Harvard Divinity School PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ

A Contemporary Ritual of Belonging Across Difference

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As communities worldwide grapple with increasing social polarization and fragmentation, Harvard Divinity School's Program for the Evolution of Spirituality 2026 Conference, "Belonging: Practices of Inclusion in Communities, Academy, and Society" welcomes the world premier of PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ: A New Narrative on September 25-26, 2026. Media can contact Ellen Parker via: [email protected] for information. 

Founded by Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich the project unites an international team of award-winning artists, business and community leaders, in an interdisciplinary exploration of belonging, combining music, movement, oral tradition and contemporary ritual, to ask: how can an inherited story become a living practice of belonging in a culturally diverse society? 

Rather than treating diversity as a problem to be solved, the project asks whether difference itself can become the basis for the emergence of a new, resilient community for the future.

At the heart of the project is the encounter between Parzival and his half-brother Feirefiz—a "many-colored" Muslim knight from Baghdad. In Wolfram's epic, their meeting is a pivotal moment of recognition between two radically different worlds.

"The project unites elders, artists, educators and community leaders whose distinct lived perspectives reflect the project's central premise: belonging does not require the erasure of difference, but emerges through recognition, relationship and creative encounter between distinct identities."

Exploration of ritual is guided by African American elder Orland Bishop, founder of Shadetree Multicultural Foundation and inquiry into cultural diversity supported by Indian American physicist Dr. Gopi Krishna Vijaya, co-founder of Foundation for Cultural Renewal. The project's vision for collaborative leadership and social transformation is informed by Canadian professor of education Dr. Rose Vuković of the University of Victoria, and Canadian arts and community leader Ellen Parker, CEO and Founder of ParkerPR. The Parzival Project's artistic team include Turkish violinist-composer Ceren Türkmenoğlu; American classical saxophonist Michael Hernandez; Canadian cellist Zander Howard-Scott; and dancers Gil "The Grid" Gomes Leal, Elia Vitadamo, and Alana Grace Giannotta Ortiz of Amenti MoveMeant Theatre.

EVENT INFORMATION

PARZIVAL & FEIREFIZ
Panel: September 25, 2026 — 7:30 PM
Performance: September 26, 2026 — 8 PM
Details

Artistic Leadership
Emmanuel Vukovich — Artistic Director
Gil "The Grid" Gomes Leal & Alana Grace Giannotta Ortiz - AmentiMoveMeant
Ceren Türkmenoğlu — violin & composition
Michael Hernandez — saxophone
Zander Howard-Scott - cello
Shane Shanahan - frame drum

Orland Bishop — Shadetree Multicultural Foundation
Gopi Krishna Vijaya — Foundation for Cultural Renewal
Ellen Parker - Parker PR
Elia Vitadamo - AmentiMoveMeant
Rose Vuković - University of Victoria

SOURCE Parker Public Relations Inc.‬ ‭