Hosted by Leilani Albano, Abelina Galustian, and Melissa Chiprin
We will be talking with Jesse Bliss about her One night only! Unique, site-specific reading of her new play, “Tree of Fire”. Inspired by her life and experiences as an educator in our nation’s prison system, her play gives voice to three female inmates whose lives are threatened when a Magnolia tree is set on fire in an aged and ominous women’s correctional facility, jolting them into memories of their past that inform the truth of their souls and the urgent need to expose the inhumanity of the prison to the world.
And, returning from her visit to Armenia, Abelina Galustian uncovers a country in jeopardy where women are certainly not immune from social and economic conflicts. What dilemmas do women in post-Soviet Armenia face? What strategies have they employed to cope with the challenges set for them? How have state policies, and socio-cultural and economic conditions posed constraints to their roles as mothers, wives and daughters? In this this segment on “Armenia in Jeopardy” Abelina addresses these questions in a personal conversation with Melissa Chiprin.
But first, we will have a conversation through the Native American and Feminist tradition of oral history about the truth of No Thanks-No Giving, otherwise known as “Thanksgiving.” Joining us is Kat Solomon, Native American through her maternal great-grandmother Viva Collins Darland, as well as, being Jewish which impacts every level of her life. Her personal statement against patriarchy is wearing a Kippah, and Fiera Monica Tenkiller , Cherokee, and a member of the Cherokee Nation (Oklahoma).
(left: “Tree of Fire” by Jesse Bliss; middle: Abelina Galustian; right: “No Thanks-No Giving” an oral history)
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