Nibras means lantern in classical Arabic. Over time the word has also come to represent truth, enlightenment, inspiration, civilization, wisdom and justice. Because it is a hand-held lantern, Nibras symbolizes a source of light which travelers themselves carry to illuminate their path and guide them on their journey.

In the spring of 2006, Nibras began a series of dialogues with Jim Nicola and Linda Chapman of New York Theatre Workshop, concerning the complex issues surrounding artistic output from and about Palestine. In the course of these conversations, we learned that we share much
common ground and a passion for using theatre to pose challenging questions and expose points of view that have been obscured or silenced by polarizing social and political forces. We thus found a shared call to action to provide opportunities for hidden voices from Palestine to be heard by a wider audience.

After a highly successful collaboration to produce two nights of readings for the Public Theater's "New Work Now!" Arab-Israeli Festival, NYTW named Nibras a company-in-residence and invited Najla Saïd, Leila Buck, and Nathalie Handal to join its extended community of affiliate artists, the Usual Suspects. Nibras' first full project with NYTW is Aswat: Voices of Palestine, a two-day event May 5th and 6th, 2007 featuring staged readings and complementary discussions exploring unheard voices from or about Palestine. For further information on NYTW, visit www.nytw.org.