Racing from torture and death, the United States has served as an international safe haven for immigrants the world over.
"Standing in a circle, in a windowless classroom near an on-ramp to the Queensboro Bridge, two dozen high school students chanted in unison. Their accents revealed their origins: Honduras, Ghana, Albania, Vietnam....Finding a therapeutic voice in performance not only teaches cross-cultural understanding in the viewer, it also creates catharsis in the spirit for the violated and repressed performer.
We had to leave; the rebels took over!" declared Stephanie Saint-Val, from Haiti.
"We left the city for the desert," Hadeel al-Hindawi, from Iraq, said more shyly.
"You don't know my struggle, you haven't a clue," proclaimed Sandup Sherpa, from Nepal, who had just dazzled the class with his break dancing.
Stephanie's family fled machete-wielding attackers during a 2004 coup. Hadeel's father was shot in the face in Baghdad because he worked as a translator for the United States military. Sandup's father, a legislator, was targeted for assassination by Maoist rebels and now lives in Elmhurst, Queens, selling cellphones.
We support the necessary evolution of dust into being into empathetic understanding.
It's so excellent when people are able to express their turbulent feelings through performance.
It is a remarkable pipeline for the expression of rage and anger, Gordon. Happiness and joy usually don't work very well on stage.