Drumroll, please!
Maybe you saw it at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. Maybe you’ve seen the photos on Facebook. And now, after an intensive and rewardingly unhurried development process, Polybe + Seats is delighted to present The Art of Hijab, Kohl Black and the Right Way to Pray as a community performance at the Bay Ridge Library in December 2017 and as part of a performance residency at Crown Heights' OBIE-award winning FiveMyles in January 2018. Thanks to our loyal individual supporters, developmental residencies at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, ART/NY’s Creative Space, generous funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council, and a community partnership with the Arab American Association of New York, all we need is one final assist to get us over the finish line!

About the project

The Art of Hijab, Kohl Black and the Right Way to Pray is inspired by YouTube beauty and hijab styling tutorials for the Muslim woman; shared stories of the Koran, Torah, and Christian Bible; and playwright Sarah Badiyah Sakaan’s culturally diverse upbringing in Memphis. Using multimedia, testimony, nonlinear narrative and cross-gender casting, Polybe + Seats examines gender roles, faith, identity, and Islam in the United States. The play also engages the stigma of Muslim women who choose to wear Hijab in the western world and questions the social basis for beauty norms and gender roles in the United States and beyond. 

Polybe’s company members feel intensely that in the current political climate, artistic representations exploring American Islam and feminism are crucial in stemming an alarming tide of intolerance. This play presents a complex representation of two American Muslim sisters growing up in the Bible Belt, stylish Muslim women on the web, and characters of Biblical and Mythical proportions.

Our terrific team includes director Jessica Brater; performers Nuah Ozryel, Aizzah Fatima, Sakaan; sound and video designer Gavin Hecker; costume designer Karen Boyer; lighting designer Natalie Robin; and Polybe company members Elaine O'Brien and Lindsay Torrey.

We can’t WAIT to share this with you! As Goddess Isis says in the play, “Are you Ancient Desert Flowers ready to bloom? We are bringing the whole kit and caboodle!”

What we need
We are proud of the financial backing we've received from the Brooklyn Arts Council and our individual supporters, but we still have a $6000 gap that we need your support to close. If you’ve thought about supporting the project or have already helped us and want to double down, now is the time! The funds we raise through this campaign will go primarily toward paying stipends to the talented performers and designers who are working with us, like the fabulous Nuah Ozryel, an Arab-Canadian actor you may recognize from “Madame Secretary,” who plays an Imam, a Bar Mitzvah DJ, and a makeup stylist for mommies on the go. Other expenses include materials for our designers to create the digital and physical world of the play, insurance, rehearsal space rental, and marketing materials.

We are offering VIP tickets, show posters, and a pdf of the script as perks for campaign contributors as well as unique rewards reflecting the wide range of talents of our company members, including a homemade Syrian dinner party, private yoga lessons, and babysitting. We are also offering perks that reflect the emphasis on diversity and inclusivity in the production such as postcards to the White House on an anti-hate topic of your choice.

About Polybe + Seats

Polybe + Seats has been producing new plays and collaboratively developed work since 2001. Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s writing for and about the theater, our work resists traditional narrative; we create theater that explores multiple points of view with an emphasis on social engagement. We often perform our projects in spaces not usually used for theater. These spaces allow our work to relate to Brooklyn and New York’s rich cultural heritage, and invite our audiences to look at culturally important spaces in new ways. Polybe was one of Gertrude Stein’s dogs. Seats are where you sit.

We are proud members of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and are a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a national arts service organization. Our work has been supported by the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Brooklyn Community Fund, the Mental Insight Foundation, the Nancy Quinn Fund, the Jerome Foundation, ART/NY’s Creative Space, the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the Arthur S. Nusbaum Trust, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. We have been presented by the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, the University of Michigan, Mabou Mines/Suite, Brooklyn Fire Proof, the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, The Old Stone House of Brooklyn, and The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92. More information on the company and our work can be found at www.polybeandseats.org.

How can you help?
Even if you can’t contribute (and even $1 helps, really), we hope you will be able to come see our show in January! Sign up for our mailing list to get the news when tickets go on sale!

Please also help spread the word! You can share this campaign on Facebook, tweet about us, Google+ us, Instagram us, or email your friends the link to this campaign with the handy links located above this text. Your support will help us make this show a success.

If you would like to support us regularly, you can create a recurring monthly donation through Fractured Atlas here. If you would prefer to support us by mailing a check, please visit this section of our website for information. Or, if you work for a company that has a matching gifts program, email us at info@polybeandseats.org before you contribute about making your gift double.

FAQ:

1. Can I contribute from outside the United States? Yes, visit our page on Fractured Atlas to make a tax-deductible contribution.

2. Oh no, I missed the campaign and now it is closed! Can I still support your play? Yes! You can make a tax-deductible contribution through Fractured Atlas and we will still thank you in our program and on our website.

Please also look to these cultural associations for news and volunteer opportunities: 

NAAP (Network of Arab Americans Professionals) 

AAANY (Arab American Association of New York)

And check out our website for regular updates on this campaign!