Re-Homing Instincts
We’re pleased to inform you that some of the Bi-Lingering letters we have received will be showcased for the first time as part of Re-Homing Instincts.
Through a selection of contemporary immigrant and first-generation women artists who have strong roots in LA, Re-Homing Instincts, curated by Frida Cano, addresses how the artists traditionally heal their bodies by eating the geosphere itself, the emotional scars that are left after leaving one’s land of origin (Diaspora), and the mode in which immigrants find a new home when connecting with new people in new places.
Participating artists: Labkhand Olfatmanesh and Gazelle Samizay, María Adela Díaz, Galia Linn and Amanda Maciel Antunes, Iman Person
April 22 - June 17, 2023 Propellor Gallery 18th Street Arts Center Airport Campus 3026 Airport Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90405
Birds of No Nation: Afghan Women on Art, Gender, Freedom, and Exile
On International Women’s Day, USC students are invited to participate in an intimate workshop led by Gazelle Samizay, whose photo and video work examines the contradictions of culture, nationality, and gender. The acclaimed Afghan American multimedia artist will conduct a “Bi-Lingering” letter-writing workshop to explore that in-between space where one belongs to two (or more) languages and cultures. Supplies will be provided, and no experience is necessary.
Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California 3550 Trousdale Parkway Room 240 Los Angeles, CA 90089 Wednesday, March 8 · 5 - 6:30pm PST
You can see some photos of the event to the left.
Living Between Languages & Cultures
“Living Between Languages & Cultures” was a set of two Bi-Lingering workshops attended by a group of international directors and producers as part of the Global Media Maker’s Creative Producing Retreat.
Film Independent’s Global Media Makers program March 18, 2022 10am-1 pm
Los Angeles, CA
Join Us
We are leading a workshop as part of After Hope Symposium!
As a thank you for your participation, artists Labkhand Olfatmanesh and Gazelle Samizay will give an art card!
This is in person event, Register online (link inbox) and bring your vaccination card!
Saturday, November 6, at 1pm
Asian Art Museum
Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture
200 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
www.asianart.org
View some photos of the event below
2021 State of the arts Summit!
ACTIVATE Innovators is a project incubator designed to support arts leaders as they grow an idea into a fully-planned project.
Labkhand presented Bi-Lingering part of this program!
https://www.artsforla.org/innovators2021
Our pitch video at 2021 SOTA organized by Arts For LA
Bi-Lingering: Voices with mother tongues
Sunday, July 25th 2pm - 4pm PST 2021
It was a celebratory evening of candid conversations between the artists and fellow Bi-Lingerers, including readings of participants’ submitted letters, sharing reflections on what it means to be a Bi-Lingerer, and a poetry reading video presentation by poet Sahar Muradi titled “Ghazal for Mothers and Tongues”.
Bi-Lingering explores the power of language and the duality of existing between cultures, an extension of Olfatmanesh and Samizay’s ongoing collaborative project Woven, which uses their experiences as women of Iranian and Afghan heritage to look at the way cultural expectations and the effects of war transcend borders.
The project represents that in-between space where one belongs to two (or more) languages and cultures. It investigates the way memories and trauma express themselves differently in one’s native language vs. a second language.