Alif is For Intifada (The Queer Intifada)

55 minute multimedia collaborative performance

Alif is for Intifada is an experimental multimedia theatrical performance that takes a peak into a speculative future, a post-post-apocalyptic world where a small band of resistance fighters must try and survive. Taking inspiration from resistance movements In this performance the world has entered The Third Intifada, a global uprising in which queer bodies take centre stage and succeed where previous anti-imperialist struggles have failed. However, all is not perfect and as each day progresses these fighters must try and stay resilient in the face of constant assault. Muslim esoteric practices and historical beliefs in necromancy, mysticism and numerology are all deployed in this piece, serving as an experiment in Queer Muslim Futurist aesthetics, raising the question: How can the Muslim imaginary be used as a foundation for a distinctly queer and Muslim future?

The piece was collaboratively composed, written and choreographed by Fanaa, Saba Taj, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Faluda Islam), jose e abad and Crystal Mason (Ham), with costumes and visuals designed by Hushidar Mortezaie, video projections by Anum Awan and set design by MACROWAVES. Dramaturgical advise was facilitated by Yas Ahmed and Kathy Zarur moderated a post-performance discussion on June 21, 2019.

It has been shown as a performance at CounterPulse Theater, San Francisco as part of the National Queer Arts Festival in June of 2019. Ephemera and documentation of the performance is on display at the Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia,

“In Tomorrow, a global uprising of queer rebel fighters in the Muslim world overthrow colonial powers in a multidisciplinary evening of dance, projection mapping, and harrowing song and video.

The mixed-raced cast (jose e abad, Saba Taj, Arshia Haq, Crystal Mason, Faluda Islam, Hushidar Mortezaie, Anum Awan, MACRO WAVES, Arshia Haq and Yas Ahmed) crafted the artistic vision by asking Who are we eulogizing in a queer future? Who are our heros? What does graffiti look like?

The worlds are manifested by projection mapping that travels through archival motions to set the scene of a drag Middle East in intifada uprising. Videos draw from Islamic Sufi mysticism to create an alien world that takes the audience to an outer space that is non-linear, a place where the past and future collapse. A world of undefined geography to shatter notions of border.

Calls to prayer are digitized, set designs are imagined in a landscape of graffiti in this drag Arab world. Futurist aesthetics are activated by projecting matrix binaries borrowed by Sulfi numerology.

An ambitious performative resistance, characters travel through life and death to echo the harrowing atrocities imposed on Muslims and Arabs. “The work takes you through the joy and mourning of three guerilla fighters in the Islamic world fighting against an imperialist enemy. There is violence and death, this we can’t avoid when talking about Islam,” says Zulfikar.

But Zulfikar is steering away from crafting another woke piece by a person of color artist. Futurist abstractions and queer intifada rebellion aim to leave the work open-ended and elucidate the complexities within the Middle East and sociopolitical engagements with the West. “When we think about violence, about terrorism, about this mass of Muslims from a Western perspective, the complexity of these people is stripped. There is misrepresentation in the media. Hoards of screaming and crying Arabs generalized as a people who hate women, or who hate Americans.”

Tomorrow aims to elucidate nuances in resistance, the pain and trauma resulting from a nonlinear stasis of marginalization and violence.”

Excerpt from INHERITING EARTH: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE QUEER IN A VIOLENT FUTURE

Words by Justin Embrahemi