What: Mother Tongue 

When: Thursday, March 20th @ 6:30 pm 

Where: Easthampton High School 70 Williston Ave Easthampton, MA 01027 

For ages 12+  

On Thursday March 20th at 6:30pm, Easthampton Public Schools is hosting the performance Mother Tongue at Easthampton High School. Mother Tongue, created by the Performance Project’s First Generation Ensemble, is a powerful and extremely relevant performance, especially in light of recent national and global events. The performance is free. 

Mother Tongue is an original multilingual physical theater performance inspired by the experiences of ensemble members, their families and communities who are from Congo/Tanzania, Bhutan/Nepal, South Sudan/Darfur, Puerto Rico, Holyoke, and Springfield, Massachusetts. The 90 minute performance weaves together theater, movement, music, dance, and stories in Arabic, Swahili, Nepali, Spanish, and English. Mother Tongue incorporates themes of diaspora, culture, identity, language, hypermasculinity, transphobia, racism, education, the school to prison pipeline, personal liberation, and revolution. For ages 12 and up.  

Mother Tongue 4 minute trailer: https://vimeo.com/883007814?share=copy  

 Mother Tongue co-authors and ensemble members are Montaser Yagoub Abdelrahman, Charlétte Sostre Garcia, Monisha Gurung, Julita Hasani, Moise Jackobo, Lali (Iliana) Quiles-Torres. Co-directed by Iyawna Burnett, Julie Lichtenberg, and Lesley Farlow. Ensemble support and training, James Arana. Original sound composition and recording by I-SHEA Shaikly and sound design by Tyler Gorman and Tony Silva.  

Mother Tongue has been touring for two years. The performance was developed by members of First Generation, an intergenerational arts and leadership development community that honors the stories and lives of youth and family who identify as ‘first generation’: First in their families to grow up in the US, to speak English, graduate high school, go to college, be openly LGBTQ+, be an activist, be a feminist, break a silence, or any other first. First Generation is a part of The Performance Project, which has been creating original theater and art in collaboration with communities in Hampshire and Hampden counties since 2000. 

The performance will be on Thursday, March 20th @ 6:30 pm at Easthampton High School 70 Williston Ave Easthampton, MA 01027. 

The event is free, donations will be accepted at the door the evening of the event. 

The development of Mother Tongue was supported by the Mass Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Mass Humanities. The performance, graciously hosted by Easthampton Public Schools, is also supported by the Easthampton Cultural Council.  

For more information contact: 413-374-4938. Or info@performanceproject.org  

Web: performanceproject.org   

Tickets are free at the door.

For ages 12+