FirstWorks

FirstWorks will develop a week-long residency with native-Egyptian performer, TEDx speaker, and seasoned educator, Karim Nagi in March 2024. With the goal of building bridges across cultures, Nagi’s ARABIQA residency will include a week of highly engaging music and dance workshops and performances in multiple communities across RI. Nagi is the first Arabic and the first Muslim member of the board of directors for Chamber Music America who “leaps out from the side of traditional rhythmic patterns straight away into Amen breaks at hard tempo, then cools it to a fanciful buzz on the membrane of a small hand drum.”

Following FirstWorks’ long history of connecting our community with arts from across Asia and the Arab worlds (beginning with the Caravanserai project 2021), Karim works to dismantle stereotypes and humanize Arab people seamlessly melds with FirstWorks’ “Raise Your Voice” programming theme, celebrating diversity and inclusivity.