Hawaiian Plays and Fainting Spells

Friday, Chris and I went to a play at the National Museum of the American Indian. Before the play, this Hawaiian group played music in the Mitsitam Cafe.

The cafe served Hawaiian food, including some rather delicious lumpia (little egg rolls). They also had a sweet and imminently drinkable pineapple coconut cocktail.

The play was called The Conversion of Ka' ahumanu. It takes place in Hawaii and focuses on two women missionaries and three Hawaiian women. Subject matter ran the gamut from European exploitation of indigenous people (and resources) to indigenous people selling their women like cattle. It was a very feminist play.

I won't say I liked the play, but I did find it thought provoking. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the end.

I fainted.

You see. I am very, very (did I say very) squeamish. I have a particular phobia when it comes to needles and knives. The play had a very, very (did I say very) long act about one of the women's mastectomy. It was a mastectomy without drugs. It was descriptive. It was pretty much my worse nightmare.

I started feeling nauseous, but I didn't want to get up in the middle of the play. It's rude. Next thing I know, the voices got really far away. Chris says I let out some sort of moan and started slipping down in my seat. He had to help me out of the theatre.

After my recovery (head between the knees outside of the theatre), I stopped in the ladies room. While I was in there, one of the actors from the play came and asked Chris if I was all right. Apparently, they noticed from stage!

So embarrassing.

Poetry Marathon at Teatro de la Luna

This is the Teatro de la Luna (Theater of the Moon). It is a teeny, tiny hole in the wall near the Georgia Avenue metro station. They put on Spanish language plays.

Friday and Saturday they had a poetry marathon. We only managed to catch the last hour and a half or so. They had award-winning poets from all over the Spanish speaking world.

• Jose Acosta, Dominican Republic
• Roberto Arizmendi, Mexico
• Sergio Badilla Castillo, Chile
• Leon Felix Batista, Dominican Republic
• Noni Benegas, Argentina
• Iliana Godoy, Mexico
• Eduardo Mosches, Argentia
• Maria Angeles Perez Lopez, Spain

They also had open mike parts where audience members got up and read. Of course, the audience was mostly made up of people involved in the theater. It was a big, jovial family. Next year I'll be going and dragging some more people along with me.

Goethe-Institute Human Rights Films

The Goethe-Institute is a German cultural center with locations all over the world, including in DC. They have exhibit space, a theater, events spaces, and classrooms where you can learn German.

This past weekend they were showing films from a human rights film festival based out of the Czech Republic. Chris and I saw two of them.

The Reckoning was about the International Criminal Court (ICC). It gave an overview of international justice, starting with an interview of the attorney who prosecuted the Nazis at Nuremberg. Then is followed the ICC through its formation and its first few cases - Uganda, Sudan, Colombia. It was sad and fascinating and made me want to punch John Bolton in the face.

The second film we watched was called Life After the Fall. A documentary filmmaker who had been living in London and working for the BBC for decades returned to his home country of Iraq after the fall of Saddam. The film follows his family for four years, watching them grow increasingly frustrated, disillusioned, and dejected. It's a long film, Lord of the Rings long, but it's worth it.

Best of all, most of the events at Goethe are free.