"Zara" heads to Chapel Hill Public Library

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (FEBRUARY 7, 2018) - The Chapel Hill Public Library is proud to host a free presentation of Zara, a new one person show about about race, religion, and identity in the American South. This special presentation is made possible thanks to funding from the Humanities for the Public Good Initiative at UNC- Chapel Hill.

Zara is a comedic account of Andrew Aghapour’s account as being an anxious, asthmatic Muslim kid in search meaning. Drawing on personal stories, philosophy, and the history of monotheism, Zara is Andrew’s story about how identity is inherited and remade in 21st-century America.

Humanities for the Public Good Initiative is a four-year, $1.5-million initiative intended to recognize and catalyze publicly engaged scholarly activity among humanists and humanistic social scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill. Initiated by Terry Rhodes, Senior Dean for the Fine Arts & Humanities in the College of Arts & Sciences, with support from the Institute for the Arts & Humanities and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the initiative offers grants and programmatic opportunities primarily aimed at graduate students and faculty in partnership with cultural institutions within and beyond the academy.

Zara additionally won support from Durham Arts Council’s Catalyst Grant, a program supported by their Annual Arts Fund and the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources. Additionally, “Zara” is supported by UNC Chapel Hill's Performing Arts Special Activities Fund .