Award-winning storyteller, author and educator Noa Baum returns to Tucson this month for several public events as well as workshops for high school students, college students and faculty, and nonprofit leaders, all aimed at fostering intercultural understanding.
“We believe in the power of story to reach across the divides of identity and hope that Noa’s presence will build this art into the daily fabric of our community,” says Evan Mendelson, a member of the Facilitators Learning Guild, a group of local nonprofit professional consultants who have helped coordinate Baum’s visit to Tucson.
Baum, who first visited Tucson during the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books, was born and raised in Israel. She was an actress at Jerusalem Khan Theater, studied with Uta Hagen in New York City, and holds an M.A. from New York University. She will present “An Evening of Arts and Culture: Stories of Peace and Justice” on Monday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Consulate of Mexico, 3915 E. Broadway Blvd. This free event is sponsored by the consulate, Visit Tucson and Tellers of Tales Tucson.
On Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m., Baum will perform her one-woman show, “A Land Twice Promised,” at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road. The show resulted from a dialogue Baum began with a Palestinian woman she met while living in the United States, which bloomed into a friendship as they shared their perspectives of wars in the Middle East both had lived through. Baum’s 2016 memoir, “A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Women’s Quest for Peace,” won the Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award from the Westchester Library Association. Tickets for the show are $20. Sponsors include the Tucson J and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
On Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 9:30-11 a.m., Baum will lead a Community Reflections Conversation at the YWCA, 525 S. Bonita Ave. Along with the Y, sponsors include Our Family Services Center for Community Dialogue and Tellers of Tales Tucson.
For more information, visit www.noabaum.com.
