Say You Heard My Echo

"Say You Heard My Echo" explores the lives of three fictional Asian American women in New York City a decade after 9/11. A part of the "Locating the Sacred Festival."

What connects a Catholic burlesque dancer who survived the Twin Towers, a Buddhist Iraq war veteran and hip hop emcee who returns home, and a Muslim librarian whose family suffers detention and interrogation? An evening-length spoken-word poetry theater project written by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (450 performances worldwide and three seasons of the award-winning Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry), Say You Heard My Echo explores the lives of three fictional Asian American women in New York City a decade after 9/11. With choral poems, prayers, activist folk songs, and raps, the play weaves together the characters’ struggles with survivorship and faith and their intimate relationships with Mary Magdalene, Guan Yin, and Aisha.

Performed by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, YaliniDream, and Adeeba Rana with stage direction by Jesse Jou.

Say You Heard My Echo was a project commissioned in 2011 by the Asian American Arts Alliance.

Friday, September 14, 2012 | 7-8.30pm
Saturday, September 15, 2012 | 2-3.30pm; 7-8.30pm

Two years in the making, the Locating the Sacred Festival, a project of the Asian American Arts Alliance, has brought together hundreds of artists, arts workers and cultural activists to create twenty-five events in churches, museums, cultural centers, botanical gardens and theaters across all five boroughs of New York City, exploring the meaning of the word “sacred” and its relevance in their communities.

From an inflatable Buddha on the East River to a flash mob in Washington Square Park, the festival showcases Asian American artists as agents of change, demonstrating the power of art to unleash imagination and break down barriers. Festival Producing Partners include New York University, the Rubin Museum of Art, Queens Botanical Gardens, Poetry Society of America, Church Center for the United Nations and several others. In the wake of the shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and as the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 approaches, New Yorkers are reminded that opportunities for greater cultural understanding are never more important. The Asian American community is the fastest growing cultural group in New York, now 13% of the population (one million people), with heritages spanning the Middle East to the Pacific Islands. The festival aims to provide a platform for all New Yorkers to engage deeply with each other on questions of fundamental values and to be inspired to imagine moving towards together as a society.