Relief for refugees

Tel Avivians from all over the city came out to enjoy a Sudanese theater production and live music jam in Levinsky Park.

By ABRA COHEN
Sudanese theater South Tel Aviv521 (photo credit: Abra Cohen)
Sudanese theater South Tel Aviv521
(photo credit: Abra Cohen)
Neveh Sha’anan, the densely packed, rundown neighborhood filled with refugees and migrant workers near the central bus station in south Tel Aviv, is not usually viewed in a positive light. But there was a brief respite on Saturday night when Tel Avivians from all over the city came out to enjoy a Sudanese theater production and live music jam.
Put on by the Garden Library in Levinsky Park, Israeli directors Yael Tal and Na’ama Regler, along with other volunteers, helped to organize Ehad Shahul Hazak ("One Strong Black" in Hebrew, a play on words for "strong coffee"), a Sudanese theater production that is working to introduce Israelis to the Sudanese community and break down cultural barriers.
“I loved the laughs, the feel and vibes of all the people [tonight],” says Ari Gold, a south Tel Aviv resident who biked over to see the production. “It was a feel-good experience for someone who can be a little negative at times,” he says, adding that it countered bad experiences he had in the neighborhood in the recent past.
The Garden Library, which operates out of a bomb shelter in Levinsky Park, is a short, white building with a flat roof that serves as a hang-out, with a large selection of books in various languages, bringing art to refugee and migrant communities that would otherwise not be able to afford events. The library is run under the umbrella NGO Art Team, staffed almost entirely by volunteers, and has a very limited budget from private donations and the Tel Aviv Municipality.
Along with the theater production, the library also offers film screenings every Saturday night in Levinsky Park. Projecting the films from a large tree in the middle of the park, between 50 to 100 people often show up for the features, which are chosen from a variety genres.
Six months in the making, Ehad Shahul Hazak, which had its premiere this past Saturday night, offered comic relief for the refugee community and was written specifically for an Israeli audience. Filled with jokes and dialogue in Hebrew with Arabic mixed in, the audience responded with laughter and applause; it was an unusual event for the neighborhood.
Employing comedy that Israelis could easily sympathize with (dealing with bureaucracies like government offices and healthcare), the production drew over 400 people from a variety of backgrounds to the park – which is normally synonymous with poverty, drugs and crime.
The production featured six Sudanese actors, who wrote the script and spent six months preparing for the play. The large audience of Israelis, refugees and migrant workers crowded around the small stage set up next to the Garden Library, and laughed and enjoyed the event, which lasted just over three hours.
In addition to the theater production, local musicians from a Sudanese reggae band and a Congolese group performed on the stage, bringing some of the audience to their feet, enticing them to dance along with the music.
Hamice, one of the actors in One Strong Black, a Sudanese refugee who has been in Israel for six years, explains that this type of theater production helps break down stereotypes that many people have about the Sudanese community: “People who come to the show often think that Sudanese are rapists and thieves, but [after seeing the show] they see the Sudanese in other ways and they can’t go back to thinking the same way,” he says.
Even though the theater project was aimed at bridging the gaps between Israelis and the Sudanese community, many political undertones reverberated throughout the audience. One south Tel Aviv resident, who came with her friend and asked not be named, says she knows that Israelis are well-meaning and support the refugee cause, but believes that many involved in the movement do not understand the realities of living in a poor area, especially with the crime and violence of the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I think that the beauty of the State of Israel is not to be the social worker of Africa,” she says. “We cannot feed all of them; we have enough crime of our own. I know how hard the life is and I don’t wish anyone to be in their place, but it’s their culture, their wars. We have enough wars of our own.”
Even though immigration, refugees and asylum-seekers elicit strong reactions from community members, the majority of people seemed to enjoy the event and said the overall production was just as much for the refugee community as it was for Israelis.
“I learned how powerful this project can be,” says Omri, who asked to be identified by first name only and worked on producing the play. “This experience is something I will never forget. The main goal is for other people to get to know the community, and it’s a very non-judgmental group that brings people out to meet them.”