Neta Weiner and Samira Saraya have collaborated for more than a decade in a range of artistic projects, sharing the stage in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Salzburg, Berlin and New York, among other places. Their work demonstrates the role of art in opening up questions and facilitating conflictual dialogues and collaboration, and examines the boundaries between text, body and voice while addressing contexts of political violence in Israel-Palestine.
Neta and Samira will perform segments of one of their recent works, “Beat Midras,” along with a musical and spoken word multilingual performance, followed by a conversation with the audience. “Beat Midras” is a word play 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. Broadly, this work investigates multi-languaging and the politicization of the linguistic public sphere via various performative and creative traditions, including spoken word, martial arts, and beatboxing. More specifically, they explore the relationships between language, vocal production and movement in Israeli-Palestinian contexts as well as in terms of gender formation.
Neta Weiner is a musician, theatre director, singer, actor, rapper, poet, accordionist, and the artistic director of “Beit System Ali,” a multi-lingual hip-hop project. He was born in Kibbutz Givat Haim in 1987. Weiner has created and acted in several critically acclaimed and award-winning stage works produced for festivals and prominent theaters worldwide. As a musician, he wrote the soundtrack for the acclaimed TV teen series “Madrasa” (meaning “school” in Arabic). Weiner is a lecturer in Tufts University’s Theatre, Dance, and Performance Department and a guest scholar at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
Samira Saraya is an actor, writer, director, spoken word artist, musician and LGBTQ activist. She was born in Haifa in 1975. In her early twenties, she began performing as a drag king while working as a nurse. She won the Acco Festival Award for unique acting in 2012; Fringe Theatre Award for 2015 and 2017; Best Actress Award in the 2017 Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF); and the Best Script Award for her short film Polygraph of 2018 at TLVFest. Samira graduated from Tel Aviv University with a degree in directing and debuted with Polygraph in 2020. She is also a member of the System Ali band.
Musical performance in Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish and English
Dance
Spoken Word
Discussion about their collaborations and Israel-Palestine
Dance
Spoken Word
Discussion about their collaborations and Israel-Palestine