CO-PRESENTS: “OF US” by JENNA EADY & TARIQ MITRI
April 11th + 12th, 2025
The Cherry Street Village, Seattle, WA
PROGRAM NOTES
Of Us | Created & performed by Jenna Eady and Tariq Mitri
Lighting by Trevor Cushman
Costumes by Jenna & Tariq
Soundscore designed by Jenna & Tariq, edited by Jacob Zimmer
Music/Sound: Call to Prayer recorded in Nazareth, 2015, Ya Reit by Fairuz, Collection of Palestinian Folk Songs performed by Hanna Eady and George Kassis
Text: Jenna’s Cede, Jeries (grandfather) recorded in Bukeyah, 2015
Woven from personal and shared histories, Of Us by Jenna Eady and Tariq Mitri is a testament to Palestinian resilience and spirit and a reflection of the long-standing connection between its creators. Through movement and the abstraction of storytelling, this work honors the beauty of Palestinian existence—its joys and tensions, its struggles and truths—illuminating an intricate and dependent dance on collective identity.
Read more about the work in an interview with Jenna and Tariq here.
CREW
CO-PRODUCERS | Emma Lawes & Maya Tacon in collaboration with Dunya Productions
LIGHTING DESIGN | Trevor Cushman LIGHTING ASSISTANT | Adair MacCormack
SOUND OPERATOR | Calico (Jacob Zimmer) HOUSE MANAGER | Jordan Macintosh-Hougham
DESIGN | Ryan Hunt
FROM THE ARTISTS
Thank you for coming to our show Of Us this evening. We’ve poured ourselves into this work, and we’re grateful you’re here - in supporting us, and in supporting Palestine, and the liberation of our people.
We’ve made this work to honor our people. To show the spectrum of joy and grief rooted in tradition and the complexity of Palestinian identity. Our relatives are those who’ve been displaced, and many of the Palestinians you know today are rooted from displacement.
We want to remind everyone of the devastation that happens in Palestine at every moment.
All of us are here together in safety as we enter the 553rd and 554th day of genocide, and 76 years of oppression in Palestine.
LAND acknowledgment
We acknowledge that all land in the United States is stolen, including the current land we are on of the Duwamish people. We honor all lineages that existed before colonization, and the people who are still here, bringing light to their heritage. We also want to acknowledge the land in Palestine that is stolen by the State of Israel. We honor Palestinian life, and for their right to return home and rebuild. We are responsible for keeping lineages alive, and to help future generations of oppressed people succeed.
10% of this show’s ticket sales were donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). In addition, please donate to the Duwamish tribe here, and PCRF here to assist those experiencing genocide in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Please donate to Cherry Street Village here to continue restoring this historic building and community space.
FROM THE PRODUCERS
CO-PRESENTS gives broader financial and technical resources to artists who have performed previously with CO- in our “Performance + Party” series. You may remember Tariq from SHOW4 in November 2022 - holding a headstand in a bucket of water, backlit by car headlights, illuminating water droplets flying in all directions as he danced outside on a cold November night. He spilled into the indoor space, falling in and out of rebound, detail and surprise, keeping us at heightened attention throughout - afraid to blink and miss it. More recently, you may remember Jenna from SHOW7 in June 2024, who (with Tariq and her father) called us to hold space for grief, joy, and the complexity of identity amidst the ongoing atrocities of Palestinan genocide. For 8 minutes, we were transported to the land of their families - past and present - and were invited to witness an intimate, vulnerable world through tradition, song, dance, and the nuances of aliveness. That creation was the beginning seed of the work you’re seeing tonight, Of Us.
Tariq and Jenna are not only artists we have admired for years, but dear friends. It is a humbling honor to devote CO-’s resources towards uplifting Palestinian-American voices through empowering their art. It takes a village to produce experiences like these, and we are so lucky you’re here in our corner, helping us provide platforms and visibility to individual Seattle dance artists. Thank you for witnessing, and we hope you enjoy Of Us.
xo, E + M <3
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jenna Eady is a queer Palestinian choreographer and performing artist and is a Mental Health Therapist. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in dance and choreography where she began her long-standing friendship and creative partnership with Tariq Mitri. Eady is a founding member of Dunya Productions and has worked in collaboration with her father Hanna Eady, a Palestinian playwright; their work together has explored family lineage in relationship to the Palestinian experience. Eady is grateful to be working in collaboration with her dear friend Mitri and Dunya Productions and CO- .
Tariq Mitri is a gay, Palestinian-American dancer and choreographer in Seattle, WA. In 2015, he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts and cultivated a long-standing friendship and artistic relationship with collaborator, Jenna Eady. Tariq has danced for 20+ choreographers between Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York, and has been a rehearsal director, and co-director. Mitri began creating work in 2022, and is deepening the connection to his Palestinian heritage within his art-making and how it coincides with his arab-american upbringing. He is honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with Eady, Dunya Productions, and CO- in premiering “Of Us.”
Musicians | Hanna Eady (Oud) and George Kassis (Darbuka)
Hanna Eady and George Kassis have been best friends for 40 years. They met at the University of Washington after coincidentally immigrating to the US from neighboring villages in Palestine. Both founding members of Dunya Productions, as artists and activists they believe that art is the path to resistance.
ABOUT DUNYA PRODUCTIONS
Dunya Productions creates performance art to inspire and motivate our audience to engage with the global struggle for social and political justice. We seek to amplify the voices of the Middle East, North African, and Arab (MENAA+) people, as well as other marginalized communities. Upcoming events include a screening of The Teacher (2023), a gripping drama by Farah Nabulsi, British-Palestinian filmmaker and human rights activist. Screening dates will be posted soon on Dunya's website, dunyaproductions.org, and social media @dunyaproductions. This fall, Dunya Productions will present the world premiere of Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin, an original play by Hanna Eady.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU to Hanna Eady and George Kassis for giving their time and creative energy to this work. For bringing a piece of home to us and for their endless support.
THANK YOU to Seattle Theater Group and Base: Experimental Arts + Space for hosting our rehearsal residency for this project and donating 80 hours of subsidized studio space to CO-PRESENTS artists.
THANK YOU to Cherry Street Village, our hosts for the performance, for providing accessible rental rates for creative endeavors to flourish and their restoration of this beautiful cultural hub.
THANK YOU to our friends at Velocity Dance Center and University of Washington and for lending your equipment and resources.
THANK YOU to our load-in volunteers - Charlie Lawes and kelly langeslay!
THANK YOU to John Robinson who underwrote this program, to Melody Rahbari for supporting this work financially and as a mentor, and our community of donors and supporters whose contributions make events like this possible. This programming is also made possible by 4Culture and ArtsWA.
