Vision...
We are all searching for something: understanding, love, inspiration, validation. Life is a pursuit for illumination, the truth from our experiences.
And if it can be said that art imitates life, shouldn't art reflect that deep rooted quest; that yearning for wisdom and insight?
All too often we rely on inadequate means of solving problems; ones that isolate and divide us. We are offered options that repress, pen-in, and punish instead of restoring, uniting, and informing. Recognizing this deficit, I use the arts to transform society, to bring us back to the collective path and ignite the spirit with beauty and truth.
Welcome to my quest: artivista!
upcoming :
Introduction to the Theater of the Oppressed III - Image Theater & the Aesthetics of the Oppressed: Sound and Movement
Saturday & Sunday, November 22-23, 2008
@ The Brecht Forum
For More Information contact: The Brecht Forum or call 212.924.1858 for reservations.
CODEPINK Women for Peace Fundraiser
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - 7-9pm
ABC Carpets and Homes Penthouse
38 East 19th St. NYC (between Broadway & Park Ave South)
Join us & support the passion, energy, audacity and creativity that is CODEPINK Women for Peace. Connect with other fierce peacemakers and savour delicious bites, drinks, good music & a "we will not be silent" auction!
I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Iraq in 2004 with this courageous group of women. Come support their work in the U.S. and abroad.
Amy Goodman, Citizen Reno, and Jocelyn Voltaire will make special appearances.
Tickets $100
Buy now at CODEPINK's Website Or call 646.723.1781
Mothers Acting Up - Conversation on Art and Activism
Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 6:30 pm
East West Books
78 Fifth Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets.
Join us for music, a conversation on the intersection of art and activism and stories from communities and individuals around the world as they find their activist voice. Meet Kayhan Irani, artivist and editor of Telling Stories to Change the World, and Anjali Kochar of Mothers Acting Up, an organization dedicated to inspiring and mobilizing mothers* to advocate on behalf of the world’s children. Inspiring Mother* Voices will nourish your soul and connect you with your inner activist.
(*mothers and others who exercise protective care over someone smaller.)
We will be promoting their beautiful, elegant yearly planner that includes ideas and inspirational portraits of people working to make the world a better place. I had the opportunity to be featured in the calendar and I am thrilled.
The perfect holiday gift for inspiring activism, love, compassion, and beauty for our friends and family.
COLORLINES Magazine has profiled me in their July/August issue. Read the article.
The wonderful book I co-edited, is on the shelves! To order copies visit: Routledge Press
Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from across the globe--including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicago--describe grassroots projects in which communities use storytelling as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.
great news :
The Storytelling Project curriculum (Teaching about Race and Racism through Story Telling and the Arts) is now available for free download (pdf).
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Guillermo Linares awarded me a certificate of recognition for my work in immigrant communities.
The Associated Press featured me in an online, multi-media article about artists in America who explore issues of immigration.
The NY Daily News wrote a feature article on me and my work (pdf).