How do you articulate the value of the arts in a society where it is largely seen as a commodity?

Eyad Houssami makes and writes about theater. He is the founding director of Masrah Ensemble, a nonprofit theater organization in Lebanon, and the editor of English and Arabic editions of Doomed by Hope: Essays on Arab Theatre (Pluto Press and Dar Al Adab 2012). He has performed in dead Byzantine cities in Syria and produced a monodrama in a 13th century mansion only to be banned from performing. His play Mama Butterfly received a staged reading at Between the Seas festival (New York, 2010). He has presented at conferences in South Africa and Korea and published in peer-reviewed journals. He served as president of the Yale Arab Alumni Association (YAAA) and co-chaired YAAA's international urban sustainability conference at the American University of Beirut (2009). Mr. Houssami studied theatre at Yale University.