SPAGHETTI KAREVAN

Great Small Works and Fihi Ma Fihi present

SPAGHETTI KAREVAN

Saturday, September 19, 2026
La Plaza Cultural Community Garden
674 East 9th Street (between Aves B and C), NYC

What’s Spaghetti Karevan?
An autumn offshoot of our annual Spaghetti Ramadan celebration, a NYC-based spiritual solidarity project of nearly a decade between Muslims, Jews and other friends… breaking bread at the nexus of art, theater, and community. Musicians and puppeteers from across the Muslim world; a lantern procession through the community garden with lanterns made by everyone; and... spaghetti!

Many rivers; one ocean -- Though we may come from different traditions and walks of life, we believe we're all headed to the same ocean of divine unity.

Doors, food and lantern-making 5:00 PM
Program begins at 5:30 PM
Tickets: $20, no one turned away for lack of funds
Info: 917-319-8104
(A rain cancellation call will be made by noon the day of the show.)

***We invite you to arrive early and make a lantern, which will be lit at sundown and become part of a procession through the garden.***

Featuring:

Host AAREEYAN of Fihi Ma Fihi Worlds
Poet from the international collective SoU (Sounds of the Unseen)

A new performance by Keri Egilmez of THE WHIRLING IMAGINARIUM and Jenny Romaine of GREAT SMALL WORKS
"The Tale of the Bedouin and His Wife" from Rumi's Masnavi.

THE BROOKLYN NOMADS – Hadi and Mohamad Eldebek
A cross-cultural ensemble rooted in Arabic music traditions.

YOUSEF TEHRANI and FRIENDS (Hedayat Shafeei and Amin Sarshar)
Iranian traditional music

GABE PACHECO
Comedian, podcast host

THE LEGENDARY CYPHERS
New York City Hip-Hop masters

*****
*Great Small Works is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

*Spaghetti Dinners are funded, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

*This project is made possible, in part, with funds from a regrant
program supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

*Additional thanks to: the Puppet Slam Network, the Scherman Foundation, and the Constance and Jarvis Doctorow Family Foundation

******

SPRING SPAGHETTI DINNER

Great Small Works' Spring Spaghetti Dinner
"When We Are Among the Trees"
(with a tip of the hat to Mary Oliver)

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 5:00 PM

La Plaza Cultural Community Garden

East 9th Street between Avenues B and C

Puppet shows in the garden!
Suggested donation: $20
Info: 917-319-8104

A reprise of last year's event, with intimate mini-shows performed simultaneously around the garden.

We too have "come into the world... to be filled with light, and to shine." (Mary Oliver)

FEATURING
Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo
Valerie and Benedict Turner, ambassadors of Country Blues music, Piedmont-style fingerpicking, and roots percussion, have a mission to help bring awareness to these unique aspects of African-American culture.

And small-scale puppet shows by:
Eva Lansberry
Emmanuel Elpenord
Gil Verrelli
Erika Martinez Land
Harrison Greene
Tom Tuke
Sayma Karim/Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre
Kim Fraczek/Claire Lebowitz

Ray Dondero

And we will sing together!

Led by Jenny Romaine and Luisa Muhr

"Until All of Us Are Free" by Arnaé Batson

**********
Great Small Works is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Spaghetti Dinners are funded, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Additional thanks to: the Puppet Slam Network, the Scherman Foundation, and the Constance and Jarvis Doctorow Family Foundation.

**********
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”