LIBATIONS OF LIBERATION
Love______Peace____Unity
"Libations of Liberation" is an initiation of Karlsøy Yurta's foundation circle, and a collective tribute to universal love, freedom and peace 🕊
Together with local, regional, national and international artists / activists, we invite all festival participants to a session at the intersection between ceremony and performing arts, poetry and politics, reality and utopia. Dance. Dabke. Dream. Hope is on the way. When many come together for what matters most ~ the universe will answer…..
PARTICIPANTS:
AHMED TOBASI (PS/NO)
BINIAM A GEZAI (ER/NO)
LOAN TP HOANG (VN/NO)
MAYA MI SAMUELSEN (NO)
DEPARTMENT OF PEACE (NO)
AHMED TOBASI is a recognized actor, director and educator with experience from both Palestinian and international theatres. Born in the Jenin refugee camp, he grew up under Israeli occupation, until he joined the armed resistance in 2002 as a sixteen-year-old. He was arrested and spent four years in an Israeli prison. When he was released, he decided to continue his resistance as an artist and agent of change using art and culture as weapons of resistance. After two years of study at The Freedom Theatre, Tobasi continued his education in Norway with the Nordic Black Theatre, where he performed in their productions, including Guantanamo What Now? Destination Africa and Journey to Identity.
In 2020, Tobasi became artistic director of The Freedom Theatre. Tobasi received the Dramatists' Association's Solidarity Grant 2023 for his work as artistic director of The Freedom Theater in Jenin on the West Bank.
Photo credit: The Freedom Theatre
BINIAM ABBAI GEZAI works as a freelance dancer and actor and is educated at Nordic Black Theatre's Theater School in 2002. Biniam has participated as a dancer and actor in productions directed by CX ~ crotonicx and Nordic Black Theatre. He is currently in the performance "BRUDD - freedom is a small word" in collaboration with the dance artists Hege Gabrielsen, Øyvind Jørgensen, Guillermo John Magno, Erik Rulin and Enya Maria Oshaug Weibell and others. Played in Nidaros Cathedral during the Olavsfest days 28 July – 3 Aug 2023.
Photo credit: Stig Håvard Dirdal
LOAN TP HOANG is a dance artist and performance artist with a background in Nordic Black Theatreschool, 5Rytmer dans and alternative environments such as Hausmania Kulturhus in Oslo, Karlsøyfestivalen in Troms and Svartlamon in Trondheim where she has performed her work since 2001. Loan is the prime mover for Dans 5Rytmer Trondheim, and has . participated in performances by renowned choreographers such as Lise Eger, Indra Lorentzen and Sølvi Edvardsen, and worked as a co-creator dancer, singer, actor, puppeteer and choreographer in cross-artistic productions with Teater OperaOmnia, Cirkus Xanti and Cirka Teater. Loan received Oslo City's artist award in 2004 for his work as a dance artist and as artistic director of the performance collective
CrotonicX. Photo credit: Anwar Saab
MAYA MI SAMUELSEN grew up on Karlsøy in Troms. She has her education from the School of Contemporary Dance. She works as a dance artist, with her main base in Hammerfest. The fact that Samuelsen was born into the wild nature of Karlsøya characterizes her artistry. She works on her own projects, both alone and in collaboration with other artists.
Samuelsen is both artist and activist, and often both at the same time, and garners great recognition for her work where she works from her own life experiences and promotes political themes that engage her through her art. In recent years, among other things, Samuelsen has carried out Barents' collaboration OUT OF URGENCY on behalf of Stellaris DansTeater (Solveig Hermo), together with Dansinitiativet (Luleå), TaikaBox (Oulu) and artists from Arkhangelsk. She has also worked as a performer in Nordting, for Elle Sofe Sara and this autumn she was in de Naive / Roza Moshtagi's work HOOP. Autumn 2021 was
Samuelsen mother for the first time, something that characterizes her artistry. Among other things, it has inspired and motivated her to explore creating art for the very smallest target group and she has recently taken part in a workshop with this very theme led by Christina Lindgren. Maya Mi was awarded the Culture Prize 2017 from Karlsøy municipality and Sparebank Nord-Norge, and a Talent Scholarship for 2019 from Sparebankstiftelsen SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge.
Photo credit: Alexander Browne
DEPARTMENT OF PEACE are Ingvild Austgulen and Ove Aigner Haukenes. Ingvild Aust is a slam poet and rapper from Bodø, living in Tromsø. Inspired by nature and life along the coast in the north, she writes widely about everything from love and everyday life to fisheries policy, agricultural negotiations and mining resistance in Repparfjord. Through the use of poetry Islam and song, she creates a genuine, close and engaging poetry experience with humor as well as seriousness between the lines. Ove Aigner Haukenes works as a philosopher and podcast producer for UiT, and apart from this runs a self-sufficient and CO2-negative music studio, on his farm at Mjelde in Tromsø. Ove has previously researched the link between technology and sustainability, which eventually led to the conclusion that peace, trust and global cooperation are the foundations for technologies to be used in a sustainable way. Through
The Ministry of Peace combines this synthesis of sustainability/technology with commitment to geopolitics in the reflections and proposals put forward for how peace can be put on the agenda.
Photo: Alessandro Bellelli