B’rukhim Haba’im: Stories of Welcome

Burning Coal Theatre will present B’rukhim Haba’im: Stories of Welcome, an exhibit of filmed autobiographical stories by 21 Jewish seniors from across the Triangle, this summer at City of Raleigh Museum.

The tales mark the culmination of a month-long storytelling workshop, a community outreach project funded by a grant from the Carolina Foundation for Jewish Seniors and private donors. “In a time when seniors might have felt more socially or geographically isolated due to the pandemic, focusing on stories of welcoming and returning seemed particularly appropriate,” says program coordinator Staci Sabarsky. “They’re sharing amazing personal stories, from welcoming love back into their life, to the welcome they received upon returning home from military service. We wanted the stories to be uplifting for the community.”

Sabarsky helped participants from across the Triangle develop their stories for a month in sessions over Zoom. The seniors were then professionally filmed in individual sessions at Burning Coal Theatre.

Their stories will be shown on 20 separate screens distributed throughout the COR Museum’s main lobby commonly called Raleigh’s Living Room on the museum’s first floor.

B’rukhim Haba’im: Stories of Welcome will run June 28 through August 31, 2022 at the City of Raleigh Museum, 220 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC 27601. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9 am to 4 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm. Admission is free. For further information about the exhibit, visit www.cityofraleighmuseum.org, or email staff@burningcoal.org.

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 Burning Coal Theatre Company is an intimate, professional theatre and an incorporated non-profit (501 (c)(3) organization in the heart of downtown Raleigh. Burning Coal’s mission is to produce literate, visceral, affecting theatre that is experienced, not simply seen. It produces explosive reexaminations of overlooked classic and modern plays, as well as new plays whose themes and issues are of immediate concern to our audience, using the best local, national, and international artists available. The company works toward a theatre of high-energy performances and minimalist production values. The emphasis is on literate works that are felt and experienced viscerally to create an active role for the audience, unlike more traditional linear plays, at which audiences are most often asked to observe without participating

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