During the 18 days of the Revolution we would sit in small circles around the square exchanging stories. Storytelling happened in the square every time someone recalled how he threw a stone at a police officer or how he took another bullet in his shoulder. After the 18 days, you’d get into a taxi and the driver would share his story about the 25th of January, or you’d go to a gathering of friends and every one would be sharing a memory for what seemed like the 20th time. We loved those casual storytelling moments; we loved them for the hope they gave us, for what they did to remind us of what we were part of, and we loved them most of all for reminding us of what we are capable of
A week after Mubarak stepped down and exactly on the 17th of February, 2011, we emailed the team: "Who’d be interested in telling stories from Tahrir?" And that was the beginning of Tahrir Monologues; a performance of true stories from the revolution and an attempt to document personal testimonies from the Tahrir squares of Egypt. These stories - our stories - won’t be published in newspapers or broadcast on TV or included in history books. The first performance was in May 2011, followed by more than 25 performances in Cairo, Alexandria, and El Minya, as well as a performance in Geneva in March 2012. The performances continued to be held in Cairo in August and November 2012
Two years later, a filmed performance of the stories about the 18 days was produced by Qabila and directed by Ahmed Abdallah (Director of 'Microphone' and 'Heliopolis'), in order to be screened on different platforms and made available to the public on our YouTube channel, in an effort to once again record the revolution from the lens of our personal stories
Our project began with collecting and documenting stories about the 18 days of Tahrir. With the goal of preserving the continues resistance that has happened since, the project will now start collecting and performing stories from the subsequent protests and strikes taking place in other places
Some live to forget but we live to remember. We used to tell stories to celebrate, now we tell stories to resist
The Revolution is not over, and the Tahrir squares of Egypt are not empty yet
There are still many stories waiting to be told.. Share your story
Free entrance on a first come basis
www.tahrirmonologues.net
http://tahrirmonologues.wordpress.com/
tahrirmonologues@gmail.com
01017014883
Founded in February 2011
Sister project : The BuSSy project
www.bussy.tv
thebussyproject@gmail.com
(This event has passed)