by Denmo Ibrahim
illustrated by Hend Al-Mansour
About the Project
“I didn’t know how deeply fulfilling it would be to write a children’s story featuring Muslim characters and Islamic art. Only through the process did I realize its glaring absence in celebrated children’s literature. I found there was almost no theme I could not explore and that writing for kids was an invitation to speak simply, directly, and with a sense of serious play. I owe a great deal of thanks to the special humans that were by my side throughout this process and its many phases.”
Denmo Ibrahim
Building Bridges Through the Arts
Zaynab’s Night of Destiny is a joyful celebration of Islamic peoples, cultures, and communities in greater Louisville and beyond. The story centers on one little girl’s journey toward belonging. Interestingly enough, the project itself evolved after quite a journey of its own.
Project Origins
Commonwealth Theatre Company (CTC), the commissioning company, was highly intentional about representation in its productions.
They began to understand the varied ways Muslim, MENA (Middle Eastern, North African), and SWANA (Southwest Asian, North African) peoples have so often been misrepresented, if represented at all, in creative forms, including children’s theatre.
Even though Louisville, Kentucky is home to a vibrant community of Muslim, MENA, and SWANA identifying folks, the artistic team at CTC realized some of our very own neighbors might not feel welcomed inside local theatre spaces because of such an absence of positive representation. If we were going to change this at CTC, we knew we would need to reach out to collaborators who could bring lived experience and insider cultural knowledge to this work.
When CTC applied for and received a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for Islamic Art, they realized this was the opportunity they had hoped for!
ABOUT CTC
Commonwealth Theatre Center is a non-profit organization based in Louisville, Kentucky whose mission is to develop youth and community through excellence in theatre education and performance.
Founded in 1976, it provides pre-professional theatre training to artistically-minded youth and joyful, community-driven learning through in-school arts experiences. CTC has a rich history of new works creation in both its Outreach and Conservatory programs, and specializes in scripts that engage children in conversations about important and often challenging issues.
About the Process
With the support of Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, CTC was able to hire Denmo Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American artist with a passion for community engagement to craft a story to meet this very real need for Muslim and MENA/SWANA representation on our local stages.
During the fall of 2019, CTC teaching artists designed workshop programming that utilized the core principles of Muhammad Ali–Louisville’s hometown hero and, of course, a well-known Muslim.
To create the project, CTC and the author Denmo Ibrahim partnered with several organizations as a residency: Nur Islamic School of Louisville, Newcomer Academy (a public school for students who have immigrated to the United States within the last year), and Louisville Youth Group (a support group for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults). During this time, workshop participants shared some of their experiences feeling “othered” for their differences. Some of these stories sparked creative ideas for Denmo’s ongoing work with us and a theme of belonging began to emerge.
The goal was that these collaborations would encourage trust and further cultural acceptance through exploring the intersections of experience amongst members of the Muslim, MENA/SWANA, refugee, queer, and disability communities.
Thanks to the resilience, creativity, and dedication of this project’s artistic team, Zaynab’s Night of Destiny was born! In addition to creating a rich new creative process, together we expanded our community outreach to produce an innovative new children’s work. We hope that this project makes young people feel seen and celebrated and that it may inspire them to share their own stories with pride.
This project is made possible thanks to funding from our sponsors and the many individuals who have contributed along the way.
The Creative Team
Denmo Ibrahim
(she/her) Playwright / Actor
Denmo Ibrahim is a first-generation Egyptian-American playwright, actor, and entrepreneur who the San Francisco Chronicle called “a tower of strength in the Bay Area theatre scene.” Denmo was one of 25 theatre artists nominated for the Rainin Fellowship (2020) and was a Sundance Theatre Lab Finalist. Her devised work has toured to international festivals in Egypt, France and Germany. In the U.S., her work has been supported by New York Theatre Workshop, Under St. Marks, Playwrights’ Center, Noor Theatre, University of Oregon, Golden Thread Productions, EXIT Theater, Alter Theatre and Zawaya. Regional acting credits include Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, Marin Theatre Company, and Cal Shakes. Denmo is the Artistic Director of Storykrapht, and the originating production of her new play Brilliant Mind, a live & interactive digital experience, premieres at Marin Theatre Company (Spring 2021). She is a founding artistic director of Mugwumpin, a resident artist of Golden Thread, a member of the steering committee of MENATMA (Middle Eastern Theatre Makers Alliance), and the founder & CEO of Earthbody Day Spa and Omcali Sacred Skincare. Denmo is a proud member of Actors Equity Association, Dramatists Guild, and New Play Exchange. She holds an MFA in Lecoq-based Actor Created Physical Theater from Naropa University and a BFA in Acting from Boston University. Her next writing project is a ten-part historical drama with Audible. www.denmoibrahim.com
Zeina Salame
(she/her) Creative Director
Zeina Salame has deep roots in educational theatre, theatre for young audiences, and community based/applied theatre work. She is also a director, actor, and scholar with a PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon. Her dissertation, “Carried In One Woman—Reflections on Arab American Female Solo Performance” centers on themes of “home” and the creative value of embodied generational knowledge, heritage, and intersectionality in performance aesthetics. Some of her recent writing on theatre has been published on Howlround Theatre Commons, Etudes, Al Jadid, and in the Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures. A few of her recent creative collaborations include work with Artists Repertory Theatre’s Mercury Company, the Guthrie Theater’s Level Nine with New Arab American Theater Works, and the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation with Pangea World Theater and Art2Action. Zeina is also a co-founder and artistic team member of Florida based theatre company, The 5 & Dime.
Hend Al-Mansour
(she/her) Visual Artist
Hend Al-Mansour is a Minnesotan immigrant from Saudi Arabia. Her work unfolds across painting, screen-printing, drawing, installation and 2D animation. Influenced by Islamic art and architecture, she tells stories about powerful Arab women. She places her heroines within milieus of Arabic geometric design with a warm and vibrant palette.
In 2002 Al-Mansour gained a Master of Fine Arts from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a Master’s in art history from University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 2013.
She is a recipient of 2019 Minnesota State Art Board grant, 2018 McKnight visual art fellowship, 2013/14 Jerome Fellowship of Printmaking, and the 2012 Juror’s Award of the Contemporary Islamic Art exhibition in Riyadh. Her work is included in private and public collections worldwide. She was listed among the 100 most powerful Arab women in the online magazine Arabian Business. She has shown and lectured nationally and internationally.
Kaila Flexer
(she/her) Composer / Violinist
Kaila Flexer is a violinist, composer, music educator, teacher and producer. She has recorded four CD’s with groups Teslim, Next Village and Third Ear. Between 1989 and 2012, she produced large Jewish music events Klezmer Mania! and Pomegranates & Figs as well as many smaller music events. She lives in Oakland, California and has a thriving teaching studio where she works with string players and other instrumentalists of all ages and levels on a variety of styles including traditional music from Eastern and Western Europe as well as western classical music. For the last 15 years, she has pursued her interest in traditional music from Balkan and Arab countries as well as Turkish classical music. Her original compositions reflect her love of and respect for these styles. During the pandemic, Flexer has been teaching via Zoom, composing, learning the music sequencing program Logic and continued her obsession with succulents while branching out to growing food. To date she has successfully grown green beans, chard, dill, snap peas, cucumbers, bok choy, shiso leaf and a variety of lovely flowers! Kaila has been an admirer of Ibrahim’s work as an actor, writer and activist and is thrilled to be part of Team Zaynab.
Christopher Krotky
(he/him) Sound Designer, Foley Artist
C.K. is a drummer/producer/engineer curently creating music out of his recording studios in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area and Upstate New York.
As a drummer and Bay Area-native, CK has been playing since he was 10 years old. Studying composition and theory at College of Marin (famed drummer Terry Bozzio’s humble beginnings ) and then on to Musicians Institute in Los Angeles surrounded by greats such as Vinnie Colaiuta , Jeff Porcaro , Dave Weckl.
CK has cultivated an approach leading to a love of listening to what a song or piece of music needs while being spontaneous. Knowing that sensitivity and force should co-exist in drumming.
As a producer and engineer CK has recorded and produced over 250 projects in the last 25+ years ranging in styles from Pop and Rock to Latin jazz, Funk ,Folk, Klezmer, Middle Eastern to Blues, Electronica, Devotional and Brazilian. He is also currently working on composing more music and sound design for indie film , documentary, theater and video projects.
Ahmed Ashour
(he/him) Assistant Director / Dramaturg / Cultural Consultant
Ahmed Ashour is a Bahrain-born, Egypt-grown theatre-maker, writer, and thinker. Ahmed is a recipient of the prestigious and highly-selective Crown Prince of Bahrain International Scholarship. His work focuses on creating space for members of the global majority community, especially Arab- and/or Muslim-identifying people, to navigate and intervene in the disciplinary/surveillance state. Select credits include Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat, Lauren Gunderson’s Natural Shocks (Sock & Buskin), Elwood’s (2018 America Too Festival, Trinity Repertory Company), A Guide to Winning (La Fontaine Centre for Contemporary Art), and Pippin (Ensemble! Theatre). Ahmed also works in multidisciplinary art, most recently collaborating with several international artists on Shrimp Atonement (zFestival unAcademy). He received his BA in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies from Brown University, and currently is a freelancer in Bahrain and internationally.