Art2Action to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of 9/11 with 11Reflections: NYC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Emily Owens PR | emily@emilyowenspr.com | 917-208-6385
Art2Action to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of 9/11 with 11Reflections: NYC
Created & Directed by Andrea Assaf
September 11 & 12 at HERE Arts Center
Art2Action will present 11Reflections: NYC on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013) for two special performances only on Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12 at 7:30pm.
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-maker 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 through performance, poetry, music, testimony, and community dialogue.
"We believe art is civic infrastructure for imagining and practicing the futures we long for,” said HERE Co-Directors Jesse Cameron Alick, Annalisa Diaz, and Lanxing Fu. “Twenty-five years after 9/11, whose voices get to shape how we remember is still an open question. Andrea Assaf and Art2Action have spent years building 11 Reflections into a space for testimony and memory that the official record leaves out. Public gathering, witnessing one another in both moments of grief and moments of wonder, and telling stories of how we wish the world could be are necessary elements to a thriving democracy. We're proud to support Andrea and Art2Action, and honored HERE can host this important project."
The New York cast will feature award-winning writer, performer, and Director Andrea Assaf (2026 Playwrights’ Center McKnight National Residency & Commission, 2024 Joyce Award), vocalist Lubana Al Quntar (First Arab Opera Singer from Syria), Music Director & violinist Eylem Basaldi (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), and an exceptional line-up of special guests, including: 9/11 survivor and long-time HERE affiliated artist James Scruggs (2024 Guggenheim Fellow); 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); Multi-Instrumentalist Zafer Tawil (featured composer and performer in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated film Rachel Getting Married); and more! Contributing writers also include legendary Palestinian American poets Naomi Shihab Nye (2024 Wallace Stevens Award, and multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards), Suheir Hammad (2009 American Book Award, and performer in 2003 Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam), Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson (Poet Laureate Emeritus of San Antonio), Lebanese theatre-maker Sahar Assaf, and more. 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).
Tickets are available for advance purchase at https://here.org/shows/11reflections-nyc/.
$10 Access Ticket (limited to 10 per show)
$30 Standard Ticket Price
$60 Pay it Forward Ticket Price
$120 Solidarity Ticket Price
(Follow @art2action for additional ticket discounts and accessibility offers.)
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. Based on Eleven Reflections on September by Andrea Assaf, originally commissioned by Pangea World Theater; New York premiere at La MaMa ETC 2015.
Andrea Assaf (Creator/Director) is Lebanese American poet, playwright, director, performer, and cultural organizer. She’s the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Art2Action, and Co-Director of the National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation (in partnership with Pangea World Theater). Her work has been featured at the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) Cairo, Arab American National Museum, Detroit Public Theatre, BRAVA Theatre Center with Golden Thread Productions, Carver Community Cultural Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) at CAATA’s National Asian American Theatre Festival, La MaMa in partnership with Hi-ARTS, The Apollo, and more. She has toured internationally to Egypt, Mexico, Canada, Nicaragua, Poland, and more. Awards and recognitions include: 2026 McKnight National Playwright Residency & Commission, 2025 Creative Impact Award, 2025 Venturous Playwright finalist, 2024 Joyce Award, 2021 Silk Road Film Awards Cannes (Best Experimental Feature), 2019 NEFA National Theatre Project, 2019 & 2011 National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund commissions, 2017 Freedom Plow Award finalist for Poetry & Activism, 2010 Princess Grace Award/Gant Gaither Theater Honor (Directing), 2007 Hedgbrook Residency for “women authoring change,” and more. Andrea has a Master’s degree in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. She currently serves on the Board of the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA), and the Executive Committee of Alternate ROOTS. She was a founding Board member of the Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists (CAATA), and formerly served on the International Management Committee of Women Playwrights International (WPI).
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.