Past, present, and future are connected when we listen.
How do we get ready to meet the past, dressed as the future?
Soften. Prepare.
My son’s shabe yalda poster. Somehow inspired by the Puerto Rican flag! ;)
While I inch along with my creative community building projects, I am thinking of creativity in a new way. Maybe it’s an old way. The oldest way, possibly.
Creative as in sustaining life.
This winter, I feel I am being called into preparation Though I’m not exactly sure what will happen. I am being called to listen for ways to prepare. To pay attention to and re-acquaint myself with what I already know, especially that which I’ve discarded or pushed under the rug. I’m engaging with textiles and the stories they hold and I’m leaning into “folds and folding” as a metaphor.
Folds hold what we don’t want to look at as well as what we are searching for.
Folds call us into a practice of preparedness, setting the ground, being ready.
Readying through folding and practices of folding textiles ask us to see ahead, to anticipate a future interaction/response/engagement.
What are you listening for this winter? How are you readying the ground for life to thrive?
I’d love for you to listen to this short piece on Eva Yaa Asantewa’s meditative podcast, Body and Soul.
“Kayhan Irani--writer, performer, artivist, mother--finds herself aswirl in a constellation of stories, savoring books by writers of color whose values point the way to a positive future.
Come be inspired by Irani's beautiful talk on the textures of memory and how stories help us re-weave community.” - Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Infinite Body Blog
Uprooted Afghan artists are still creating, still shining a light on the beauty and power of their songs, stories, and lifeways.
One dear colleague is continuing his work even while his entire life is in limbo. He’s picked up where his projects left off and has a new fire for collecting and preserving Hazara folk tales, lullabies, and mother’s songs. He collaborates with a team of women in Afghanistan to collect the material and with other Afghan artists in exile to create ways to bring the songs to life!
See THEIR short animated piece (3mins).
PLEASE SUPPORT THESE ARTISTS!
(VENMO @Kayhan-Irani … other options available.)
Thank you to all who have donated over the past 18 months! Two families are resettled, two are in the final interview stage, and two others are still knocking on doors to find a way out.
February 4th, from 4pm - 5pm ET.
I have the honor of participating in a two-day symposium celebrating Ping Chong and Co.’s multi-decade documentary theater project, Undesireable Elements.
The panel I’m on is called Testimony, Dialogue, Community But the symposium runs Friday night through Saturday night.
Free and open to all. At the New School in NYC.