Thousand Paper Cranes
By Diana Fathi, A nomad storyteller decides to fold thousand paper cranes for each child who lives in a war to make a wish.
We invite you all to join us for a Sunday afternoon filled with multiple events.
* Open Mic with Emruz Friends: Sade Namei, Armin Antique, Kaveh Haghtalab, and Ali Hadian will present short musical and stand-up comedy performances. We open our invitation to all our audiences to join us and participate in the open mic if interested.
* Exhibition in the common room: Sara Meghdari’s photographic series titled "Zan" will be showcased in the common room space
* 30-minute performance, “Thousand Paper Cranes”: a live interactive performance for kids and adults (age +2.5) created by Diana Fathi and Greg T. Nanni. It is believed that if one folded 1,000 paper cranes, one's wish would come true. The creative team behind “Thousands Paper Cranes” in collaboration with Emruz Festival are working towards the goal of folding one thousand paper crane for a child who currently lives in a war-torn country. Join us in making this wish come true. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Children under 15 get in for free! A
Zan
by Sara Meghdari
Zaferan /Zaefearaon/ also known as Saffron in the English language comes from a Crocus flowers stigma, part of the female reproductive organ of the plant. In the photographic series titled "Zan" these crimson stigmas have been carefully arranged in a calligraphic style to form the word, Woman, (زن zan) in Farsi, the primary language spoken in Iran. Simultaneously, each portrait shows an individual line silhouette of a woman’s breast, modeled after my own friends and family.
Sara Z. Meghdari dari.com/is an Iranian-American Interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY.
Meghdari holds a MFA in Photography, Video & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts and a B.A in Communication from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
She has been twice awarded the Alice Beck-Odette Scholarship Award as well as the Thomas Reiss Memorial Award. Meghdari is an alumna of the Female Engaging Artist Residency Series (FEARS) at the University of Colorado and the Engaging Artists Residency Program with the More-Art Organization. Her work has been published in Living Life Fearless, ANTE Mag, VICE, and Dodho Magazine. She has performed at Chinatown Soup Gallery (2019) and her work has been shown at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Colorado (2021), the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center (2018), the 10th Annual Governors Island Art Fair (2017), and the Queens Museum of Art (2016), among others. Meghdari recently joined Transmitter Gallery as a co-director to the artist-run space in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Thousands Paper Cranes
by Diana Fathi & Greg Nanni
Greg T. Nanni is a playwright, performer, marketer, and former Philadelphian now living in the NYC area. He is a member of Witherspoon Circle, the Literary Manager of the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, and the Co-Founder of the PDC Playwrights' Happy Hour, and formerly served as President on the board of the Philadelphia Dramatists’ Center. He performs his own solo shows FAT and THE DEPRESSION SHOW! based on demand. Full length plays include: LONELINESS (CU 2020 Workshop Production), THE BEAR IS HERE (BAPF Semi-Finalist), RAGE (Winner: Emerson Stage NewFest New Play Workshop 2022), VACATIONS, and ANGST. Up next: LOVE (AMONG DREAMERS), June 24-26 at Columbia’s Lenfest Center Of The Arts. He is a recipient of the MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University, where he was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship.
Diana Fathi (She/her) is a multidisciplinary theater practitioner from Tehran, Iran based in New York City. She has directed Third Person Singular (Columbia University), Ahali-e-Hava (Tehran City Theater), and Foggy Season (The multilingual collaboration between Iran and Georgia). Her recent dramaturgical work includes Glimpse (Rattlestick Theater), Hedda Gabler directed by Rakesh Palisetty (Columbia University), Twelfth Night directed by Kelly O’Donnell (Columbia University), and Loneliness by Greg Nanny (Columbia University). She has won several national and international prizes for acting. Diana received her MFA (Dramaturgy) from Columbia University, M.A. (Philosophy of Art), and B.A. (Dramatic Literature) from Tehran University of Art.