Merrymeeting Community & Adult Education

Somali American playwright and performance artist, Ifrah Mansour, revisits her childhood memories during the 1991 Somali civil war to confront violent history with humor and provide a voice for the global refugee stories of children. How to Have Fun in a Civil War, is a one-act multimedia play, that explores war from an idyllic viewpoint of a seven-year-old Somali refugee girl. The play weaves puppetry, poetry, videos, and multiple oral stories taken from community interviews to tell a captivating story about resilience while pushing the audience to engage in a healing process that is still raw for survivors of the war. Toured in multiple states, the play has been instrumental in humanizing the invisible strength of global refugees and vulnerable communities on the resilience it takes to start all over in life in a new country and to build kind caring communities.

Ifrah Mansour is a Somali, refugee, Muslim, multimedia artist, and educator residing in Minnesota. Her artwork explores trauma through the eyes of children to uncover the resiliencies of blacks, Muslims, and refugees. She interweaves poetry, puppetry, films, and installations. She's been featured in BBC, Vice, Okayafrica, Star Tribune, and City Pages. Her critically-acclaimed, “How to Have Fun in a Civil War” premiered at Guthrie Theatre and is touring to greater cities in Minnesota. Her first national museum exhibition; “Can I Touch It” premiered at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Her visual poem, “I am a Refugee” is part of PBS’s online Film festival. "My Aqal, banned and blessed" is on view at Queens Museum. Her latest work is a tiny-house-sized Indigenous hut built, a “healing Hut” hosting conversations on healing and community repair within Minnesota.

 Age Recommendations: Best enjoyed by ages 6 and up

Runtime: 50 minutes, w/ post-show discussion