Inanna (1988) Diane Wolkstein Performance

Innana: Diane Wolkstein
Music composed and played by Geoffrey Gordon
(Cloudstone, 1988)
Running Time: 50 Minutes
Diane Wolkstein Tells the World’s First Love Story
Through voice, gesture and song, Diane Wolkstein brings to life the 4,000 year old epic of the goddess Inanna’s emergence into womanhood. The video’s subtle interweaving of performance, interview, and Sumerian art and landscape prepares the twentieth century viewer to accompany the Great Goddess of Love and Fertility on her courageous journey to the underworld. Geoffrey Gordon’s haunting music on hard, drums and flute adds a timeless quality to one of the world’s most passionate and compelling myths.
“Erotic and comic, terrifying and triumphant, Wolkstein’s performance evokes the mystery and deep humanity of Inanna and of the Sumerians. This video is invaluable to our students both as an alternative to the canon of male-oriented texts and as an entry into world literature.”
Patricia Clark-Smith, English Professor
University of New Mexico-Albuquerque
“This is the best storytelling tape of a storyteller I’ve ever seen… Wolkstein becomes one with the story and the story seems to flow from her very being…”
National Storytelling Journal
Jonesborough, Tennessee
“To hear, to see Diane Wolkstein perform INANNA is to understand the power of myth.”
Oliver Bernier, Art Lecturer
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Performance adapted from the book, INANNA, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, Harper & Row, 1983.
Archeology, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, Middle Eastern Studies, Media Studies, Mythology, Religion, Theatre Arts, Women’s Studies
Timing: 49:30
©1988 Diane Wolkstein
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[@jinjerrojjers7358]

I love this so much. Thank you for posting it.

[@joelgoode5605]

Absolutely wonderful. I majored in history as an undergrad and this presentation was exceptionally helpful for increasing my understanding of Sumerian culture. Many Thanks !!

[@dennisparsons4656]

Bettany Hughes was interviewing Irving Finkel about his latest book. Irving extolled this and I am delighted I found it. Thank you for posting.

[@rebeccachalker3611]

I taught the story of Inanna to my university students for 20 years, and wish I had been aware of this recitation by Diane Wolkstein that could have made this stirring epic come alive. Rebecca Chalker, PhD

[@bradm.3775]

Do You teach about Sumerian or Mesopotamian History?

[@luneluna307]

This is treasure

[@jamesmay2631]

This is beautiful. Thank you!

[@Robert-yc2tl]

I am so glad to find this... my tape broke