Birds of the Coming Dawn

The image documents a community theatre project titled “Birds of the Coming Dawn”, which brings together voices from Detroit and Palestine in a shared artistic act of resilience and imagination. The project grew from a collective script written and directed by Biba Sheikh, inspired by stories of migration, struggle, and transformation. The script is uniquely flexible — each community adapts it to reflect its own culture and lived experience.

In Palestine, directors Osama Atwa and Mohammad Haj Hamad worked with community actors inside refugee camps, shaping the text to speak truthfully to their everyday realities, while the Detroit company created its own version in dialogue across borders. The result is a trilogy of interconnected plays — one script, many voices — exploring themes of displacement, resilience, and visionary futures.

I designed the lighting and cinematography for this project, seeking to convey the warmth of human connection between cultures and to highlight how art can become a bridge across distance, borders, and struggle.