yissh

Work

YISSH: “Yalla Imshi, Shway Shway Habibi” (Hurry, walk! Slow down my darling) are the two phrases I first heard in Arabic, and for a long time the only words I knew growing up. As a Palestinian born in the United States, I began to trace my roots, and learn the stories buried in my body, and I describe it as YISSH. A made up word, containing the absurdity of hurry up – to move with urgency! And slow down, to take your time. To know yourself.

Body Watani’s Artistic Director Leila Awadallah created and performs YISSH as a solo dance performance flowing through portraits of a time traveling Palestinian woman who experiences different flickers of a kaleidoscope of Palestinian realities. Through sonic and embodied pairings, YISSH investigates the clashing tension between American citizenship and Palestinian roots. It reaches underneath pain to learn to love a homeland from far away with suspicion and nostalgia. It seeks for the memories alive inside (all of) our bodies, where a simple love for the taste of fruit can transport us to another place.

Seeking responses to the question of where resistance shows up between tenderness and bravery, in light and in dark?

YISSH was originally commissioned by the Cedar Tree Project project: Za’atar in Winona, MN. It was performed at the University of Minnesota and Pangea World Theater (MN). Internationally at festivals at the Lebanese National Theater (LB) and Sharm El Sheikh (EGYPT), both where it received best monodrama performance. It will be presented at BIPAF in Bethlehem, Palestine, and a monodrama festival in Turin, Italy in 2024.

Images above by Isabel Fajardo (top) and Sydney Swanson (middle and bottom)