After a year of preparing for an in-person tour of the U.S., System Ali’s plans were cancelled in August due to visa issues. Instead, the project pivoted to a remote collaboration with three Ohio hip-hop artists based in Yellow Springs — Jayswifa, Tronee Threat and ArtGod — which will culminate in a performance Nov. 22 at the Foundry Theater in Yellow Springs.
Through countless remote meetings, shared inspiration and beats, and discussions about what it means to make art in times of political unrest and turmoil, these five artists have pushed themselves to create music together that speaks to the realities of life in America, Palestine and Israel.
NO VISAS, as the program is aptly called, will be a unique experience highlighting the artists’ works and voices, and will also share, through narration and film segments, the process of making music together.
The show will conclude with a hybrid live-filmed performance of the two tracks created by all five artists. Samira and Neta will join the post-show Q&A from Berlin.
Mad River Theater Works serves as the fiscal sponsor for this project which has received support from the Ohio Arts Council, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, the Dayton Sister City Committee and the Iddings Foundation.
The hip-hop ensemble System Ali began during the 2006 housing rights movement opposing the eviction of 500 Palestinian families from the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, adjacent to Tel Aviv. Beit System Ali has grown into an exceptional cultural engine for community building, encouraging multicultural dialogue and enabling shared society among diverse cultural groups.
Neta and Samira will be hosting four remote workshops in Ohio this fall, two of which will take place in Yellow Springs.
System Ali’s latest album, “Maharajan,” is an act of building an alternate reality. The meaning of the word maharajan in Arabic means “festival” or “circus.” The album refers directly to the time and place in which it was created and released — Israel-Palestine, 2019 — and stands in active opposition to the phenomena the group confronts as a mixed collective: racism, separation and fear.
“I can see how it might seem like protest and joy are opposites or contradict, but they are not,” Samira said. “While being subjected to genocidal violence, people in Gaza are still celebrating birthdays, weddings and other joyful moments. The fact that we can laugh in the context of this reality is the ultimate resistance.”
System Ali was born out of a joint root of activism, art and education, which remain at the heart of the music it creates. It emerged from a struggle for housing rights and continues through political campaigns and demonstrations centered on solidarity and protest.
“Separation and segregation are a huge part of the reality in which we grew up. They are the worst and most useful weapon that’s being used against us and against our communities,” Neta said. “It’s about not giving up. It’s about raising a voice and, obviously, it’s about understanding that our only hope, our only future, is standing shoulder to shoulder in that situation, crying out loud against crimes that we just cannot bear.”
While the cancellation of the in-person tour was a blow, Neta said it gave birth to something much more meaningful.
Though never officially denied — their visas were simply never approved — the artists talked about restrictions and censorship as a broader issue. Still, they found a way to get their messages across, to use their voices through resilience and creativity, partnering transcontinentally.
“Hip-hop, and music in general, is a universal connector,” said ArtGod, one of the Yellow Springs hip-hop artists. “We as musicians and creatives are light workers and land on the right side of history through our love and devotion for humanity, and the vision of equality and an end to suffering in the world for future generations.”
Chris Westhoff, Director of the Foundry Theater, hopes that the performance and workshops will remind the audience that the arts play a real role — not just performatively or superficially — in being agents of change. System Ali’s planned performance aligns with the Foundry’s mission: that social change begins with dialogue and conversation.
Angie Hsu, core member of the planning committee for this project, knew System Ali’s work having lived in Tel Aviv prior to moving to Yellow Springs. Holon, a city in the district of Tel Aviv and home of some of the group’s members, just happens to be a sister city to Dayton. Kevin Lydy, who serves on the Dayton Sister City Committee, identified the natural connection to the region.
Through NO VISAS, the artists prove that even when borders close, art finds its own way to travel, carrying voices of shared humanity.
“In our art, to create, to laugh and to love are, itself, resistance, the creation of something else in this world,” Samira said. “Continue doing the thing that you believe in.”
LOCAL MUSIC SCENE
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com to suggest bands or events to feature.
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