CityDance and Kim Schultz perform together at the gala.

On June 10th, Intersections hosted its first annual Intersector Awards Gala. The event was held at the Altman building in midtown Manhattan. A major theme for the night was celebrating the artistic works to come out of the Iraqi Voices Amplification Project. A gallery featured photographs of Iraqi Refugees by Alissa Everett and Paul Emerson. Each photo told the story of a different aspect of the refugee experience, from the effects of religious targeting to the dangers of working illegally in a host country. Michael Jordan premiered several of the ad campaigns he has been working on, including a print ad that compared the Iraqi refugee crisis to the crisis in Darfur.

Photos of refugees shot by Alissa Everett and Paul Emerson are displaced at the Intersections Gala

But the spot light was stolen by a first ever joint performance of excerpts from Kim Schultz’s new play, No Place Called Home, directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and CityDance Ensembles, Wishes of the Sailor. The ten minute piece featured segments of No Place Called Home, which tracks one American woman’s experience with Iraqi refugees as she accidentally falls in love with one of them. Wishes of the Sailor grew out of the experiences of CityDance’s Kathryn Pilkington and Paul Emerson. Using the stories they heard during the IVAP trip, they set the dance, whose title comes from an Iraqi proverb “Sometimes the wind blows against the wishes of the sailor,” in a refugee resettlement waiting room, where there is too little to do, too much time to wait and an endless sense of how life has been upended for all of them.

A scene taking place in a UNHCR waiting room.

Through dance, the retelling of refugee stories and Kim’s experience as an American through whom these stories are told the audience went on a brief emotional journey exploring the realities of Iraqi refugees. Many in the audience found themselves in tears after the performance. “Wow! Not only was I in NYC at Intersection’s gala, but a part of me was also in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the lives of these refugees,”  said gala attendee Scott Thompson. ” Thank you Kim for the gift of letting us know their stories more.”

No Place Called Home opens in New York City for a nomadic run in October.  Check back for more details soon!