Selected by Yasmine El Rashidi

June 9, 2013, 7 pm

Years ago, during the Iraq war of 2003, the US State Department flew the Egyptian storyteller Chirine Al-Ansary to Djibouti to tell stories to the US troops at Camp Lemonnier—the only US military base in Africa. Combining words and movement, Al-Ansary entertained the soldiers with tales from the Thousand and One Nights. Accounts from the evening describe the soldiers as enraptured.

A dedicated storyteller, and one of the first to perform in ancient buildings and markets in the heart of the old cities of Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo, Al-Ansary borrows from the historic Arabic storytelling tradition, injecting new perspective into age-old tales by offering contemporary interpretations linking history to current affairs in the Middle East. Sure to be gripping, her performance at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Durham Cathedral will borrow from the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, with new anecdotes and insight from the present.

For more information, please contact visitor.centre@dur.ac.uk.

Category: Theater, Other and Readings and Talks