Ishmael Thaahir Appointed Producing Director Of Kyoung's Pacific Beat

Long-time ensemble member Ishmael Thaahir has become Kyoung Pacific Beat's new Producing Director, making the transition from Associate Artistic Producer to a more prominent leadership role in the rapidly growing peacemaking theater company.

Ishmael recently finished working in the company's latest production, NERO, as both Assistant Director and as a performer, puppeteering the three characters of Senators Piso, Tigellinus, and Pallas.

"Kyoung's Pacific Beat's Board of Directors and I are thrilled to appoint Ishmael Thaahir as Producing Director of KPB," stated KPB Artistic Director Kyoung H. Park. "Ishmael joined our ensemble as part of our 2018 tour of PILLOWTALK to CAATA's 'Radical Acts Festival' in Chicago and has been an integral part of our organization ever since. While KPB searched nationwide to fulfill this position, it became evident that our unique organizational needs required a promotion from within. Ishmael embodies both our theater-making and peacemaking values and has cultivated authentic relationships across our company's wide array of stakeholders, making him the best candidate for this position."

"I feel honored to join the team in this new capacity, especially as we're gearing up to premiere our most ambitious piece ever, NERO," says Thaahir. "I deeply admire the organization's dedication to cultivating a culture of peace in a landscape currently dominated by fear and anxiety of the unknown." Ishmael comes from a background in performance, music, directing, community mutual aid work, and education. "I'm eager to use my skill set to contribute to a more peaceful industry and world I hope to see."

Kyoung's Pacific Beat is a peacemaking theater collective dedicated to working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform experiences of oppression into peace messages through public performance. KPB devises work with an interdisciplinary and multicultural ensembles of artists -our Mondragons- to uplift communities of color to create a culture of peace through non-violent practices that provide social cohesion, spiritual healing, and radical knowledge.

KPB's Producing Director role is funded by a multi-year grant from the Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, which provides capacity-building support to performing arts organizations in New York City. For more information, please visit www.kyoungspacificbeat.org

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