First Person RAW is a new series at the First Person Festival that features innovative work from emerging artists working in the fields of memoir and documentary. In early summer 2009, First Person Arts put out a call for artist submissions and received more than two dozen applications from across the U.S., and even Great Britain. RAW applicants included dancers, poets, musicians, playwrights and comedians. First Person Arts staff selected three artists for the first season of First Person RAW: theater artist Justin Jain, storyteller/comedienne Robin Gelfenbien and photographer/filmmaker Heather Metcalfe.

Why do we leave our homes to start new lives? What are we hoping to find when we arrive? How does this affect the generations after us? Based on his life as a first-generation Filipino-American and intertwining stories from his ensemble, theatre artist Justin Jain weaves a tapestry of movement, music, and dialogue that asks these questions. With Scott McPheeters (of Kun Yang Lin and Dancers and BoanDanz Action), Barrymore-nominated actor James Ijames (performer and playwright of The Threshing Floor, a biographical solo about author James Baldwin), Barrymore-nominated actress Genevieve Perrier and StorySlam winner and professional actress Leah Walton. Directed by Becky Wright.

Get behind the wheel with Robin Gelfenbien, an insecure goody-goody who finds redemption on the road in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Can she handle a horndog co-pilot, a media circus and her nemesis? Using music, video and photo footage from her childhood and her life on the hot dog highway, Gelfenbien tells the story of her transformation from underdog to “one of the most notorious Oscar Meyer Wienermobile drivers of all time.” (TimeOut New York)

Military deaths, roadside bombs, politics- this is what we hear when Afghanistan is on the news. We seldom see the faces, hear the stories or learn about the lives of Afghan women.

Join Heather Metcalfe for a visual journey through Afghanistan that reveals glimpses of the struggle, resilience and hope of its women. Hear how Muzdha, Ferishta, Dr. Najia, and other women overcome victimization despite such obstacles as illiteracy, domestic violence and forced marriage. Metcalfe weaves their stories with her own tale of travel to Afghanistan in June 2009, resulting in the film/book Voices of Afghanistan, which she will share at this event.

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