4th Aaina: South Asian Women in Focus Festival

April 10-11, 2009


ABOUT

Aaina, which in Urdu means mirror, focuses on and celebrates the artistic work of and about South Asian women. The variety of media includes film, performance art, visual art, workshops and speakers aimed at highlighting issues relevant to South Asian women. We are very happy to bring you another great festival this year.

This festival is brought to you by Chaya and Tasveer. All programs will be at Seattle University (Pigott Auditorium).

TEAM
Farah Nousheen (Co-director, Tasveer)
Nitika Raj (Co-director, Chaya)

Aaina 2009 team:
Moumita Bhattacharya (Publicity)
Neelu Bhuman (Graphic Design)
Anjulie Ganti (Reproductive Justice forum, program consultant)
Rahul Gupta (Program Consultant)
Ankur Kalra (Publicity)
Nomita Kayastha (Publicity)
Navin Kulshrestha (Tech, Publicity)
Archana Tyagi (Online Publicity)
Kruti Vora (Host, Publicity)
Prachi Vora (Program Facilitator)
Nathaniel Shara (Men’s Dialogue facilitator, program consultant)

TICKETS:
Suggested donations: Opening & Film: $6 Students/ $8 general,
Yoni Ki Baat: $10 Students/$12 general
FREE: Chaya’s community speaks, Reproductive Justice, Men’s Dialogue

Venue: Seattle University (Pigott Auditorium)
1016 E Marion St., Seattle, WA, 98122

Sponsored by:
City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs
Seattle University
Seattle University School of Law

SCHEDULE

Aaina Opening: Where Art Meets Activism

Friday April 10th, 2009, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Where Art Meets Activism: To open Aaina, we are featuring three local South Asian women use express their activism through art.

Gita Rani Mehrotra: Inspired by Yoni ki Baat and Chaya’s community speaks events, Gita will be reading 2 short pieces of creative non-fiction. Her writing focuses on themes of gender, sexuality, migration/diaspora, and interpersonal violence.
Gita Rani Mehrotra is a South Asian queer femme who has made home in the Midwest and the Bay Area before moving to Seattle in 2005. She writes to make sense of the fluid and evolving intersections of heart, mind, self, and place. She shares her creative narratives as a way to make visible what has been erased by multiple forms of oppression. Gita has spent the last 13 years doing work in the domestic violence movement and is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Welfare at the University of Washington.

Moumita Bhattacharya: Laachhi’s Story.
Laachhi’s Story is a 5-part dance act that invokes the story of an unwilling sex-worker and her search for an identity. A powerful statement on sex-trafficking in India, this act uses 4 different dance forms to portray the story of a simple village girl’s quest for self respect.
Moumita Bhattacharya is a business woman, dancer, and activist based in Seattle. Originally trained in the classical Indian dance form of Kathak, Moumita continuously innovates with choreography that fuses differing music, dance, and storytelling genres. For the past many years, she has used dance to stir people to action on important social issues.

Tenzin Mingyur Paldron: Q and A
Q and A is a documentary produced in 2008, interviews Asians and Pacific Islanders identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered and queer. Conceived of in 2004, the project developed from an educational social justice piece to a film aimed at providing visibility of QAs to one another and an exploration of queer people of color theory. Given the minimal media available for and about queer APIs and queer people of color in general, the filmmaker would like the piece to be a contribution to discussions around immigration, diaspora, gender, and sexuality. Q&A is scheduled to screen as part of the Wing Luke Museum’s 2009 LGBTQ Exhibit.

Tenzin Mingyur Paldron is an ’08 graduate of The Evergreen State College. Her academic focus has been in the areas of documentary film and philosophy, and her past films have related to her background as a queer Tibetan. Tenzin has plans to pursue a PhD in critical gender theory and diaspora studies. Tenzin will screen clips from documentary Q and A.

Yoni Ki Baat – Friday Night

Friday April 10th, 2009, 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM
cost: $10.00- $12.00 Suggested donation

Yoni Ki Baat is a collection of authentic, bold, vivid, tender, powerful and poignant stories told by South Asian women.

Translated as “Talks of the Vagina,” Yoni Ki Baat* was inspired by Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues. Seattle’s Yoni Ki Baat has now taken a creative life of its own, propelled by the courageous voices of local South Asian women, and creating a unique space of sharing and community through sourcing and presenting true stories. Our narratives shed light on the special challenges experienced in the South Asian socio-cultural context, whether homegrown or related to the diaspora, while also expressing opportunities, dreams and aspirations for change. Acknowledging female sexuality as an essential aspect of identity and expression, this transformative space encourages South Asian women to speak out on behalf of their bodies in an effort to obliterate violence, stigma and dogma.
This year’s Yoni Ki Baat is directed by Sabina Ansari, a Seattle-based filmmaker and activist, and is co-sponsored by Tasveer and Chaya. *Yoni Ki Baat was originally started by South Asian Sisters, a progressive collective of South Asian women, who have been organizing an annual Yoni Ki Baat in San Francisco area, and continue to kindly let us present their scripts.

Sponsored by: Hip Hop Congress

South Asian Men’s Caucus and Dialogue

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

cost: Free

Men commit most violence, but most men do not commit violence. The majority of men who are not violent are unaware of the potential for their voice and actions to make a difference and remain silent in the face of other men’s violence. In 2000, a Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) study found that one in three men did not actively support community efforts to stop violence against women because no one had asked them to get involved or they did not know how to help.

This 2-hour workshop is a chance for men to talk and learn about why and how men can play a critical role in ending all forms of violence.(statistics from the Men’s Network Against Domestic Violence)
**This event is a caucus for South Asian men only. An identity caucus is a strategy to discuss issues that are specific to that social identity.

Nathaniel Shara (FACILITATOR):
Nathaniel Shara is a social justice therapist and community educator in Seattle, Washington. For the last eight years, he has been working within communities of color and queer communities doing organizing, facilitation, anti-violence work and therapy. Nathan is deeply committed to working with other men to interrupt violence at all levels of society.

Reproductive Justice In The South Asian Context

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Learn about gender selection, contraception, surrogacy and abortion in South Asian contexts through film and dialogue. The program will feature The Silence Within, a Pakistani film by Feryal Ali-Gauhar, about unintended pregnancies and induced abortions; and a monologue about an Indian woman’s experience presented by Sabina.

Understanding Reproductive Justice by Anjulie Ganti
Anjulie Ganti– brings over ten years of community-based and professional experience in the field of women’s health and social justice.She has worked with multi-ethnic communities locally and internationally to provide contraception, abortion, and women’s health promotion curriculum. Anjulie holds Master’s degrees in Social Work from the UW and in Public Health from Columbia University and currently directs the Community Engagement Initiative at the UW School of Social Work.

The Silence Within
Feryal Ali-Gauhar, 2005, Pakistan, 40 minutes, Punjabi/Urdu with English subtitles

Filmed and produced in 2005 by Feryal Ali-Gauhar, a leading Pakistani television anchor, cinematographer, writer, social commentator, and reproductive rights advocate, “The Silence Within” shares the tragic burden of unwanted pregnancies and abortion stigma among poor couples in rural and urban areas. Many of these wives, often with their husbands’ support, seek out unsafe abortions and risk their health and lives. Filmed in Pakistan’s four provinces, the stories of these women and men, shared openly in their own voices, remind us of how vulnerable couples are daily to unplanned pregnancies and to the failure of society, health services and communities to help avoid them. The silence these couples carry within is disquieting and a burden easily prevented.

Schedule:
12:00p: “Understanding Reproductive Justice” by Anjulie Ganti.
12:15p: “Delhi 1988” monologue written by Alka and performed by Sabina
12:30p: The Silence Within, a film by Feryal Ali-Gauhar.
1:15p: Large Group Dialogue – How do we raise awareness of reproductive justice issues in our South Asian Community?

Community Speaks

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Speak…whisper…yell! Dance…show…tell…sing…rhyme…REVEAL

Community Speaks is a forum organized by Chaya for South Asian survivors, victims, and their families and friends of all ages and genders to share experiences relating to violence (structural, inter-personal, physical, sexual, emotional, child sexual abuse…). Expressions include a wide variety of media (spoken, written, paintings, photographs, dance, movement…) and people of all genders and ages who want to break the silence. This program is free.

The Sky Below

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
cost: $6-$8 Suggested Donation

The Sky Below
Sarah Singh, India/Pakistan/USA, 2007, 75 minutes, DVD

To create the documentary The Sky Below, Sarah Singh traveled with no crew across one of the world’s most volatile regions tracing culture, history, and the politics of divide and rule. The film is a contemporary exploration of the creation of Pakistan and the 1947 Partition of the Indian Subcontinent, weaving together 5000 years of culture while investigating the lingering after-effects of this six-decade old political divide, most tragically witnessed by Kashmir. With her life in the hands of strangers and sometimes gunmen, Singh traveled from the desert of Kutch to the snowy mountains of Kashmir; and from the seaside city of Karachi to the spare but volatile terrain of the Khyber Pass. The rising instability of the region, seen recently in the Mumbai and Lahore attacks, is of great concern to the world now; and this timely film brings to the fore the relevance of the region’s shared past and it’s potential for reconciliation. Interviewing over 75 people, recording regional music and visiting some of the world’s most important archaeological and historical sites, The Sky Below gives a glimpse into the complexity of a part of the world that continues its’ parallel rise as an economic powerhouse and “the most dangerous place on Earth”.
*Selected for over 15 international film festivals and winner of the Best Debut Film at Film South Asia.*

About the Director:

Sarah Singh is an artist and filmmaker and descendant from one of India’s royal families. She was born in Patiala, Punjab, India and has lived in the United States since 1974. Much of her fine art from the last 15 years is included in private collections.Sarah has worked in the film and television industry in New York for over 5 years. Her work as a cinematographer, editor, director, and writer has been featured in MTV, Showtime, History Channel, along with many independent films.

*The post film discussion will be presented by Sarah Singh. * For more information, visit: www.theskybelow.com

Yoni Ki Baat

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM

cost: $10.00- $12.00 Suggested donation

Yoni Ki Baat is a collection of authentic, bold, vivid, tender, powerful and poignant stories told by South Asian women.

Translated as “Talks of the Vagina,” Yoni Ki Baat* was inspired by Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues. Seattle’s Yoni Ki Baat has now taken a creative life of its own, propelled by the courageous voices of local South Asian women, and creating a unique space of sharing and community through sourcing and presenting true stories. Our narratives shed light on the special challenges experienced in the South Asian socio-cultural context, whether homegrown or related to the diaspora, while also expressing opportunities, dreams and aspirations for change. Acknowledging female sexuality as an essential aspect of identity and expression, this transformative space encourages South Asian women to speak out on behalf of their bodies in an effort to obliterate violence, stigma and dogma. This year’s Yoni Ki Baat is directed by Sabina Ansari, a Seattle-based filmmaker and activist, and is co-sponsored by Tasveer and Chaya.

*Yoni Ki Baat was originally started by South Asian Sisters, a progressive collective of South Asian women, who have been organizing an annual Yoni Ki Baat in San Francisco area, and continue to kindly let us present their scripts.

TICKETS:- Yoni Ki Baat: $10(student) $12(General audience)

To order a ticket go to: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/60028

Sponsored by:
NetIP Seattle

Aaina After Party with BollyGrooves

Saturday April 11th, 2009, 10:00 PM – 2:00 AM @ Nectar 412 N. 36th St., Seattle, WA

cost: Cover $10 / $12 (after 11:30 PM)

BollyGrooves & Tasveer present “A Benefit for Tasveer”

DJ Aanshul & DJ Victor Spinnin’ the best of Global & Bollywood

*All ticket holders from the Aaina event (from either Friday, April 10th or Saturday April 11th show) will have a cover of $10 all night with proof of ticket stub

*A portion of the proceeds will be donated to tasveer.org to help support ISAFF 2009