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  • A Gathering of the Tribes

    A Gathering of the Tribes is an arts and cultural organization dedicated to excellence in the arts from a diverse perspective. Located on the Lower East Side of New York City, Tribes has been in existence since 1991.


  • A Gathering of the Tribes, 285 East 3rd St, 2nd Floor (between Avenues C and D)
    Phone: 212-674-3778
    Fax: 212-674-5776
    Email: Info@tribes.org


  • Tribes is a member of Chamber Music of America, Poets & Writers, Poets Society of America, St. Marks Poetry Project. We are Funded by NYC DCA, NYSCA & The Andy Warhol Foundation among others. All contributions are tax deductible.

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  • The 16th Annual Charlie Parker Festival

    Throughout the forties, Charlie Parker revolutionized jazz and immortalized the Lower East Side by capturing its combustive atmosphere and translating it into music. It is no wonder that every year the Lower East Side returns a little bit of the favor by celebrating Charlie Parker, his life and his legacy, as well as his deep rooted relationship with this neighborhood, through A Gathering of the Tribes' Charlie Parker Festival.
    This year, A Gathering of the Tribes is please to present the 16th Annual Charlie Parker Festival, entitled "BIRD LIVES," from August 2 - August 29. More information about this year's festival can be found here

Latest Reviews

A POET’S PROSE/Islanders 6Sept10 by David Henderson

A POET’S PROSE: Islanders by Ammiel Alcalay
132 Pages. City Lights Books, San Francisco 2010
Reviewed by David Henderson
Ammiel Alcalay has been closer to war than most contemporary poets.  His late father, a painter, spent time in an Italian concentration camp during World War Two. His son, Ammiel, having accrued fluency in several languages along the way, […]


Ernest Hemingway (A Review of Tao Lin’s Richard Yates)

Since I have like three venues to publish it in, and I told Tao I needed a galley, I feel obliged to write a review of Tao Lin’s novel, Richard Yates. I don’t think I will ever read anything by Richard Yates. Reading Tao Lin has a way of erasing any literary knowledge […]


Just Kids, a Memoir by Patti Smith: “Because of Robert”

Reviewed by K.A. Sitafalwalla

Partially a proclamation to the 1970’s, the artists and the derelicts, the rich and poor, the talented and talent-less, “Just Kids” stands as an ode to friendship and love; everything in between. Patti Smith’s memoir is poetic and true with an honesty and straightforwardness that is disguised in her poetry and music. […]


I Need That Record Store: Retail as Club Membership

by Kurt Gottschalk

I first heard about it when I was about 12 — a store where Kiss albums could be procured for about a dollar less than at the mall; a store that, strangely, wasn’t in the mall. It wasn’t far, but it did mean asking my mother to make another trip.

Things seemed different at […]


Whitney Biennial 2010

By Vedan Anthony-North

With a name like “2010” you don’t really know what to expect when heading to the 2010 Whitney biennial. Unfortunately, you don’t really know what to think about the exhibit after leaving either. Though the theme of “2010” is justified by the curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari in the exhibit’s […]



Latest Poetry

A POET’S PROSE/Islanders 6Sept10 by David Henderson

A POET’S PROSE: Islanders by Ammiel Alcalay
132 Pages. City Lights Books, San Francisco 2010
Reviewed by David Henderson
Ammiel Alcalay has been closer to war than most contemporary poets.  His late father, a painter, spent time in an Italian concentration camp during World War Two. His son, Ammiel, having accrued fluency in several languages along the way, […]


In Church with Branded Knees

by Ayshia Stephenson
I don’t want him to tear my clothing off anymore. I don’t want him to crush my serenity
into this tiny spit of a paper ball, pit stuck in my throat, like it sits in a child who can not
say: please get it out. Branded knees need a buffer from a pebbled surface. Can […]



Latest Essays

A POET’S PROSE/Islanders 6Sept10 by David Henderson

A POET’S PROSE: Islanders by Ammiel Alcalay
132 Pages. City Lights Books, San Francisco 2010
Reviewed by David Henderson
Ammiel Alcalay has been closer to war than most contemporary poets.  His late father, a painter, spent time in an Italian concentration camp during World War Two. His son, Ammiel, having accrued fluency in several languages along the way, […]


UNPOP curatorial statement

by Janet Bruesselbach
“A free society is one in which it is safe to be unpopular.” –Adlai Stevenson
Unpop has a variety of playful reactions to both art as commodity and the political legacy of pop art. Art is a commodity so oversupplied that it may be the testing grounds for a post-scarcity economy. Its economy of […]



Latest Fiction

A POET’S PROSE/Islanders 6Sept10 by David Henderson

A POET’S PROSE: Islanders by Ammiel Alcalay
132 Pages. City Lights Books, San Francisco 2010
Reviewed by David Henderson
Ammiel Alcalay has been closer to war than most contemporary poets.  His late father, a painter, spent time in an Italian concentration camp during World War Two. His son, Ammiel, having accrued fluency in several languages along the way, […]


Ernest Hemingway (A Review of Tao Lin’s Richard Yates)

Since I have like three venues to publish it in, and I told Tao I needed a galley, I feel obliged to write a review of Tao Lin’s novel, Richard Yates. I don’t think I will ever read anything by Richard Yates. Reading Tao Lin has a way of erasing any literary knowledge […]



Latest Videos

MOVIE NIGHT: Unpop Popcorn this Saturday

Washington Chavez presents “So Many Galleries” and more video adventures of an artist in New York City this Saturday, September 11, at 7 pm.
Tribes would like to thank Capital One Bank, Two Boots Pizzeria, Whole Foods and the Department of Cultural Affairs for their continued support.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from […]


A Starter Kit for Collectors: Exposition et vente au profit de TRIBES

A Starter Kit for Collectors: Exposition et vente au profit de A Gathering of the Tribes
Samedi 1er mai – Dimanche 16 mai 2010
Vernissage: Samedi 1er mai 14-18H
Réception pour les artistes : Samedi 1er mai, 19h-22H
Tribes Gallery
285 East 3rd Street, 2ème étage, NYC 10009
A Gathering of the Tribes est une association artistique et culturelle qui […]


Review of “Firedancer”

 

      “FIREDANCER”

      Directed by Jawed Wassel

 

Review by Laimah Osman - Kara Williams

 

 firedancer1.jpg

 

A vast landscape stretches to eternity. A dark night finds a little boy running from his home.

 

Cut to: New York City 2000. Haris, a stylish Afghan-American artist living in Chelsea is haunted by a traumatic past. He tries to interpret his visions in his artwork but needs more clarity.

 

Flashback to: Kabul, Afghanistan 1979. A young Haris wakes to gun fire. His father tells him to run and sends him off with a prayer and a promise not to return home. His legacy begins.

 

Haris, played by Baktash Zaher, is haunted by re-occurring flashbacks of his homeland and he seeks out other Afghans to make sense of his own story which is tied to one of largest diaporas in our time.

 

FireDancer was written and directed by Jawed Wassel, who was brutally murdered soon after the film premiered in New York. He never witnessed the success of his first film, but his spirit was invoked at the Tribeca Film Festival May 9, 2003 when cast and crew paid homage to his work before a packed theater.

 

FireDancer is a fictional story based on very real insight into the lives of displaced Afghans in America– a rarely told cinematic experience. Mr. Wassel, illustrates what happens when Afghan and American cultures meet. Cultural clashes and meshes in FireDancer are both funny and painful reminders of the struggle between assimilation and tradition.

 

Gossiping voices are heard as we travel along a row of houses in Queens. A father attempts to marry off his daughter to an eligible Afghan thug. And our main character, Haris attempts to find comfort in Laila (played by Mariam Yasmine Weiss) who is initially suspicious because she believes his intentions are for marriage.

 

Throughout the film Wassel deals with the restrictions of patriarchy as it exists in Afghan culture. The female characters struggle with their intentions to be assertive without breaking ties with tradition. Laila works as a fashion designer, an occupation that is often seen as the common work of a”tailor” by Afghan standards, yet is regarded in America as a creative discipline. Wassel also shows how the transfer of priorities from family to the individual can arouse Afghan-American men to shift loyalties. The father of Laila creates a spectacle when he leaves his wife of twenty years to marry his Latin mistress. We witness the tragic breakdown of a family.

 

The story culminates when Haris reconciles his past and proclaims: “Afghanhastum,” I am Afghan.

 

From an Afghan-American perspective, FireDancer is a success. Although Mr. Wassel takes on too many issues for one film his story remains an engaging, poetic and haunting tribute to the Afghan-American experience. This film attempts and succeeds in exposing so many issues connected to what it means to be Afghan and American today.