Performance: Beat Midras

Stav Marin, Samira Saraya and Neta Weiner:
Beat Midras

Performance as part of the exhibition opening School of Listening: (Im)possible Conversations

Over the past decade, Stav Marin, Samira Saraya, and Neta Weiner have collaborated on various art, education, and activism platforms, sharing the stage in numerous shows. Weiner and Saraya are members of the multilingual and binational band System Ali, founded in Jaffa as part of a struggle for housing rights. In their projects and in their course at the Summer Academy, they explore the relationship between language, vocal production, and movement to address language and performance as political tools, both in the Israeli-Palestinian context and in relation to gender constructs. They investigate multi-languaging and the politicization of the linguistic public sphere via various performative and creative traditions, including spoken word, martial arts, contemporary dance, and beatboxing. The artists will perform segments of their performances followed by a conversation with the audience.

“Beat Midras” is a wordplay between the Jewish concept of Beit Midrash, a Jewish religious-intellectual discursive space, madāris/madrassa, the Arabic name for an educational institution (secular or religious), and the sonic, rhythmic, and musical meanings of the English word beat.