show currently in production
How to be a poet in wartime
bilingual performance
with Hind Joudeh (poems in Arabic) Soukaina Habiballah (poems in English) and the Chœur tact-til (sound environment) lightning Zouheir Atbane, direction Henri jules Julien
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How to be a poet in wartime is a poem written and published by Hind Joudeh on her Facebook account in October 2023, at the height of the massacres in Gaza. Iconic, immediately viral, translated into multiple languages. This is the fundamental question around which the other poems in the show, all written since October 7, 2023, revolve, forming the backbone of the show. They bear witness to the tragedy, terror and desolation, but also to the inextinguishable thirst for life of the poetess and the Palestinians.
On stage, the intense, dignified presence of Hind Joudeh, whose voice resonates with the multiple wars she has endured, is redoubled by the precise, infinitely gentle voice of Moroccan poet Soukaina Habiballah, who performs the poems translated into French.
This oratorio of women's voices, standing tall in tragedy and guardians of the vital flame, is amplified and multiplied by the Chœur tac-til deployed around the two poetesses: 7 human voices whose unheard-of combinatorics generate sound universes in turn powerfully evocative or almost abstract, moving from machine-like violence to dreamlike gentleness. This choir, made up of blind, partially-sighted and sighted people, can nourish the sonic swell of rage as well as the whispered ointment of shared humanity.
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Like an antique choir, in counterpoint to the poems or in fusion with them, the Chœur tac-til creates the sound ecosystem of the oratorio, embracing poets and poems, women and men, war and love, human, all too human.
How to be a poet in wartime
What does it mean to be a poet in times of war?
It means apologizing …
extensively apologizing
to the burnt trees
to the nestless birds
to the crushed homes
to the long cracks along the streets
to the pale faced children before and after death
to the faces of every sad or murdered mother
What does it mean to be safe in times of war
?It means being ashamed …
of your smileof having warmth
of your clean clothes
of your idle hours
of your yawning
of your cup of coffee
of your restful sleep
of having alive loved ones
of having a full stomach
of having available water
of having clean water
of being able to shower
And for incidentally being alive!
Oh God,I don't want to be poet in times of war
Chœur tac-til
https://choeurtactil.wixsite.com/accueil
Inspired in 2012 by improvisational singer Natacha Muslera, and hosted by the Centre National de Création Musicale de Marseille, the Chœur tac-til is an ensemble of seven voices, sighted and blind. Their practice consists in listening to and imitating sound ecosystems, and becoming the sounds of biotopes, machines and endangered species, both human and non-human. Their songs blend ancestral and experimental vocal practices.
Chœur tac-til has collaborated with many experimental musicians (Lionel Marchetti, Aude Romary...).
Their acclaimed album, Blind Ecosystem, was released in November 2023 on the Unrec label: https://unensemble.bandcamp.com/album/blind-ecosystem
Sophie Agnel est une improvisatrice française (piano préparée) de renommée internationale, passant de l’exercice exigeant du solo aux multiples rencontres in situ avec les plus grands maîtres de l’improvisation contemporaine (Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro, Olivier Benoît, Catherine Jauniaux, ErikM, Roger Turner, Phil Minton, John Butcher, Jean François Pauvros, Thurston Moore, Joke Lanz).
En 2014, elle rejoint pour 4 ans l'Orchestre National de Jazz (ONJ) sous la direction d'Olivier Benoît.
Elle participe régulièrement à la création de performances texte/musique basées sur des œuvres majeures et exigeantes : Testimony de Charles Reznikoff, La passion selon G.H. de Clarice Lispector.
Elle a aussi conçu un étonnant instrument électroacoustique expérimental, le cordophone / nOpiano, association d’une sorte de petit cadre de piano et d’un manche de basse électrique.
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