Recently I have been challenged by the delicate balance between being known and being understood, being appreciated v. being watched. My academic self and personal relations with the Muslim community in America have both undergone changes during quarantine. Reconstructed Mag interviewed artist and curator Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The interview was over all "life giving" Here are some interesting points which I found relatable.
On modern Shi'a narratives:
Why are we forced to make our children and families martyrs? What are the forces against us that make us go into these spaces that end in death? The drag character Faluda Islam questions this.
The character is his attempt to look at revolution through high femme lens.
Zombies are an American horror theme and the situation in the mideast and Arab world is just as absurd as any american horror film.
Zombie was a symbol of revolution in Haiti but it was appropriated by Americans who were upset that they couldn't establish a colony there. A form of organizing was demonized by hollywood just like islam.
Same imperialist project that has kept going. The people in the organizing form is demonized
Can we use Islam as a springboard for the imagination?
Streamlining and homogeneity in which ppl are trying to gentrify islam is not just wahabiism, it is western imperialism. Islam had an expansive understanding of love such as the Andalusian poet Abu Nuwas and the Farsi poet Rumi.
Queer ppl often conpartmentalize to see what the world can give us for what parts of it validates.
You get closer and closer to your intention as you grow as an artist. - najmas artist friend
On modern Shi'a narratives:
Why are we forced to make our children and families martyrs? What are the forces against us that make us go into these spaces that end in death? The drag character Faluda Islam questions this.
The character is his attempt to look at revolution through high femme lens.
Zombies are an American horror theme and the situation in the mideast and Arab world is just as absurd as any american horror film.
Zombie was a symbol of revolution in Haiti but it was appropriated by Americans who were upset that they couldn't establish a colony there. A form of organizing was demonized by hollywood just like islam.
Same imperialist project that has kept going. The people in the organizing form is demonized
Can we use Islam as a springboard for the imagination?
Streamlining and homogeneity in which ppl are trying to gentrify islam is not just wahabiism, it is western imperialism. Islam had an expansive understanding of love such as the Andalusian poet Abu Nuwas and the Farsi poet Rumi.
Abu Nuwas' couplet I stumbled upon recently.
When Pakistan reacted aggressively against his drag, "It almost put me back in the closet. I became shyer. I only did drag in an art setting rather than a club setting for more control and privacy because of how much the world was trying to take from me."
Queer ppl often conpartmentalize to see what the world can give us for what parts of it validates.
You get closer and closer to your intention as you grow as an artist. - najmas artist friend
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