For Immediate Release

DRAFT

March 24, 2015

LAGUARDIA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF BEYOND SACRED: VOICES OF MUSLIM IDENTITY BY PING CHONG + COMPANY, APRIL 29-MAY 9

Interview-Based Theatre Production Explores Diverse Experience of a Post 9/11 Generation of Muslim New Yorkers

Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity (world premiere)
Ping Chong + Company
Written by Ping Cong and Sara Zatz, with Ryan Conarro
Directed by Ping Chong

April 29 - May 2, and May 7-9 at 8:00pm, April 30, May 1, and 7 at 2:30pm

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Ave. Long Island City)
lpac.nyc; 718.482.5151; $25 ($20 student, senior)

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC), an emerging destination for diverse international work, is pleased to present the world premiere of Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity (April 29-May 9) by Ping Chong + Company. Beyond Sacred is an interview-based theatre production that explores the diverse experiences of young Muslim New Yorkers. The production is the centerpiece of LPAC’s yearlong initiative Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity, an interdisciplinary project that aims to illuminate the experience of culturally identified Muslims who have come of age in post-9/11 New York.

Performances of Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity will take place April 29–May 9 (see above schedule) at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thomson Ave. Long Island City, NY). Critics are welcome as of the first performance on Wednesday April 29 for an official opening Sunday May 3. Tickets are $25 ($20 Student and Senior) and can be purchased at lpac.nyc or by calling 718.482. 5151.

Ping Chong + Company created Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity with five young New Yorkers who self-identify as Muslim and perform the work: Amir Khafagy, a student activist at Queens College, Maha Syed, a recent graduate of Columbia University with a masters in International Affairs; Ferdous Dehqan whoimmigrated to America from Afghanistan in 2013 at the age of 18; Kadin Herring originally from South Carolina, his father came to Islam through Malcolm X and Nation of Islam, converting in the 70s, and his mother is Baptist; and Tiffany Yasmin Abdelghani who grew up in Florida. Her family is from Trinidad. She was raised Christian, and converted to Islam in her mid-20s.

Beyond Sacred was created using Ping Chong + Company’s Undesirable Elements methodology. Conceived by Chong, Undesirable Elements is an open framework that can be brought to any community and tailored to suit the needs and issues facing that community. Each production is made with a host organization based in the local community, with local participants testifying to their real lives and experiences. Since 1992, under the rubric of its Undesirable Elements series, the beloved Ping Chong + Company has created over 50 deeply moving theater productions that give voice to specific communities. In the creation of each piece, local participants testify to their real lives and experiences, often for the first time. Scripts are based on interviews with these participants, who then tell their stories in the final production. 

The five participants in Beyond Sacred vary in many ways, but share the common experience of coming of age in a post-9/11 New York City, at a time of increasing Islamophobia. Participants come from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and include men and women that reflect a wide range of Muslim identities, including those who have converted to Islam, those who were raised Muslim, but have since left the faith, those who identify as “secular” or “culturally” Muslim, and those who are observant on a daily basis. The goal of Beyond Sacred is to illuminate daily experiences of Muslim new Yorkers, and work towards greater communication and understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in NYC.

The Beyond Sacred season will be an exploration of Muslim identity through the lens of music, theatre, and dance that will facilitate an open dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, and will challenge the assumptions of group identity. Through Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity, LPAC will further its goal of incorporating pertinent social justice work into its multidisciplinary arts programming.

LPAC is just one of six college and university arts presenters, and the only community college presenter, to receive funding to carry out community projects that expand awareness of Muslim arts and culture. Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity is made possible by the Building Bridges: Campus Community Engagement grant from of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

Ping Chong + Company produces theatrical works addressing the important cultural and civic issues of our times, striving to reach the widest audiences with the greatest level of artistic innovation and social integrity. The company was founded in 1975 by leading theatrical innovator Ping Chong with a mission to create works of theater and art that explore the intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. Today, Ping Chong + Company produces original works by a close-knit ensemble of affiliated artists, under the artistic leadership of Ping Chong. Productions range from intimate oral history projects to grand scale cinematic multidisciplinary productions featuring puppets, performers, and full music and projection scores. The art reveals beauty, precision, and a commitment to social justice.

About the Performers

Amir Khafagy is a student at Queens College in Urban Studies. He was born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. His father is Egyptian and his mother is Puerto Rican, and converted to Islam after he was born. He has been active in Occupy Wall Street and other progressive causes.Maha Syed is a recent graduate of Columbia University with an masters in International Affairs (MIA) with a focus in human rights and gender policy in South Asia. She is Pakistani American, and she was born in Kuwait and grew up in in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and the United States (where she went to high school and college). She has also lived in/spent time in China, the Dominican Republic (as a peace corps volunteer), and Pakistan. After Hurricane Sandy, she worked as an outreach worker for immigrant disaster victims in Brighton Beach.Ferdous Dehqan was born and raised in Afghanistan. He came to the US in 2013 at the age of 18, and is now a student at LaGuardia Community College, where he is studying accounting. 

Kadin Herring grew up in Greenville, South Carolina and came to New York to attend the New School. He also lived for two years as a student in France. His father came to Islam through Malcolm X and Nation of Islam, converting in the 1970s, his mother is Baptist.

Tiffany Yasmin Abdelghani grew up in Florida. Her family is from Trinidad. She was raised Christian, and converted to Islam in her mid-20s. However, she has Muslim ancestry on both her mother and her father’s sides. She is a current student at LaGuardia Community College.

About LPAC

LPAC is a cultural “bridge” and integral part of LaGuardia Community College, located in the most culturally diverse urban area in the world, Queens, NY.  LPAC has a long and respected history of engaging, presenting, and producing new artistic work by diverse, international artists. The organization has evolved into a destination for high quality theatre, dance, and performing arts from emerging artists who are transforming the international arts community. For example, in 2012, LPAC presented the New York theatre premiere of “For Rent”, by acclaimed Turkish playwright Ozen Yula, a work that was banned in Turkey and which was translated into English for its LPAC run. LPAC recently completed its pilot Rough Draft Festival, a showcase of compelling new artistic work-in-progress by LPAC and other companies. The Rough Draft Festival’s ongoing activities are being informed by a cultural exchange with Turkish Theatre Company VDST’s New Text New Theatre Project.

The following are just a few of the many international artists produced and/or presented by LPAC within the last five years: PCC, Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, Ozen Yula, Anoushka Shankar, Sanaz Gharrjam, Pasha Dance (World Premiere), Albita, Carmen Consoli, Latif Bolat, D-Camerino, Alper Yimaz, Eldar, Luis Garay, Alejandro Caceres, Discanto, Tejas Luminous, Ayca Damgaci, Ayhan Aktas, Zishan Ugurlu, Alper Yilmaz, Ye Taik, Juri Nishio, Saviana Stanescu, Maja Milanovich, Ana Margineanu, Aktina Stathaki, Guillermo Ortega Tanus, and many others. To further its artistic mission, LPAC has partnered with some of the most prestigious international cultural venues that are located in NYC to present and produce new works including: Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Public Theater, The Chocolate Factory Theatre, Ballet Hispanico, Flux Factory, NYC Opera, Queens Theatre in the Park, and Queens Council on the Arts among many others.  

For more information, please contact Blake Zidell, John Wyszniewski or Emily Reilly at

Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052, [e-mail], [e-mail] or [e-mail].

321 DEAN STREET, #5 BROOKLYN, NY 11217 p 718.643.9052 www.blakezidell.com