Fire Museum Presents: Dialogues 4: Leyya Mona Tawil aka Lime Rickey International & Julius Masri
Presented in co-operation with Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture.
Dialogues: A Conversation and Performance is a series of events in which we invite someone to discuss their creative process and present an aspect or aspects of their work. For this edition we present artist and curator Leyya Mona Tawil aka Lime Rickey International in collaboration and discussion with multi instrumentalist and composer Julius Masri.
Leyya Mona Tawil [Lime Rickey International] is an artist, curator, and cultural activist. She works in sound art, dance, and hybrid transmissions. Tawil is a Syrian, Palestinian, American engaged in the world as such. Her works have toured throughout Europe, the Arab region, and the US. As 'Lime Rickey International', Tawil has been commissioned by Abrons Arts Center (NYC), New Performance Turku (Finland), KONE Foundation (Helsinki), ZVRK Festival (Bosnia), Serendipity Arts Festival (Goa), Fire Museum Presents (Philadelphia), Arab American National Museum (Dearborn) and was nominated for a 2019 “Bessies” Award in Music (NYC). She is the director of Arab.AMP - a platform for experimental music, live art, and ideas from the SWANA diaspora and allied communities. Tawil is on the curatorial team of the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn), Southern Exposure Gallery (SF), Daring Dances (Ann Arbor), Al Bustan Seeds of Culture (Philly) and was the 2020 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow at ISSUE Project Room and is now a member of their Artistic Advisory Council. She is also the director of TAC Temescal Art Center in Oakland, California.
Julius Masri is a Philadelphia based multi instrumentalist, and performer/composer for the city's dance community at large. His music focuses on improvisatory methods and syncretic / linguistic exchanges within various musical languages including Jazz, Metal, AfroCuban, Experimental Noise, and Arabic music. Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, he moved to the States in 1990 and picked up drumming a year later. He studied with Philadelphia instructors Carl Mottola, Elaine Hoffman-Watts, and as an undergraduate at Bard College, with AACM's Thurman Barker, Richard Teitelbaum, and Joan Tower. He currently performs in groups such as grind/crust metal bands Night Raids, Nomad War Machine, free jazz groups Sirius Juju, Spectral Forces, Dromedaries, trombone & synth duo Superlith, and has released the solo album "The Arabic Room", under the project name Mephisto Halabi to international acclaim in 2021. He has performed with Henry Grimes, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Bobby Zankel, Thurman Barker, Jaap Blonk, Randi Potoppidan & members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Festivals performed include Sonic Circuits DC (2013, 2016), High Zero Baltimore (2016), Maryland DeathFest (2015, 2017), Shadow Woods Metal Festival (2017), The Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Festival (2016, 2018). Julius is a recipient of a 2022 Yaddo Fellowship for composition, the 2022 University of the Arts creative research and innovation grant.
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