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ASIAN AMERICAN ARTISTS COLLECTIVE—CHICAGO
Presents
Mango Tribe’s Multimedia Provocative Exploration of Violence in Asian America

New York, NY (June 20, 2003) – Acclaimed Asian American women’s performance collective, Mango Tribe, will debut their show, Sisters in the Smoke, in New York City on HERE’s Mainstage. Sisters in the Smoke is the original theatrical production from the cast and crew of Mango Tribe, the first to be produced by the Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago. The show focuses on violence in the Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) community and how artistic expression can be a healing force. Tickets will be available on-line at www.here.org or through SmartTix at (212) 868-4444.

Mango Tribe promotes multi-arts collaboration and encourages artistic activism through theater and education. It is a multiethnic, multilingual, and multidisciplinary ensemble comprised of APIA women from Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. This particular Mango Tribe production is partially supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s prestigious Multi-Arts Production Fund grant.

“Mango Tribe is not just a performance group but a reflection of an APIA hybrid culture that challenges the boundaries between the personal and the political, reality and mythology, urban and suburban, national and international, and national and international” says Anida Yoeu Esguerra, Founder and Artistic Director of Mango Tribe. “Sisters in the Smoke is part of our attempt to create complex and human images of APIA women to contrast existing racist, token stereotypes.”

In 2002, Mango Tribe presented Sisters in the Smoke at Chicago’s Vittum Theater to rave reviews and packed houses throughout the run. The original production was presented as part of the Guild Complex’s 2002 Women Writers Series. Since then, Mango Tribe followers—as well as theater enthusiasts and artistic and activist communities around the nation—have eagerly anticipated the East Coast premiere of Sisters in the Smoke. Directed by Marian Yalini Thambynayagam and Emily C. Chang, the show fuses together elements of poetry, theater, dance, video, and song into a series of vignettes that are unified on the issue of violence. Traditional South Indian dance and Asian folk songs are integrated with such contemporary arts as tap dance, spoken word, breakdancing, and video projection. Vignettes include survivors’ personal stories of violence and dramatizations motivated by media headlines. Other vignettes utilize video and audio technology to explore the literal interpretations of violence and the scars they leave behind. Sisters interweaves the traditional and the modern, the personal and the global, and the artist and the community.

“Sisters in the Smoke is as much a presentation of resistance and struggle through art as it is an effort to cleanse the soul, share stories, heal, and create change,” says Chang, who along with Esguerra is a member of the nationally renowned spoken word group, I Was Born With Two Tongues. “We are doing this not only for ourselves and our community, but to educate and engage others in helping to end all forms of oppression and violence against women.”

Tickets will be available on-line at www.here.org or through SmartTix at (212) 868-4444.
Tickets are $15 ($12 students/seniors). Group rates are also available for 10 or more people.
*Due to strong subject matter, this show may not be suitable for sensitive audiences.

About HERE

Since opening in 1993, HERE Arts Center has housed New York’s most daring and unique theater, art, music, and dance in its three theaters, two art galleries, and café. Previous works originally produced by HERE include Eve Ensler’s THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, Basil Twist’s SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE, the inaugural production of HERE’s Dream Music Puppetry Program, Camryn Manheim’s WAKE UP! I’M FAT and original dance-theatre works created and directed by Kristin Marting.
HERE Arts Center supports the work of artists at all stages in their careers through fully-produced works, commissions, and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. In addition, HERE’s staff provides marketing, technical and administrative consultation, and support. All work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision. This production is being presented through HERE’s Supported Artist Program, which provides artists with subsidized space, as well as technical and administrative support.

Sisters in the Smoke
July 17-19, 2003 at 8:30 pm
and July 19, 2003 at 3:00 pm
$15 / $12 students

A brief Q&A will follow each performance except Saturday evening.

HERE Arts Center
145 6th Ave. (between Spring and Broome)
New York, NY

Limited engagement—
ONLY FOUR PERFORMANCES!