Artists' Television Access

Afghanistan: creating on the threshold

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 7:30 pm, $3 donation

gan buddha

Please Join Tamim Ansary and Shireen Pasha in a discussion of the many creative initiatives underway in Afghanistan such as  Turquoise Mountain (established Afghanistan’s first Higher Education Institute for Afghan Arts & Architecture gathering some of the greatest Masters in Afghanistan and training students to produce masterpieces in wood, calligraphy and ceramics); Aga Khan Trust for Culture (restoring historic cities with community participation, training local professionals and local institution-building); Auroville’s ‘La Ferme Cheese’ (working with Afghan cheese makers).  How beautiful will be this new conference of beings? How can we make it so? What does it take to enable hundreds more diverse institutions to delve into the breadth of creative possibilities?

7:30 pm reception and live performance; 8:00 pm discussion; 8:30 pm Q&A

Live performance by El Hamideen (the grateful)

YASSIR CHADLY
Musician, oud

BOUCHAIB ABDELHADI
Violinist       

Discussion with:
  
TAMIM ANSARY        
Lecturer, Writer          
Fiction: The Widow’s Husband       
Nonfiction: Destiny Disrupted, A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
Nonfiction: West of Kabul, East of New York

SHIREEN PASHA     
Moderator & Filmmaker, Slowly Slowly Mud and Lotus

A perfect life is impossible. Fixing a state is even more difficult. Blood soils the grass of each generation; yet we continue to persevere in grief and beauty. Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 B.C.E.) stormed Central and South Asia in the fourth century BCE: while much destruction ensued many took a leap of faith and innovated together to create new societies. This Head of Buddha from Second Century Gandharan period illustrates the beautiful remnants of that meeting. Similarly a way forward can now be found through genuine cultural encounters in Afghanistan, rather than military and political domination.


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