After the Occupation: Artists Respond to the Crisis in Afghanistan
Join Teesri Duniya Theatre for a panel discussion to bring awareness to the evolving
crisis facing Afghanistan. With the departure and abandonment of US, Canadian and
international presence, Afghanistan is being made to confront a cycle of violent
uprisings and resistance. The illegal occupation of Afghanistan by the international
community during the past 20+ years has failed to bring peace or an end to terrorism in
the region. It has only served to bring a deeper period of instability and corruption while
placing the lives of women, children, and marginalized peoples such as the Hazara
communities at severe risk.
In light of recent events, it is clear more than ever that Afghanistan’s fight for
sovereignty must be recognized and advocated for. In this period of time, we are once
again seeing a mass exodus of Afghans as a repeated history brought forth by the
impacts of imperialism, colonization, and Taliban rule. This panel will look closely at the
conditions that internally displaced and migrant Afghans face while providing a helpful
guide for the greater public’s support of Afghanistan.
In the words of Afghan poet Qahar Asi: "Until my hands grasp the sun, I battle with all
things dark and bleak, no shame in saying no and being stubborn, as this is the zenith
of my art and cultural integrity.”
Featuring:
Shaista Latif is a queer Afghan working-class artist, facilitator, and consultant. Her
works and collaborations have been presented by Why Not Theatre, Koffler Centre for
the Arts, Mercer Union, Blackwood Gallery, AGO, and festivals such as SummerWorks,
Progress, and 7A*11D. In 2020, Latif toured her critically acclaimed show The Archivist
(co-produced by Ontario Presents and Why Not Theatre). She is a published playwright
and voiced the character, Soraya, in the Oscar-nominated animated film The
Breadwinner. Her upcoming exhibit How I Learned to Serve Tea will be presented at
the Art Gallery of Guelph in October 2021. Latif’s works explore the politics of inclusion
and class.
Ariel Nasr is an English-Language Producer in the National Film Board’s Quebec
Atlantic Studio. Previous to joining the NFB, Ariel directed and co-produced the
award-winning film, The Forbidden Reel, a feature documentary drawing on thousands
of hours of film archives to trace the second half of the twentieth century through the
lens of Afghan filmmakers (IDFA, Hot Docs). Producer of the Academy
Award-nominated independent short drama Buzkashi Boys (2012), Nasr’s other
directing credits include the Canadian Screen Award-winning, The Boxing Girls of Kabul
(2011) as well as Good Morning Kandahar (2008), the interactive documentary, Kabul
Portraits (2015) and the documentary, La Mosquée, which documents the aftermath of
the Quebec City Mosque Shooting. A citizen of Canada, Afghanistan and the USA, Ariel
lives and works in Montreal.
Rahul Varma is a playwright, activist, and Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre
www.teesriduniyatheatre.com, a company he co-founded in 1981. In 1998, he
co-founded the journal alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage. Born in India, Rahul
writes both in Hindi and English, a language he acquired as an adult. His recent plays
include Counter Offence, Bhopal, Truth and Treason, and State of Denial. His
unproduced new works include My Father Would Have Killed Me (2020), Dad’s New
Wife (2019), and (in-progress) Merchant of God. His plays have been translated into
French, Italian, Hindi and Punjabi. He is honored to have worked with India’s
pre-eminent artist, the late Dr. Habib Tanvir.
He has received the Quebec Drama Federation’s Juror’s Award (1986), the Montreal
English Critics Circle award for interculturalism (1999), META’s Equity, Diversity, and
Inclusion award (2018), and a Lifetime Honorary Membership Award (2020) from the
Canadian Association for Theatre Research.
Matt Jones (Moderator) (he/him) is a writer, activist, teacher, and theatre creator. He
has published widely about the politics of war, terrorism, and racism in performance and
is working on a book manuscript based on his dissertation, "The Shock and Awe of the
Real: Political Performance in an Age of War and Terror." He has been involved in
anti-war organizing for twenty years, most notably with the Montreal-based Collectif
Échec à la guerre. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s
Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies and he teaches at the Creative
School at X University.
Date: Thursday, September 23rd at 6pm via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87240465125
This is an open event; no registration required.
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