips to Iraq. He seems to always have a sense for bringing out the human part of these stories. For this book, I asked him to give me a selection of his Iraq photos and to respond to a brief sort of interview for me to generate the text. I then printed the photos in silk-screen, pairing them with his words. Together they do the best of journalism: a human perspective on a complicated moment in history.

View other posts of books by Fred Hagstrom.

View more Fine Press Friday posts.