Ready for a post screening discussion and Q&A this morning at 8:30am, following a screening of A Thin Wall at @theblackholeislamabad where it was 6:30pm. Great convo with Osama Malik, who made this event happen, followed by brilliant questions from the audience. They had to do with nation states, porous borders, the imagining of alternative futures, and my own personal views about the partition. TBH is a non-profit that strives to be an open-to-all educational and cultural space in Islamabad. Such a pleasure to connect with incredible people and places in Pakistan
Forgot to take a screenshot when on Zoom, but here is the YouTube video
Spotlight on issue 12 featured artist Mara Ahmed. “My art practice focuses on crossing borders and dismantling political and cultural boundaries. I work in multiple disciplines and narrative formats to tell marginalized stories and build community. The personal and political are intertwined in my practice. For example, the experimental short film, Le Mot Juste (2021), which was selected for an exhibition by Chicago’s South Asia Institute, is a fusion of autobiography, film, and dance. It spotlights three languages: Urdu, French, and English. In the analog and digital collage series, This Heirloom (2012-2014) which has been widely exhibited in New York and California, I recreated my own history by using old black and white photographs sourced from my family archive. In conjunction with my NYSCA-funded film, Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation (2023), I created three collages that subvert the colonial male gaze in found postcards from the British Raj (early 1900s). My aim was to rewrite history by relocating South Asian women from derelict studios, where they had been subjected to Orientalist fantasies, and reconnecting them to their roots. I placed the women in their native cities, adorned with architectural details and built with Indian textiles.”
From Mariam Sandhu: My dear friend, fellow artist, activist, filmmaker and humanitarian Mara Ahmed has expanded a project started in 2020 entitled “Warp & Weft” to highlight the voices of the Palestinian people and the horrific situation that is unfolding in front of the entire world’s eyes. It is a compilation of Palestinian poems given voice by fellow activists and artists. I am just one ordinary human asked to participate – join us in raising the voices of the Palestinian people by following her IG account @Warpandweftarchive
There will be a screening of our film “A Thin Wall” at the Partition Museum in Delhi on January 27th. Pls attend if you are in the area:
The Partition Museum presents a film screening of “A Thin Wall,” a documentary about memory, history and the possibility of reconciliation, with co-producer Surbhi Dewan who will be in conversation with a panel consisting of author Dinesh Shrinet, film critic Murtaza Ali Khan and poet Roshni Gupta. The discussion will be moderated by educator Pallavi Singh.
The screening and discussion will be held on Saturday, 27th January, from 10:30am to 1:30pm at the Dara Shukoh Auditorium, Partition Museum, Delhi.
Registration is needed.
Date: Saturday, 27th January
Time: 10:30am to 1:30pm
Location: Dara Shukoh Library, inside Dr. BR Ambedkar University, Lothian Road
I have a dream: For Liberation from the Congo to Palestine – at an MLK rally in Mineola (which marked 100 days of the ongoing genocide in Gaza) where I was honored to speak about the “triple evils” of racism, poverty, and militarism, and reference the work of both Dr. King and Cedric Robinson who taught us the meaning and deadly implications of racial capitalism:
“Racial capitalism explains why the US and UK are bombing Yemen to protect shipping lanes, but refuse to protect the lives of Brown children in Gaza.
Racial capitalism explains why the House passed a $14.5 billion package in additional aid to Israel. The understanding is that Israel will spend that money on US bombs, and redirect taxpayers’ money (which is publicly owned) into private pockets.
Racial capitalism is why the impulse to ‘empty’ Gaza went hand in hand with bids for gas exploration along its coastline.
In the same way, the intersection between racism, the creation of ethnic divisions by colonial powers, and non-stop capitalist extraction, has led to horrors in the Congo.
In Sudan too, the atrocities that we are seeing emerge from a divide and rule policy that created conflict and facilitated colonial theft.
Whether it’s the domestic policing of Blacks, immigrants, and Muslims, increased incarceration and border security, or racist wars such as the war on terror or the war on drugs, we always return to the unholy alliance between racism, economic exploitation, and military violence.”
Thank you dear Farhana Islam for inviting me and thank you dear Nia Adams for introducing me to Farhana <3
last friday we went to the opening of the master’s showcase, an invitational exhibit organized by the huntington arts council which showcased the work of award winning artists during the 2023 exhibition season. honored to be invited to share my work – three digital collages constructed with south asian fabrics depicting lucknow, bhubaneswar, and dhaka and connected to ‘return to sender: women of color in colonial postcards & the politics of representation,’ a nysca-funded project. so lucky that my parents could attend the opening with me.
Dear friends, the Warp & Weft audio archive came together as a way to connect people from across the world during a global pandemic which caused untold loss and grief. It is an ongoing project that allows diverse people (separated by arbitrary yet brutal political borders) to share their stories and feel a sense of collective power.
Today we launch the next phase of this project. In the midst of the gruesome genocide we are witnessing in Gaza, people from around the world are welcome to join us in reading, holding up, and sharing the voices and stories of Palestinian writers, poets, and activists. This is an open archive, so contact us if you would like to contribute a reading and pls follow us @WarpAndWeftArchive
We start with Fatima Mohammadi (Kansas City, Missouri) reading Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003), a Palestinian poet and memoirist known for her representations of resistance to Israeli occupation in contemporary Arab poetry. Fatima began with: “I acknowledge that I occupy the land belonging to the great Lakota, Nakota and Dakota, Kaw and Kickapoo nations, in a country built by the labor of enslaved and disenfranchised people.”
Listen to EXISTENCE by Fadwa Tuqan on Instagram @warpandweftarchive
My artwork was selected for inclusion in this wonderful print and digital magazine which highlights the intersection of collage and photography – v much like my own work
Friends, as you know, The Warp & Weft archive of multilingual audio stories from across the world is an ongoing project.
Today I am honored to share a new poem by Shadab Zeest Hashmi, a Pakistani American poet and essayist whose work has been published worldwide. Recently, she spoke about Sufi archetypes at the London Arts-based Research Institute/AIJS online conference “Emergence of Soul: Jung and Islam.”
In her beautiful new poem, “Warp and Weft,” Shadab writes:
Limits are to be kissed. The warbler marks its territory with song/ And a country of sweet echoes is born, a mythos of whistle, rasp, chirp/ Ours is a song of the loom, with the warp and weft of old country/ and new.
I created this piece for Global Feminists for Palestine’s first solidarity event on Dec 1st at @aaww_nyc in which they read poetry and sold artwork with all the money going to Palestine Legal, a crucial organization doing crucial work at this brutal, agonizing time.
My artwork’s title is Palestine Sunbird 1. It is a digital collage constructed with South Asian textiles as an expression of solidarity and a recognition of parallel colonial histories.
Spoke with Gianna Volpe this morning about decolonizing knowledge and media representations of those who are stereotyped and marginalized – POCs, people from the Global South, women, and other oppressed communities.
This was for her show Friday Morning Tea on Long Island’s NPR radio station WLIW. Hope to share a recording soon. Pls listenhere.
Our conversation was about the screening and discussion coming up at Southampton Arts Center of ‘Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation.’
After the film, I will be honored to be in conversation with Jeremy Dennis (Fine art photographer, Lead Artist & President of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio), Minerva Perez (Executive Director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island), and Brenda Simmons (Executive Director and Founder of Southampton African American Museum).
This is a free event! Pls register SouthamptonArtsCenter.org
What the horrors of the world reiterate over and over again is that solidarity is safety, unity is strength, and that we the people can demonstrate more courage and compassion than those who rule over us.
Proud to collaborate with Jeremy Dennis (indigenous artist and photographer and Lead Artist & President of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio), Minerva Perez (Executive Director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island), and Brenda Simmons (Executive Director and Founder of Southampton African American Museum).
We will be discussing the power of representation and the mechanics of othering, among many other things. Pls join us for a screening and discussion.
‘Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation’ is coming to Southampton Arts Center on Sun Nov 19 at 2pm. This event is free but pls register at SouthamptonArtsCenter.org
Please join us for a screening of my new film, Return to Sender: Women of Color in Colonial Postcards & the Politics of Representation:
Southampton Arts Center (25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, NY 11968)
Sunday November 19th, 2:00-4:00 pm.
The film delves into colonial representations of people of color (especially women) and discusses Eurocentric beauty standards and imperial narratives, stereotypes and the process of othering, and the complexities of identity and belonging.
The screening will be followed by a community discussion led by Jeremy Dennis (Fine art photographer, Lead Artist & President of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio), Minerva Perez (Executive Director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island), and Brenda Simmons (Executive Director and Founder of Southampton African American Museum).
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is needed. Please register at SouthamptonArtsCenter.org.
a wonderful screening of ‘a thin wall,’ a film about the partition of india, at Westbury Arts yesterday. so happy that my parents could attend with me and that i got to meet lovely friends <3
thank u westbury arts for the beautiful community u are able to create through art, film, music and spoken word. it’s v healing.
pls join us for a screening of ‘a thin wall,’ a film about stories from the partition of india under british colonial rule.
on friday oct 13 at 7pm at Westbury Arts. i will be there to take questions at the end of the film.
the violence we are seeing in the middle east and elsewhere should be located within the context of european colonialism and the mutilation of land. on indigenous peoples’ day, it’s more important than ever to pledge our solidarity with all those under occupation and fight for land back.
