IN PERSON EVENTS
About Our Events
Some of our events are private and member-focused; some are completely public-facing; and some are designed with our partners to bring out connections between our groups .
We love to work with creatives and organizations to design experiences that are unique, diverse and rooted in meaningful connection.
Here are a few examples of the experiences we are incubating for further expansion:
DIASPORA DISH
With our 'Diaspora Dish’ events we serve up ‘three courses’ consisting of:
-An artistic production or happening of some kind
-A paired meal
-A lightly-facilitated conversation.
All of this is designed to forge meaningful interactions alongside the creativity of SWANASA women and the genius of our foods.
The Squad would LOVE to host some other 'Diasporic Dish' events in the future.
If you have ideas for one in your area, and/or are creating something that we could shape a meal and conversation around, please just reach out
From our “Diasporic Dish” in May 2022.
“It was a joy to watch together the play "Wish You Were Here" with its all-women all-Iranian/SWANASA cast and beautifully worded script.
Afterwards we ate some delicious Persian food as the sun set over the Hudson River and talked.
Then --inspired by the play-- we shared some objects/photos that evoked 'laughter or longing' along our diasporic journeys.”
Collaborations + Cards
Hosting a theatrical production, party or event?
Engage your participants with our Conversation Cards, and experience how they help better connect folks (who may or may not know each other) through sharing bite-sized stories.
Squad members engage pre-show audiences (IRL or virtual) with the 1001 Nights-inspired “Conversation Cards,” facilitating story-sharing for other attendees, either ‘warming up’ the crowd for a main event, or complementing any existing storytelling with this appetizer-like offering.
Selma Abinader
“I really felt from people a longing for connection. People appreciated this. A little thing can feel very powerful to people. The cards allowed them to reflect on their desires, life and longings — all this came through in their different stories.”
Cultivating Conversations
‘Cultivating Conversations’ brings the Squad in deeper connection with other communities, whether it’s around creative practice, affinity spaces, certain themes or more.
Virtual or IRL experiences designed for meaningful interactions allows our members to be in vital conversations with others they otherwise may not get to meet. Especially those –like us– on the creativity/community/liberation spectrum
February 2022, Cleveland
As the Squad recruited local members in Cleveland, we also cultivated a relationship with the writer/director and her all-female African-American cast of “Panther Women” at the Cleveland Public Theater. Squad members attended a performance and then met the cast after for an informal discussion around the play’s themes of feminism, liberation and the personal connections we all may have (or don’t) to various movements. This continued with a virtual discussion involving other Squad members nationwide. (Panther Women were offered the Cards and a small stipend for their engagement).