Bulaban Circus

We associate circuses with death-defying acrobatics and clowns on stilts, but circuses also teach kids some pretty simple lessons: that being “different” can be fun, that there’s no limit to their imagination, that laughing and playing feels good. Bouba Haidar wants to bring those joys to her hometown in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Bouba is a trained clown, who spent years living in Berlin where she worked and collaborated with other artists and performers. She realized then the healing power of circus and theater to, as she puts it, “empower children individually and collectively” and teach them to have fun, let loose, and realize their ma-JEST-ic potential! She moved back two years ago to her native Lebanon to bring that sense of freedom to the local and refugee communities who’ve been through multiple crises over the past several years. 

Bulaban Circus is made up of clowns, jugglers, puppeteers, stilt walkers, educators, movement artists, and more, and they perform in a circus tent on the Buzuruna Juzuruna Seed Farm. Bouba will use our grant money to fund a storage unit for circus materials so that she can continue to share the Bulaban Circus far and wide in Lebanon. We say: Let’s take this show on the road!