OPEN STUDIOS | If I Must Die: Curated by Muyassar Kurdi

Palestinian-American artist Muyassar Kurdi invites artists Zekkereya El-magharbel, Muyassar Kurdi with Gabby Fluke-Mogul, and Alex Zhang Hungtai to share new work, experiments, and collaborations through embodied sound and improvisation. The program’s title If I Must Die is inspired by Refaat Alareer’s poem of the same title, and is in honor of the martyrs in Falastin, uplifting their voices and stories. Through indigenous ways we heal our communities and remain steadfast. If I Must Die is an attempt to reclaim our bodies and narrative. Imagination as the ultimate freedom: a future without a colonizer.
IF I MUST DIE
BY REFAAT ALAREER

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

إذا كان ال بّد أن أموت
إذا كان ال بّد أن أموت
فعلي َك أن تحيا
لِتق ّص ق ّصتي
لِتبي َع أشيائي
لِتشتري قطعة قماش
و بضعَة خيوط
)بيضاء بذي ٍل طويل(
ٍن ما في غزة

حتى طف ٍل، في مكا
يحّد ُق بالسماء
ينت ُظر أباه، الذي غا َدر على عجل-
بال أن ي ّودع أحد
حتى جسده
حتى نفسه -
يرى الطائرة الورقية، طائرتي التي صنعَتها،
تحل عالًيا ّ ُق
و ي ُّظن لوهلة أن مال ًكا عالًيا
ُيعيد الح ّب

إذا كان ال بد أن أموت
لتجعلها تجل ُب األمل
لتجعلها قصة
Translated to Arabic by @TameeOliveFern

PROGRAM
Zekkereya El-magharbel: Notes on Matisse
The influence/appropriation of North African textiles and architecture by turn of the century Modernists is widely documented, yet barely discussed; on one hand, the decontextualization and subsequent disparagement of the African Orient by Western Imperialists, evidence of our incivility, on the other, beautiful planes of color sweeping across the canvas dancing celestial. This work explores the links between musical practices of Modern Europe and North Africa using reappropriating works from Henri Matisse as graphic scores for performance.
Muyassar Kurdi with Gabby Fluke-Mogul: A Lullaby for the Children of the Sun
This is a sound dedicated to the children of Gaza. Glory to the martyrs. A Lullaby for the Children of the Sun is embodied/performed from a graphic score (ink on paper) for violin and voice, and was originally commissioned for a string quartet.
Alex Zhang Hungtai: Divining Youth
"Divining Youth" derives from the Hokkien word "khí-tâng", a Chinese folk tradition akin to a spirit medium or a Shaman. A khí-tâng is believed to be a person to have been chosen by a particular Shen (Chinese Deity) or spirit as the earthly vehicle of divine expression. The universal ritualistic components of drums, reeds, repetition, and trance-inducing rhythms relay back to ancient folk technology, facilitating the exploration of the human unconscious and the gravitational pull towards the dark matter of the cosmos.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Zekkereya El-magharbel is a visual artist, trombonist, and composer from Los Angeles, CA. They have been a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra for over a decade and have worked with such luminaries as Angel Bat Dawid, Jaimie Branch, Moor Mother, Kierra Sheard, Cory Smythe, Tyshawn Sorey, Wendell Harrison, Wendy Eisenberg, among others. As a visual artist they have shown animated works internationally and have exhibited paintings accross the country. Their current research centers on interrogating Pan-Arabism within in parallel to African identity.
gabby fluke-mogul is a New York-based violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer, and doula. Weaving within the threads of avant and free jazz, with deep roots in improvised and experimental music, their music has been described as “embodied, visceral and virtuosic” and “the most striking sound in improvised music in years.” gabby is humbled to have collaborated with Nava Dunkelman, Joanna Mattrey, Ava Mendoza, Charles Burnham, Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Zeena Parkins, Tcheser Holmes, Lester St. Louis, William Parker, and Pauline Oliveros among many other musicians, poets, dancers and visual artists. gfm facilitates improvisation & composition workshops, curates programming for Creative Music Studio, and is a current Roulette Jerome Artist in Residence.
Muyassar Kurdi is a Palestinian-American NYC-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, painting, analog photography, and film. Her practice honors the futuristic and ancient through meditative movements and sonic sound explorations. Centered on embodiment with a non-linear approach rooted in improvisation, she explores memory, displacement, and the body in relation to nature. Kurdi received the American Composer Forum Create 2024, Brooklyn Arts Fund 2024, and was a finalist in the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship for Combined Disciplines 2023. She was awarded a Roulette Intermedium 2020 commission and 2022 artist residency with support from Jerome Foundation, and is also a recipient of the Queens Fund New Works Grant, NYFA City Artist Corps grant, and Puffin Foundation grant. Recent residencies include Harvestworks and The Watermill Center with OPERA ensemble. Love is Blue, Kurdi’s solo interdisciplinary exhibition, opened in the Fall of 2023 at La MaMa Gallery in NYC. Performance highlights include Poetry Project, Roulette Intermedium, CPR – Center for Performance Research, Lincoln Center, The Rubin Museum of Art, ISSUE Project Room, Cafe OTO, Chicago Cultural Center, Center for Contemporary Art Laznia, Fridman Gallery, Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea, and Judson Memorial Church as well as exhibitions and film screenings (solo and group works) at VIERTE WELT, Trieze Gallery, Knockdown Center, Queens Museum, Spectacle Theatre, and Anthology Film Archives. She taught workshops in movement and voice most notably in Portugal at Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea, Bilgi University and Cultur in Istanbul Turkey as well as a MoMA PS1 in NYC.
Alex Zhang Hungtai is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on improvisation and its correlation with the unconscious. After retiring his project Dirty Beaches, Zhang has been focusing on explorations of improvised music, free jazz, and his role as a composer. His newer compositions predominantly work with saxophone and drums, delving into electronic music. Besides his solo work, some past collaborators include: Tashi Dorji, Che Chen, Chris Williams, Sam Shalabi, David Maranha, and Gabriel Ferrandini. Zhang currently works as a composer for film soundtracks, along with acting in independent films. He has appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return alongside Dean Hurley and Riley Lynch under the fictitious band Trouble. His latest film score “Godland” by Hlynur Pálmason, was in competition at Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard. He currently lives in NYC.

Host or Publisher CPR- Center for Performance Research