Arti Ishak presents Muslims within the Margins: A Joyful Panel on Underrepresented Perspectives livestreaming on the worldwide, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV community at howlround.television on Monday 5 June 2023 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
“There are three billion Muslims out there with inherently unique stories and you keep telling the same one. What does that mean?” “It means people want to keep hearing it.” Lines from Rehana Lew Mirza’s play Hatefuck ring more true than ever in a time the place Muslim illustration is rising but nonetheless predictably homogenous. Join playwright Rehana Lew Mirza, director Arti Ishak, and Muslim artists from throughout the nation as they dispel the parable of the only story that retains Muslims inherently tied to or preventing in opposition to dehumanizing tropes whereas chatting with sources and greatest practices for producing extra nuanced and wide-ranging Muslim illustration.
Moderated by Tasneem Mandviwala
Produced by Arti Ishak
Artists: Rehana Lew Mirza, Kareem Fahmy, Azziah Fatima, Bilaal Avaz, Hammaad Chaudry, Nadya Naumaan
Nadya Naumaan (she/they) is a Pakistani American, non-binary, queer, Muslim artist working primarily in theatre and filmmaking in Chicago during the last six years as a playwright, scriptwriter, director/affiliate director, producer, stage supervisor, dramaturg, and actor. They create and facilitate artwork that celebrates the queer Muslim expertise in America by way of the lens of fantasy, comedy, and romance. Previous credit embrace the Steppenwolf SCOUT iteration and About Face Theatre manufacturing of Mosque4Mosque (affiliate director), Jackalope’s Pretty Shahid (dramaturg/affiliate director) and Fast Company (affiliate director), Court Theatre’s Photograph 51 (AD), ITP’s I Call My Brothers (Dramaturg), and New Coordinates’ Love within the Time of Jonestown (AD). Nadya’s brief movie STUCK was a finalist in The Mosquers Film Festival in 2019 and was screened at 8 different movie festivals. Their webseries, Pooj&Nad, was a finalist on the similar pageant in 2022.
Bilaal Avaz is a self taught Pakistani-American artist. He began his profession as an actor on the age of 16 after being signed to Take 3 Talent Agency in New York. He shortly after booked his first function on season 19 of Law & Order: SVU and shortly amassed skilled credit together with a number of unbiased movies, a number one function in a critically acclaimed Brazilian drama, a number of superbowl commercials, tv collection’, and voiceovers for Spotify and Marvel. In 2019, Bilaal was admitted to NYU Tisch School of the Arts on a full educational scholarship the place he’s presently a senior. Despite the dearth of sources, steering and precedent for the humanities in his group, Bilaal went on to be featured as a finalist in Season 18 of ABC’s American Idol – the primary Pakistani finalist within the present’s 20-year historical past. In 2022, Bilaal made his theatrical debut with the world premiere of Bhangin’ it at La Jolla Playhouse. In 2023, Bilaal began his profession as a report producer after producing “Zalmi Raalal” — the official Pakistan Super League anthem for the 2023 season — alongside award-winning British producer Naughty Boy. Zalmi Ralaal was an enormous business success which Bilaal adopted with a reside tour of Pakistan. As a world recording artist, Bilaal relies out of New York City the place he has already performed 5 offered out live shows this 12 months. Since February 2023, Bilaal has launched three music movies with a fourth one within the works.
Hammaad Chaudry is a U.S. and U.Ok. based mostly playwright and screenwriter. His performs embrace An Ordinary Muslim, which obtained its World Premiere on the New York Theatre Workshop, the place he was the Tow Foundation Playwright in Residence. Further performs embrace Security, God Willing, Tokens, Kismat, Salaam Mr. Bush, and Bobby and Rabia. His work has been staged/developed at theatres together with The Public Theater, The Pershing Square Signature Center, The Flea Theatre, The Kiln Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre in London and The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Scotland. For display screen he has labored with ITV, TigerAspectProductions, Film4 Productions and MBC Studios in The Middle East. In the U.S. he was a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists, is an alumni of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and stays a Usual Suspect on the New York Theatre Workshop. In the U.Ok. he’s a graduate of The Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers Programme, has just lately been on attachment to the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Scotland and is below fee to The Traverse Theatre. He can also be a recipient of the New Playwrights’ Award from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland. He holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University, the place he accomplished his research on scholarship, and a B.A. in International Politics and History from The University of Surrey in England.
Tasneem Mandviwala is a cultural and developmental psychologist, intersectional feminist, and visible artist specializing in the id growth and experiential knowledges of traditionally marginalized communities within the up to date US. She holds a PhD in comparative human growth (University of Chicago) and an MA in English literature (University of Houston). Dr. Mandviwala has revealed in Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Current Opinion in Psychology, Psychology and Society, Faithfully Feminist, and altmuslimah.com, and her ebook is entitled South Asian American Stories of Self: The Dis/united States of Muslim Womanhood (Springer, 2022). She is presently a postdoctoral scholar on the University of Chicago on the Urban Resiliency Initiative and in addition serves because the Advisory Council Coordinator for Silk Road Rising’s suppose and create tank, Polycultural Institute, in Chicago, IL. Her present ebook challenge is named Wonderlands and is a reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from the attitude of a South Asian Muslim American woman.
Aizzah Fatima is an award-winning actor, filmmaker, playwright, and comic. She has been featured on NPR, The Guardian, Woman’s Hour (BBC), WSJ, Newsweek, Time Out, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post. She co-wrote, produced, and starred within the characteristic movie Americanish which has received 26 Festival awards together with Best Lead Actress, and will likely be launched in 2023 by Sony International. Her brief movies might be seen on Alaska Airlines and Ruku. Her TV pilot Muslim Girls DTF: Discuss Their Faith world premiered at SeriesFest and received two awards together with Best Comedy Writer. The script received a 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award, Yes, And…Laughter Lab, and an ISF Film award. Her solo play Dirty Paki Lingerie has been produced within the US, Europe, and Asia. She is the recipient of The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art grant with Brooklyn Children’s Theatre the place she helped create the primary ever youngsters’s musicals with Muslim protagonists. She recurs on Law & Order (NBC) as Dr. Annemarie Mercer. TV credit: High Maintenance (HBO), Blue Bloods (CBS), The Code (CBS), New Amsterdam (NBC), Mr. Robot (USA Network), The Good Wife (CBS). She is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and obtained her MFA in Writing for Film & TV from Emerson College.
Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born director and playwright of Egyptian descent. He obtained the 2022 Woodward/Newman Playwriting Award (for American Fast), a NYSCA/NYFA Playwriting Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, the Janet Sloane Literature Residency at Yaddo, is a two-time finalist for the National Showcase of New Plays, and was named a Rising Leader of Color by TCG. A Distinct Society obtained a co-world premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Pioneer Theatre and its midwest premiere at Writers Theatre. American Fast had a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, and InterAct Theatre. Dodi & Diana (O’Neill NPC Finalist) obtained a world premiere at Colt Coeur. Other performs embrace Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the acclaimed novel The Yacoubian Building. Regional directing credit embrace: Cincinnati Playhouse (upcoming), Writers Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Portland Stage, Crossroads Theatre, Premiere Stages. Fellowships/Residencies: Sundance Theatre Lab, The Old Globe (Classical Directing Fellow), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), The O’Neill (National Directors Fellow), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), New York Theatre Workshop (Directing Fellow/Usual Suspect). Kareem is Co-Founder of the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab. MFA in Theatre Directing: Columbia University. www.kareemfahmy.com
Rehana Lew Mirza (she/her) is a playwright, author and creator. Her performs embrace: Hatefuck (WP/Colt Coeur); A People’s Guide to History within the Time of Here and Now (Primary Stages Toulmin fee); Soldier X (Ma-Yi); Tomorrow, Inshallah (Living Room Theater; Storyworks/HuffPost fee); Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct fee) and Barriers (Desipina, Asian American Theater Company.) With her husband Mike Lew, she shared a Mellon Foundation National Playwright residency administered in partnership with Howlround at Ma-Yi Theater, the place they co-wrote The Colonialism Project (La Jolla Playhouse fee) and the musical Bhangin’ It, with composer/lyricist Sam Willmott (La Jolla Playhouse 2022; Richard Rodgers Award; Rhinebeck Writers Retreat; Project Springboard.) Additional honors embrace: 2021 Cape Cod Theatre Project Artist-in-Residence, 2020 Kleban Award, 2019 NYFA Fellow, HBO Access Fellow, Lilly Award (Stacey Mindich “Go Write A Play”), and a TCG/New Georges Fellowship. MFA: Columbia University; BFA: NYU Tisch. www.rehanamirza.com
Arti Ishak (they/them) is an actor, director, and group organizer, just lately named a 3Arts Make A Wave Artist. Directing credit embrace productions of SAME SECTS! (Haven Chicago), Hatefuck (First Floor Theatre), readings of Mosque4Mosque (Steppenwolf), and brief movies: Shukran Bas (Means of Productions), Sun On Ice (Jackalope), BaLa (HF Productions). Recent performing credit embrace The Best Decision You Ever Made (The Second City), KISS (Haven), Venus in Fur (Circle), Witch (Writers), Buried Child (Writers), Men on Boats (American Theater Company), Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno (The Second City). TV: Southside (HBO), Dark Matter (AppleTV), Chicago Med (NBC). Arti is workers with The Chicago Inclusion Project, an teacher at Black Box Acting, and an organizer with SWANASA Central. They are represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. www.artiishak.com