AZAADI: FREEDOM – Samia Malik

AZAADI: FREEDOM – Samia Malik

Usurp Art 140 Vaughan Road West Harrow HA1 4EB

AZAADI: FREEDOM combines live original bilingual songs with projections of translations, visual art and backing music featuring the eminent ‘sitarist to the stars’ Baluji Shrivastav. Touring arts centres, festivals, galleries and women’s organisations, with related workshops in songwriting and music, the 60-minute solo performance will be supported for selected shows by Bharatnatyam dancer Anne Tiburtius.

Documentation of the night:

Excerpts from performance:

Samia released two warmly reviewed CDs of original songs based on the Ghazal form in Urdu and English (The Colour of The Heart 1998 Jaago – Wake Up 2004). National and international performances include a 15-date tour of India with the celebrated danseuse and political activist Mallika Sarabhai. Taking an extended break from touring to move into the more universal language of visual art with a focus on painting and video, Samia is back with a thrilling and accessible live multimedia performance – her body of work continues to ask challenging and important questions about our common humanity and has enthralled audiences from the UK to India.

There will be a drinks reception after the performance.

Drawing widely on her multiple heritages by extending and subverting traditional forms, Samia Malik’s ‘uncompromising’ yet ‘hauntingly beautiful’ work explores issues of identity, gender and race.

Book your ticket with a donation – all donations to the artist.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/samia-malik-azaadi-freedom-tickets-25092489311
Limited tickets at the door.
www.samiamalik.com

“Samia Malik’s singing in Urdu is gorgeous, as are her melodies, but gorgeous though these are her writing is even more striking. She writes in the Urdu tradition of sung poetry and takes it to completely new territory by giving voice to her own and possibly a generation of Asian women’s experience in Britain. It is wonderfully powerful writing” – Alan Scott – Resonance

“A vivid fusion of mystical poetry, liberationist politics and deep trance grooves, one of those magic projects that grow in intensity with every listen”  David Lewis – Exclaim

“A wake up call Sarwar Kashari” – Kashmir Images
“Beautifully played and finely written Simon Hopkins” – Motion