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VBB Living Room Art: Women’s Voices: Alice Valdez and Sheema Kirmani - La Voz

Presented by Voices Breaking Boundaries

November 6, 2010

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Voices Breaking Boundaries presents a VBB Living Room Art production, Women’s Voices: Alice Valdez and Sheema Kirmani - La Voz.  Featuring Aisha Gazdar, Vanessa Cerda, Sheherzad Kaleem, Sehba Sarwar, Yunuen Perez Vertti, Gwen Zepeda. 8 pm, Saturday, November 6, 2010. Location:  The home of Larissa Lindsay and Stuart Bailey, 1816 Kane, Houston, TX 77007. $ Free.

VBB is an organization that has long recognized and learned from individuals who have taken risks by speaking out. This fall, VBB’s season will kick off with Women’s Voices, a new production from our much-loved living room art series that will take place in a historical 1888 Houston home located in Sixth Ward, just around the corner from the Multicultural Education and Counseling Center for the Arts (MECA).

The show will recognize the services provided by the arts center and the leadership role played by MECA’s Founding Director and latina icon, Alice Valdez, who has given voice to many Houston artists including Gwen Zepeda and Vanessa Cerda, who will both perform at the event. Like all VBB living room art productions, Women’s Voices will parallel issues of Houston neighborhoods with those in Pakistan.

This year, the production will shed light on art and community activism in Pakistan through a documentary by Sheherzad Kaleem about a grassroots Karachi-based arts organization, Tehrik-e-Niswan, led by dancer/actress Sheema Kirmani. Included in the production will be a documentary by Aisha Gazdar about Pakistan’s Women’s Action Forum, a protest group that grew during the 1980s while Pakistan was run under the US supported right-wing military dictatorship of General Zia.

The evening will feature installations by Sehba Sarwar and Yunuen Perez Vertti. Also part of the experience will be an open mic and altar, so all are encouraged to bring words and share altar art.

As always, there will be music, food, drinks, and surprises. Please join us!

This show is cosponsored by Arte Público Press, Geo TV (Pakistan), Houston Institute for Culture, Pacifica Radio KPFT 90.1 FM and Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast. The goal of VBB's living room art productions are to continue juxtaposing joys, struggles and successes in the US and in Pakistan.

About VBB’s Living Room Art Productions: Four years ago, under the guidance of VBB artist Oskar Sonnen, VBB began a new series called Living Room Art, an innovative approach designed to bring art directly into residential communities around Houston and beyond. Living Room Art productions are "one night stands,” open to the public and take place in private homes. The goals of Living Room Art are: to bring together disparate neighborhoods and communities; to bring together diverse populations who may not ordinarily go to a gallery/museum; and to address social issues through art.

All VBB Living Room Art shows are theme-based, multidisciplinary, and allow space for spoken word artists, writers, visual artists, performance artists, and musicians, and generally draw audiences ranging from 250-400. The shows are conceived and directed by Founding Director Sehba Sarwar with Yunuen Perez Vertti, Mark Lacy and Eric Hester.

Pictured above:  Alice Valdez and Sheema Kirmani.