“I spent four months working in Occupied Palestine. I learned more than I ever imagined about humanity and our ability to prevail. I got to witness what it means to live under occupation. And I got to see who wears the brunt of the conflict: children. It is children who manage to still be children in the midst of oppression and who are growing up in the midst of an unresolved conflict. Through my work as a clown/performer and teaching artist I want to inject these young ones with hope and laughter.” – Sayda Trujillo
After spending four months in Palestine at the beginning of this year working at The Freedom Theatre, Sayda Trujillo will be returning with two veteran Clowns Without Borders performers, David Lichtenstein and Leah Abel as well as NYC based photographer Michelle McSwain to document their work. They will travel in the West Bank for two weeks performing at The Freedom Theatre and in Area C communities for hundreds of children, youths and adults. Area C is 60 percent of the West Bank and it’s made up of approximately 250 Bedouin and farmer communities without access to education, clinics and sparse access to water. These communities are struggling on a daily basis against attempts to forcibly be expelled from their traditional homelands.
The Clowns Without Borders group will perform at the Women’s Centre in Jenin Refugee Camp on October 12 at 11 am and in Jalameh village at 3.30 on the same date. They will later join the Solidarity stay in the South Hebron Hills with the Freedom Bus.