Knowledge Bank

Heather Raffo, author and actress of the award winning one woman show 9 Parts of Desire, teams up with Amir ElSaffar, accomplished jazz trumpeter and Iraqi santoor player, for a dramatic evening of spoken word and melodic solos. Using characters from the acclaimed one-woman show like slam poetry, together they present a concert of urban and classical sounds that spring from both their Iraqi and American roots.

Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire, described by The New Yorker as "an example of how art can remake the world," details the lives of nine ordinary and extraordinary Iraqi women. Both mythical and contemporary, the women's words weave in and out of the ancient quarter tone scales of Amir's classical santoor and the improvisational heart of jazz, resulting in a melody decidedly Iraqi and American.