BAGGAGE FROM BAGHDAD to Return to New York in Evolution Festival

NYC-based actress Valerie David will perform her award-winning solo show, Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming My Father's Daughter, in The Center for West Park's Evolution Festival on October 3. It is a story of hope and resilience that will empower and inspire. These kinds of stories are needed now more than ever in these turbulent times here at home and globally.

This gripping, award-winning solo show, which will include a post-show audience talkback, is timely as it mirrors today's growing intolerance of race and religion in our own backyards and worldwide, written and performed by Valerie David. Due to religious persecution during the 1941 Farhud pogrom, Valerie's paternal Middle Eastern Jewish family was forced to flee Iraq and build a new home in America. This play highlights her family's struggle to immigrate to a new land and transcend their harrowing past, so that love and the importance of family triumph.

Valerie states, 'It's not just a Jewish story, but a narrative that anyone can relate to: having to immigrate to another country, being forced to evacuate during wartime, suffering bullying, and the ramifications of having to adapt to a foreign culture that's not so welcoming.'

Baggage From BaghDAD finds humor and hope, even in the darkest of times. It recounts how this painful legacy shaped Valerie's own life and her evolving relationship with her father, uncovering a story of survival, identity, and ultimately, reconciliation.

Her poignant storytelling offers both historical education and emotional resonance. Through vivid characters, humor, and heart, she invites audiences to examine today's refugee crises, rising prejudice, and the intergenerational impact of war and displacement. Her family's personal narrative mirrors broader global issues, from the struggles of Ukrainian and Gaza refugees to the Israel/Gaza war to the current resurgence of Anti-Semitism.

Baggage From BaghDAD has garnered acclaim around the world, including The Spoken Word & Theatre Award at the 2022 Stockholm Fringe Festival; best play winner by the 2022 Sweden Broadway World Regional Awards; semi-finalist for the 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award; and awarded the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center Grant.