And now a word from: Mo'olelo Theater Company

MTM strongly believes in community and cross-collaboration and nothing makes us happier than to collaborate with great projects!

We are very pleased to welcome Mo'olelo Theater Company of Seema Sueko into our circle of friends and fellow conspirators. (Seema is also a long-time support of the Arabs Anonymous-No Hay Moros project).

This amazing and dynamic young theater company has been putting on award-winning, thought-provoking theater for over 5 years and this present project is no exception. We urge you to spend an evening with Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire and to take advantage of the nights when interesting and important speakers engage the audience after the performance.

Here is the info- and tell them Movies that Matter sent you!

URL:9 Parts of Desire

Heather Raffo's

9 Parts of Desire

Directed by Janet Hayatshahi

October 8 - November 1, 2009

Mo`olelo at The 10th Avenue Theatre
930 10th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101 Downtown San Diego, on the west side of 10th Avenue, between Broadway and E Street

An Artist. An Exile. An American.
A Doctor. A Girl. A Survivor.
A Mullaya. A Lover. An Old Woman.
What does it mean to be a woman from Iraq?

Inspired and extracted from true events, 9 Parts of Desire is the story of nine Iraqi women living in Baghdad, London and New York who confront the world in both ordinary and surprising ways, revealing conflicting perspectives about an age-old war zone.

Post Show Discussions

Thursday, October 8 - Dilkhwaz Ahmed, 9 Parts of Desire Kurdish Perspective
Dilkhwaz Ahmed is the Founder of License to Freedom, a nonprofit organization that provides support services for victims of domestic violence from refugee and immigrant communities. Originally from Kurdistan of Iraq, Ms. Ahmed was the Executive Director of Nawa Center, a shelter for abused women, in Sulaimanya. She was granted asylum in the United States and resettled in San Diego in 2002.

Friday, October 9 - Nadia Keilani, Iraqi Women and the Undemocratic Impact of 'Democracy'
Nadia Keilani is an Iraqi-American who immigrated to the United States in 1981. She is a practicing attorney and civil rights activist. Since the early 1990's, she has given numerous speeches and lectures on the issue of U.S.-Iraqi relations as well as the topic of women's rights in Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.

Sunday, October 11 - Dr. Ghada Osman, Interpretations of the Role of Women in Islam
Ghada Osman is Director of the Center for Islamic & Arabic Studies at San Diego State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Studies and an M.A. in Islamic Studies, and frequently gives lectures on Islam and various aspects of Muslim societies.

Sunday, October 18 - Janet Hayatshahi, Talk-back with the Director of 9 Parts of Desire
Janet has been active in the San Diego theatre scene as a director, actor, and producer since 1999. Her most recent directing credits include The Turn of the Screw at Cygnet Theatre, Inside Story: Middle-Eastern Tales for the Theatre of the World Festival 2009 at SDSU, and a staged reading of 9 Parts of Desire for the Thurgood Marshall Human Rights and Global Citizenship.

Thursday, October 22 - Dr. Shelley Orr, Theater and Social Change: How Theater Can Give Us A New Perspective
Shelley Orr teaches in the School of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State University in the graduate and undergraduate programs. She heads the dramaturgy area at SDSU. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Drama, an MFA in Dramaturgy, and is President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).

Saturday, October 31 - Judith L. Seid, The Role of Money & Women in the Middle East - A Key Driver Toward Sustainable Prosperity
How are socially responsible investors making an impact on women in the Middle East?
Judith Seid is the founder of Blue Summit Financial Group, a San Diego-based financial services firm specializing in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). After fifteen years of helping investors align their money with their values, Judy has been recognized as this year's SRI Advisor of the Year by Boomer Market Advisor and has also been awarded the National Association of Women in Business (NAWBO) Green Community award, and the U.S. Small Business Administration 2009 Women Owned Business of the Year Award.

Art Exhibit:
Wishes/Umniat
Visual artists Doris Bittar, Joyce Dallal, John Halaka, Wade Harb, Adeeb Makki, Al Nashashibi, and George Wahab will present their work in an art show titled Wishes/Umniat in the Lobby and 2nd Floor Galleries of The 10th Avenue Theatre. Umniat means "wishes" or "desires" in Arabic. It is the wish-umnia of this multi-ethnic, multi-religious group of artists who each come from Middle Eastern backgrounds to lay the groundwork for renewed efforts in peace through their art.