Right after the regular Sunday service, everyone is invited to hear a brief talk by Sol Kelley-Jones, creator of the current Broom Street Theater play, "The Birds That Are Your Hands...How to Start a Fire Under Siege." She will be talking about how she came to get involved in Palestinian and Mexican immigrant issues, about her expectations before visiting border areas, the reality she found there and the insights she gained, and how she came to create the play.

A short biography:

Sol Thea Kelley-Jones, a senior at Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), grew up in the James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation and has been engaged in social justice activism, “since the womb.” As an activist and artist, she has been reimagining justice-making through the performing arts since her youngest years. In 1999, out of a desire to create theater and give platform to the marginalized voices of LGBTQ youth, Sol co-founded Proud Theater with Callen Harty.

Through the years, Sol’s art has reflected her belief in the interconnection between struggles for justice. She has continued to employ the theatrical arts in ever widening circles. After teaching theater as trauma intervention in refugees’ camps in the Palestinian Territories and working on immigrant rights at Coalicion Derechos de Humanos on the U.S./Mexico border, Sol embarked on her most recent theatrical work, which explores the peoples and militarized landscapes of these two border places. Her play, “the birds that are your hands: how to start a fire under siege” foregrounds the voices and stories of those often silenced and deemed “other,” through racialization and economic imperatives.

The play:

Written, directed and produced by Sol, this provocative and moving multi-media performance work seeks to open up conversations and inspire action. “The birds that are your hands” is currently being presented by Broom Street Theater, 1119 Williamson Street: 608-244-8338. The play runs through April 19th. Performance times: Friday and Saturdays at 8:00 pm, $9, and Sunday matinees at 2 pm, $6. A final talk back follows the April 12th show.

Play synopsis: Against the backdrop of occupied borderlands torn asunder, “the birds that are your hands: how to start a fire under siege” explores disparate yet overlapping tales of tyranny and resistance from the Middle East (Israel/Palestine) to the Americas (U.S/Mexico border). A tangled collage of stories unfurl drawing attention to the hands of those enclosed by borders, those making the crossing, and those who capitalize on the construction of walls: wielders of stones, bakers of bread, upholders of state. Shepherds emerge alongside Goliaths’ patrol, lovers find themselves to be terrorists, and Ingrid thinks we should all just lay down our arms and play violins.

Talk sponsored by the Prairie Program Committee.