BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:​​​​​​​Sona Tatoyan: Azad Storytelling
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260518T093143Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_52064590339141
DTSTART:20260417T003000Z
DTEND:20260417T030000Z
DESCRIPTION:Azad Storytelling is a live storytelling performance by Syrian-
 Armenian-American artist Sona Tatoyan—an intimate\, multi-generational h
 ealing journey that travels from the Armenian Genocide to the Syrian war\,
  interweaving personal narrative\, ancestral history\, and indigenous Midd
 le Eastern music. A century after her great-great-grandfather Abkar Knadji
 an salvaged his family and his art from the Armenian Genocide\, Tatoyan un
 earths a trunk in the attic of her family home in war-torn Aleppo\, filled
  with his handmade Karagöz shadow puppets and ancient magic tricks—an e
 ncounter that leads her into the world of 1001 Nights and Scheherazade\, a
 nd toward a deeper inquiry into how trauma transpires and how it is healed
  through story. “Azad\,” meaning “free” in Armenian\, Farsi\, and 
 Kurdish\, gestures toward the work’s central inquiry: what freedom might
  mean in the aftermath of rupture. The performance is followed by a curate
 d audience conversation\, inviting reflection and dialogue around memory\,
  perception\, and the role of storytelling in times of rupture and repair.
 \n\nSona Tatoyan is a Syrian-Armenian-American actor\, writer\, producer\,
  fifth-generation storyteller\, and the founder of Hakawati\, a cultural o
 rganization exploring how narrative can transform trauma\, perception\, an
 d civic imagination. Born to Syrian-Armenian immigrants and raised between
  the U.S. and Aleppo\, her life changed in 2019 when she rediscovered a tr
 unk of 180 hand-painted Karagöz shadow puppets created and carried throug
 h genocide by her great-great-grandfather\, a hakawati (oral storyteller).
  The puppets—survivor objects and cross-cultural witnesses—collapsed l
 ineage\, history\, and purpose\, revealing a central insight that guides h
 er work: that how we meet a story determines whether it calcifies into tra
 uma or becomes a source of understanding and repair.\n\nTatoyan’s career
  spans theater\, film\, immersive media\, and thought leadership. She has 
 originated roles at Yale Repertory Theatre\, The Goodman Theatre\, and A.C
 .T.\, and her screenwriting work has been supported by the Sundance Instit
 ute and the Dubai Film Connection. Her signature theatrical work\, AZAD (t
 he rabbit & the wolf)—created with two time Obie-winning multimedia thea
 ter pioneer Jared Mezzocchi\, produced by Bill Pullman and supported by ex
 ecutive producer Noubar Afeyan—premiered in 2025 to extraordinary acclai
 m\, named one of KQED’s Best Theater Productions of the Year and hailed 
 by the San Francisco Chronicle as “wondrous” and “shattering.” \n\
 nA 2024–26 Georgetown Global Politics and Performance Lab Fellow\, Tatoy
 an draws on a decade-long Vipassana meditation practice and a reframing of
  The 1001 Nights as a universal healing blueprint. Her work has been prese
 nted at Harvard\, MIT\, UCLA\, the Brandenburg Gate Foundation\, and beyon
 d. Operating between Aleppo\, Yerevan\, and Los Angeles\, she leads Hakawa
 ti as a lineage-rooted\, globally resonant inquiry into how narrative can 
 counter polarization and restore our capacity to see one another clearly.
GEO:34.101675;-117.709866
LOCATION:Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum\, Eggert
SUMMARY:​​​​​​​Sona Tatoyan: Azad Storytelling
URL;VALUE=URI:https://campusevents.cmc.edu/event/sona-tatoyan-azad-storytel
 ling
CATEGORIES:Athenaeum Events
CATEGORIES:Student Engagement
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR