My great cookin' comrade, Karimi, stirs it up in the Twin Cities

I think I might have said this before, but my friend & fellow spoken word/performance artista, Robert Karimi, is always COOKIN SOMETHIN UP. When he helped fly me out to the Bay Area for a gig at Newark HS where he "taught" English, he kept feeding me. And when we drove out to the hot spot in San Jose, FUEL, for our cd release party/performance for RAZA SPOKEN HERE VOL. 2, Robert seemed more concerned with barbecuing the hot spicy wings than with cueing up the music and testing the mic. He's the consummate host with a wooden spoon perpetually in his fist. I love this guy forever...he can rock the mic, though, and you best not forget it.....


COOKING CON KARIMI AND THE QUEST FOR THE SECRET INGREDIENT

Featuring Mero Cocinero Karimi,
Comrade Castro and the Community Cooperative Collective of Bucko, Gutiérrez, Lundeen, Murphy and Reynolds
Directed by Meena Natarajan / Costume Design by Erin Lavelle Lundeen

March 1 - 11 (Thursdays - Sundays)
7:30 p.m.
@ Pangea World Theater Studio
711 West Lake St, Suite 101
Minneapolis, MN 55408

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!! at www.pangeaworldtheater.org or 612-203-1088
Tickets only $18/discounts for seniors, students, and groups!!

FREE FOOD WITH YOUR TICKET

Back by Popular Demand, Pangea welcomes progressive public access chef, Mero Cocinero Karimi, the idealistic, Iranian-Guatemelan, public-access host, and chef to revolutionaries, dreamers, and community builders for Cooking Con Karimi and the Quest for the Secret Ingredient. Mero Cocinero Karimi is the host of Cooking Con Karimi, a traveling public access show, and is joined by his leftist right hand man in the kitchen: Comrade Cocinero Castro, on their War-Causes-Indigestion Tour. Both Mero and his Comrade will cook up revolutionary recipes LIVE in their quest to spread culinary consciousness and create social change one kitchen at a time.

There will be comedy, food, and politics swirled together into a feast for the senses!!!!

Don’t forget every audience member eats! Yes, free food for everyone! Post-show community discussion and food!

Get your tickets now, as this show sold out last time in the preview run in Minneapolis. And there’s only 8 shows, as Mero and Comrade Castro will take their show on the road where they will finish their tour in New York City at the 1st Annual Asian American Theater Festival in June 2007.

Come early and nominate your proletariat employee of the year (Must be present to win) and bring a recipe to the show and it may be included in our episode or in our cookbook.

about the show:
Mero Cocinero Karimi becomes overwhelmed by the continuing war in Iraq, community apathy, and the idea that the Home of the Food Co-op: St.Paul is also hosting the Republican National Convention in 2008. With the help of community friends, he seeks the secret ingredient that will bring the community together to share stories and revolutionary recipes in order to stop a war that is making everyone sick in the stomach.

Cooking con Karimi is a concept conceived by spoken word artist/performance artist Robert Karimi, Mero Cocinero’s cousin, who sees the show as a way to discuss social change and concepts of mixed culture in a project that engages audiences and performers alike. The show is written by Comrade Castro’s cousin John Castro, and Robert Karimi, who volunteered their time to help the two chefs create the show. Also as part of the creative team are the Community Cooperative Collective of Steven Bucko, Armando Gutiérrez G., Erin Lavelle Lundeen, Melissa Anne Murphy, and Scott Reynolds, who helped invite the other community members who are part of this fun-filled, yet provocative episode.

Robert Karimi is a fiscal year 2007 recipient of a Cultural Community Partnership grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Art Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cooking Con Karimi is made possible in part by a grant from the National Performance Network’s Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of the National Performance Network include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), Altria and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

The National Performance Network is a group of cultural organizers and artists facilitating the practice and public experience of the performing arts in the United States. NPN serves artists, arts organizers, and a broad range of audiences and communities across the country through commissions, residencies, culture-centered community projects and other artistic activities. For more information: www.npnweb.org .

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!! at www.pangeaworldtheater.org or 612-203-1088 or tell friends in Minneapolis.