Experiments in Digital Storytelling
Midnight in Abyssinia
CultureHub
47 Great Jones Street 3rd Fl
New York, NY 10012
May 23, 2024
7pm ET
Free / Donate
The path is in the past. Ceremonies and rituals can be diluted over centuries, but foundational traditions have been upheld from ancient kingdoms to modern day. This is most notable in Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea). We bring you the story of a member of the serving class in the Aksumite Empire, an ancient kingdom that existed from 100-700 AD, convening with their modern day descendant through a dream.
Midnight in Abyssinia is an immersive story about a visitation from an ancestor that takes place in a dream in which the servant from the Aksumite Empire (the narrator) is the ancestor of the present-day loved one (the user). The ancestor has been urgently trying to convene with their loved one to pass down sacred traditions and fight against the threat of the culture being erased or lost.
This visitation is an ode to ancestral memory and the ways in which it’s connected to personal memory. The collaborative team of Banna Desta, Shariffa Ali, and Elyana Javaheri experiment with dialogue, video projections, and a variety of traditional skills like making coffee, braiding hair and drawing henna, washing, and more in an open rehearsal. Audience members are invited into an intimate space where one feels cocooned and inspired to tap into their ancestral/personal memory bank. Expected runtime 30-40 minutes.
Banna Desta – Writer/Co-creator
Shariffa Ali – Director/Co-creator
Elyana Javaheri – Media Artist
Mahalet Tegenu – Actress (Ancestor)
Yohana Desta – Associate Director
dragonchild – Music
Azeib Girmai – Narration
Midnight in Abyssinia is developed within Experiments in Digital Storytelling.