11REFLECTIONS: NYC to Add Performers at HERE Arts Center for 9/11 Event
Andrea Assaf leads the touring ensemble with poets Naomi Shihab Nye and Suheir Hammad among contributing writers.
Art2Action has announced additional guest performers for their presentation of 11Reflections: NYC, commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013) on Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12 at 7:30pm.
Emmy-award winning writer, performer, cultural activist, and grassroots educator Kayhan Irani (2016 Obama White House Champion of Change; 2010 Emmy Award-winner for We Are New York), Dancer/Choreographer Nejla Yatkin (2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2008 Princess Grace Choreography Fellow); and Multi-Instrumentalist Zafer Tawil (featured composer and performer in Jonathan Demme's Oscar-nominated film Rachel Getting Married) will join previously announced 9/11 survivor and long-time HERE affiliated artist James Scruggs (2024 Guggenheim Fellow). These special guests will appear live on stage with the 11Reflections touring ensemble: award-winning writer, performer, and director Andrea Assaf (2026 Playwrights' Center McKnight National Residency and Commission, 2024 Joyce Award), vocalist Lubana al Quntar (First Arab Opera Singer from Syria), and Music Director & Violinist Eylem Basaldi (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon). Additional contributing writers will also include Andrea 'Vocab' Sanderson (Poet Laureate Emeritus of San Antonio) and Lebanese theatre-maker Sahar Assaf, along with previously announced legendary Palestinian American poets Naomi Shihab Nye (2024 Wallace Stevens Award, and multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards) and Suheir Hammad (2009 American Book Award, and performer in 2003 Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and HBO). The visual design will feature Video Art by London-based projectionist Eva Auster, who also co-created the digital film version of Eleven Reflections on September by Andrea Assaf (2021 Silk Road Cannes Film Festival: Best Experimental Feature, and 2022 New York International Film Awards: Best Social Justice Film, plus 20 Official Selections).
Presented in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th, and the decades of war that have followed, 11Reflections: NYC brings together acclaimed New York artists and special guests to center voices that have too often been absent from the national conversation on the impact of 9/11-particularly MENA/SWANA and artists of color-asking how we commemorate, what happens after, and whose voices are included when we remember.
11Reflections: NYC draws on Lebanese American theatre artist Andrea Assaf's seminal work, Eleven Reflections on September - a Spoken Word and multimedia performance with live music, exploring Middle Eastern American experiences, Wars on/of Terror, and 'the constant, quiet rain of death amidst beauty' that each autumn brings in a post-9/11 world. This special NYC production is the culmination of a multi-year national series of devised works, Eleven Reflections on the Nation, which examines the lasting cultural, political, and personal impacts of the post-9/11 era in cities across the country, through performance, poetry, music, and community dialogue.
Tickets ($30) are available for advance purchase at https://here.org/shows/11reflections-nyc/. The performance will run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission. Both performances will be followed by a community dialogue with the artists.
11Reflections: NYC is being presented as part of HERE Hosts, a performance series of new work from extraordinary artists, ensembles, and independent companies working in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary forms, in which HERE engages artists who share values alignment and demonstrate high creative kinship. This presentation is also made possible by the MENA Theater-Makers Fund, a new national grant initiative from the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA), of which Art2Action is a 2026 awardee.
Art2Action creates, develops, produces, and presents Original Theatre, interdisciplinary performances, artistic interventions, and progressive cultural organizing. We support Black, Indigenous, artists of color, women and queer or trans-identified artists, artists living with disabilities, and creative allies in the creation of contemporary work. We are dedicated to cultural equity and aesthetic innovation, artistic quality and community impact. www.art2action.org
ABOUT HERE ARTS CENTER
Since 1993, HERE Arts Center has been one of New York's most prolific arts organizations. Today, it stands at the forefront of the city's cultural scene, producing and presenting daring, new, multidisciplinary performance experiences. From our home in Lower Manhattan, HERE builds an inclusive community that nurtures artists of all backgrounds as they disrupt conventional expectations to create innovative performances in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. By providing these genre-blending artists with an adaptive, flexible home for developing and producing their work, we share a range of perspectives reflective of the complexity of our city. HERE welcomes curious audiences to witness groundbreaking performances, responsive to the world in which we live, at free and affordable prices.
Under the leadership of Co-Directors Jesse Cameron Alick, Annalisa Dias, and Lanxing Fu, HERE continues to evolve as a home for artists and audiences alike. Appointed by the Board in 2024, the Co-Directors collaboratively lead the artistic and executive functions of the organization, shaping its vision, programming, and community engagement. HERE strives to create an equitable, diverse, and inclusive home in which all people have fair access to the resources they need to realize their visions. We acknowledge structural inequities that exclude individuals and communities from opportunities based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, age, and geography, and seek to counter those inequities in our work. Through mindful actions on sustainability and regenerative practices, we work toward climate justice, and a safe, livable planet for present and future artmakers and audiences. www.here.org
