What's in a name?

By Jasmine Koh Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat photo by Tim Archibald Hassan al Falak will perform his Tales of Flying Africans as part of The Nommo Project. Saturday at the Mat Bevel Institute. Al Falak's solo piece, based on a drawing he did of three descending pyramids, includes dance, music, text and slides.

This Saturday, spend a unique evening of multi-media performance featuring African-American artists and themes with The Nommo Project wordsongvision&dance..., the pilot project by an emerging Tucson-based not-for-profit arts organization, Sirius Navigation Inc.

Hassan al Falak, the creator of Sirius Navigation Inc. and the recipient of the 1994 Statewide Arizona Arts Award, conceived the idea for The Nommo Project. In 1989, he moved to Tucson where he founded Amerikan HooDoo Theatreworks as a vehicle for dance, theater and multi-media explorations. However, he decided to move away from big, company projects and approached solo performance.

"'Nommo' is from the people in West Africa and means 'word' or 'power' or 'seed,'" al Falak said. The word Nommo "had the right feel for what we're doing," he said.

The Nommo Project is a one-hour evening of performance consisting of three specific works by four performers. The evening will feature al Falak's Tales of Flying Africans, vocalist Kind Essence and pianist Samuel Curtis performing Oshun/Cabaret and Shakiri performing an excerpt from her play And Their Children's Children.

Tales of Flying Africans" came out of a drawing by al Falak of three descending pyramids coming from the sky. The piece is "dealing with flight as a metaphor for freedom, liberation and progress," al Falak said. It's a multi-media piece choreographed, written and performed by al Falak that includes music, dance, text that will be played from a tape and slides by Vivian Yazon.

The piece is a collage in space, of subjects like Dogon cosmology, the life of African American aviator Bessie Coleman and the music of avant garde jazz composer Sun Ra.

"The Dogon tribe has had accurate drawings of the star system Sirius, including ... Digitaria, for 500 years," al Falak said. "The Dogon said they had a visitation from the star," he added. That visitation is suggested in his piece.

In the 1920s, Bessie Coleman, an African American woman, was actively discouraged from learning how to fly a plane but her determination sent her to France where she received her pilot's license. In the piece, "I have mythologized (her story). I have her landing her spaceship in the temple of Isis," al Falak said.

Another piece in the performance is Oshun/Cabaret, which explores the cabaret form. In this piece, Kind Essence will be singing from 1920s jazz songs by Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Fats Waller while playing a character that goes through a progression of the different aspects of a woman. In the first song, "Honeysuckle Rose," Kind's character is young and flirtatious but when she gets to the last song "Ain't Misbehaving," her character is more worldly and wise.

Tales of Flying Africans and Oshun/Cabaret are both works in progress and al Falak hopes that they can be performed in their finished state at a festival of solo or short, duet pieces that he has tentatively planned for April.

The Nommo Project also features Shakiri who will be performing an excerpt from And Their Children's Children, which she previously directed for the San Francisco Working Women's Theatre Festival. The play tells the story of a contemporary, black woman losing her mother to death and in this process, she hears the voices of her slave ancestors.

The Nommo Project will be performed Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Mat Bevel Institute located at 530 N. Stone Ave. Tickets will be available at the door on the night of the performance and are $10 for adults and $7 for students with ID.