4th International Human Rights Art Festival Begins In December

Over 100 artists and activists from all over the globe are set to take part in the 4th INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ART FESTIVAL in New York City December 6 - 12 at Wild Project (195 E. 3rd Street in Manhattan). Set to coincide with International Human Rights Day which falls on December 10 every year, the Festival brings together artists with social and political leaders and the general public to imagine and implement a better, more caring world. Artists around the world speak truth to power -- often alone, and at great personal risk. The INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ART FESTIVAL empowers their voices, activating a global audience of allies to support them in their struggle for social justice and human rights. Artists and activists from 24 countries including Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Haiti, India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Singapore, South Korea, Uganda and Venezuela are represented in the 2021 festival.

Featuring dance, theatre, music, spoken word, comedy, circus, and film, the 4th INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ART FESTIVAL (produced by Tom Block) is a week-long series of advocacy events and performances at the intersection of art, activism and society. The full schedule can be viewed at www.ihraf.org. Tickets are $20 each, or $50 for a festival pass.

Some of the highlights of the festival include:

• Monday, December 6 at 7:30pm -- "Short Play Festival" featuring 7 new theatrical works by playwrights Sam Affoumado, D. Lee Miller, Cate Wiley, Laura Gaspari, Tom Block, Zizi Azah Abdul Majid, Leonard Goodisman.

• Tuesday, December 7 at 7:30pm -- "Celebration of Immigration" featuring an excerpt of a new play by Sara Farrington, new music by Luis D'Elias, a performance piece by Gabriel Torres and a dance piece on immigration by Axons Dance Company.

• Wednesday, December 8 at 7:30pm -- "Shalom/Salaam" featuring Arabic-language songs by Call Me Córdoba, Moroccan music by Rachid Halihal and Richard Khuzami, comedy by Jewish Uzbek-American comedian Natan Badalov, and music by six-time Independent Music Award-winning musician and producer Rachael Sage.

• Thursday, December 9 at 7:30pm -- "Yahah-in Unum" featuring Steven Hoffen's Growing Peace in the Middle East, Art of Unity Creative Award and Jessica Litwak's Matriarch, an outtake.

• Friday, December 10 at 7:30pm -- "Dance Friday" featuring Valerie Green/Dance Entropy, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, music by Ellen Mandel and Michael Lydon, LatticeWorks Dance, Amy Liou and Sayoko Kojima's A Practice: Alone/Together and two pieces by Dancers Unlimited.

• Saturday, December 11 at 2pm -- Aseemkala Initiative's "The Stories Our Bodies Speak," stories by diverse women presented through diverse traditional dances.

• Saturday, December 11 at 3:30pm -- "Farm Arts Collective" featuring neo-beat post-punk liberation jazz by The Red Microphone and a theatrical spectacle addressing climate change and social justice by Farm Arts Collective (as recently featured in The New York Times).

• Saturday, December 11 at 5pm -- Gabrielle Senza's "IN/VISIBILITY" an multimedia performance about about the survival and erasure of people, time, memory and experience.

• Saturday, December 11 at 7:30pm -- "Celebration of Africa" featuring work by Ugandan poet-in-exile Razack Buwaso Ibrahim, Gambian griot Salieu Suso's dance/music troupe Jalikunda and a presentation by Wole Adedoyin, President of the IHRAF African Secretariat in Ibadan, Nigeria.

• Sunday, December 12 at 2pm -- Thank You For Coming Out LGBTQ improv comedy.

• Sunday, December 12 at 3:30pm -- "Spoken Word" featuring Maggie Sunday Odom, Cornelia Street Café co-founder Robin Hirsch, Filipino-American warrior artist Philippe Garcesto, and Laurel Snyder.