Storytelling & Performance
There is something transformative about telling a personal story on stage. Choosing words to reclaim, using sound and expressing emotion that once was not allowed. I have worked with some amazing human beings on projects that have helped me heal and grow. I am in awe of them and share my deepest gratitude for their love and guidance.
(UN)DOCUMENTED: Our Unheard Stories
Throughout United States history, undocumented people have been misunderstood, censored, and persecuted. Today, while their place in our country continues to be uncertain, undocumented immigrants in NYC are provided a safe haven at CUNY where they can pursue a college education and enrichment programming. The Baruch DREAMer Diplomats (BDD) Program is designed for them.
Launched in 2015, BDD is a storytelling performance, advocacy and community-building program. In the first semester, through mindful listening and community support training, Diplomats learn to tell their own story, to listen to each other, and learn the importance of connecting to others through story.
In their second semester, Diplomats go into the larger CUNY community of undocumented students around the NYC metropolitan area, sharing their own experiences, and forging connections. The program culminates with an artistic advocacy piece — a performance, a festival, and in 2017, a literary magazine, showcasing the important and powerful struggles, triumphs, and stories of real undocumented students.
“Two Women Talking”: A Storytelling and Listening Project
Two Women Talking is an original performance by Monsoon Bissell and Benaifer Bhadha. It is a live, unscripted piece in which two we weave our life stories together - stories that take place between western and eastern worlds, touching on issues of personal identity, culture, gender, sexuality, violence, illness, and tradition. Each performance has a uniqueness in that the stories told vary depending on what is alive in the listening audience. Together, we explore how reclaiming narratives and listening to one another brings power, movement and change to our lives.
Our stories reside in the kitchens of India, in the bathrooms of boarding schools, in the traditions that families insist on keeping, in the silence around abuse, in the isolation of mental illness and in the complexities of growing in two cultures. It is in the retelling of these stories that we hold the power to re-story our personal narratives and although there is rawness and emotion when we relive our experiences, healing occurs every time we share our stories publically. In reclaiming our narrative we have exercised a choice in how to define our identities. The work reflects our moving away from shame and fragmentation to strength and integration.
Media Links
Scroll.in: A play in New York tells tales of two women from India that ‘need to be told’
Business Standard: An unscripted performance explores the power of listening
The Hindu: A vivid re-telling
Y.K.R.
YKR is a transformational storytelling project for people of South Asian & Indo-Caribbean heritage who experience gender oppression. Our goal is to break the silence on those aspects of our lives that have been deemed unsuitable for the light of day, and to build community in order to do so.
YKR is a movement to counter the public narrative of who we are and where we come from, and empower people in their identities and communities. Our unique, community-based production brings together people with extensive acting experience and those who are new to the stage, creating a braver, supported space for developing our narratives and showcasing our truths.