Timeline

Blacklash: Racism and the Struggle for Self-Defence exhibition by Kalaboration Arts launches at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Mukhtar Dar, who has contributed projects to Transforming Narratives, has documented the struggles of Asian and African Caribbean communities over two decades from the mid-1980s against the pernicious and pervasive tidal wave of street and state racism.

The exhibition is part of the partial reopening of the museum and art gallery, which has been closed for vital electrical work, for the Commonwealth Games and Birmingham 2022 Festival.

It is also the first chance for visitors to see the journey Birmingham Museums Trust is embarking on to make the museum and the organisation more representative of the people of the city with a new approach to galleries and displays, all driven and co-curated with the people of the city.

Photograph © Mukhtar Dar.

The Transforming Narratives Mela & Symposium was a three day celebration of contemporary arts and culture in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which which took place from 19-21 March. 

Bringing together artists, organisations and audiences, the Mela and Symposium was a platform for new art, music, film, critical discussion and reflection.

Over the three days, audiences enjoyed three simultaneous programmes on our dedicated online platform:

• Mela: Performances and presentations from artists based in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh. A chance to see new work and experience the theatre, music, dance and visual art being made across our three locations, right now. (audio described)
• Symposium: A programme of critical talks and debate, where we investigate pressing subjects facing artists and arts organisations in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Ālaap: A series of one-on-one conversations, bringing together artists, curators and arts leaders from across the Transforming Narratives community. The word Ālaap has two meanings: it refers to unstructured, improvised movements found in musical traditions across South Asia, and is also the word for first-meeting and free-flowing conversation between friends and new acquaintances.

See the full programme

Maryam Wahid: Zaibunnisa: Maryam Wahid’s first major photographic exhibition in her home city of Birmingham. Zaibunnisa, meaning ‘the beauty of women’ refers to Wahid’s mother’s birth name prior to emigrating from Pakistan to the UK in 1982 for an arranged marriage. The photographs tell the story of Wahid and her mother’s journey to Lahore in 2019, Wahid’s first-ever trip to Pakistan and her mother’s first visit in 20 years. 

Epiphania Visuals: When Speech is Forced Down, Art Must Speak: Epiphania Visuals Gallery & Archive, Folk Queer Theatre Archive, Rainbow Craft Collective, anonymous artists 

This group exhibition presents the work of artists and activists from Bangladesh. It is curated by Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin, founder of Epiphania Visuals Gallery & Archive - the first queer art gallery of Bangladesh. 

The artists in the exhibition have chosen to remain anonymous, this is to protect their identity. Same-sex relationships are illegal, and the British colonial ‘Sodomy Law’ is still intact in Bangladesh. As a result, gender and sexual diversity are still illegal under their criminal code and although the law is not systematically applied, there is significant harassment, public exposure and stigmatisation by the police and the media towards LGBTQIA+ communities.

These free online events, featured speakers from Pakistan, Bangladesh with the aim to identify, trace and analyse some of the dominant narratives that have structured and shaped the contemporary artistic and creative endeavours of Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists and creative practitioners both in Birmingham and in the sub-continent.

Kalaboration Arts is a dynamic Birmingham based arts development agency and its three artistic directors Mukhtar Dar, Ian Sergeant and Bob Ramdhanie have been at the forefront of producing, programming, touring and commissioning the arts and cultures of Asian, African and Caribbean peoples for the benefit of all.

29 August

First Critical dialogue event: Art in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

26 September

Second Critical Dialogue event. Margins to the Mainstream.

12 December

Third and final Critical Dialogue event: Artistic Freedoms Unchained.

Bangladesh-based Sadia Rahman and Birmingham-based Fahim Qureshi were appointed as Creative Producers for Transforming Narratives.

Each Creative Producer would be involved in all aspects of the Transforming Narratives artistic and creative programme, working with the international Transforming Narratives Cultural Leadership Programme participants and developing and delivering the Mela and Symposium.

Junna Begum replaced Fahim Qureshi in January 2022.

Freedom 50 Photography Exhibition: Transforming Narratives Partner, Legacy WM and Birmingham Museum’s Trust, launch Freedom 50 Photos, an outdoor photography exhibition in Birmingham’s Centenary Square as part of the 50^th anniversary of Bangladeshi independence.

The exhibition included photographs by Roger Gywnn of Sheikh Mujib’s iconic speech from 7 March 1971 which galvanized a nation to fight for independence.

These were accompanied by his photos of marches in Birmingham and London and iconic posters created at the time of independence.

Themes included: Politics & resistance, People of Bangladesh, Landscapes Environment, Future of Bangladesh and Bangladeshis in the UK.

The Cultural Leadership Programme provided a unique opportunity for artists and creative professionals in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh to meet with each other and contribute to the curation and delivery of new projects within a ground-breaking international partnership.

Taking place in two distinct phases during summer/autumn 2021, the programme built skills, confidence and knowledge, and extended professional networks for emerging and established cultural leaders. The CLP participants learnt about the challenges and opportunities in leading collaborative, international, cultural activity.

Launch of Chal Diye a music video by Shallum Xavier.

Safar Suroon Ka is a distinct musical collaboration and artistic union between established and aspiring singers and musicians, including artists from the under-served communities of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Safar Suroon Ka is spearheaded by guitarist Shallum Xavier (Pakistan) and Labik Kamal Gaurob (Bangladesh).

This cross-cultural collaboration showcases the creative abilities of talented individuals and bring forward the exceptional musical heritage that is a common thread between both cultures.

The artists shared creative melodic ideas, poetry, digital dialogues, workshops, resulting in a brand new song and music video - Chal Diye - which features an ensemble of great musicians from Pakistan and Bangladesh including Shallum Xavier, Labik Kamal Gaurob, Armeen Musa, Alycia Dias, Jenaan Hussain, Abdul Rafay Khan, Ghaffar Jiskani, Shariyar Rahman Sakib and Lisa Kim. The group also published a series of talks and workshops via YouTube.

Birmingham Open Theatre release UNMUTED short film.

Open Theatre Company worked with young people with learning disabilities to create quality art that reflects and celebrates their unique creativity.

They collaborated with MAAS Foundation (Lahore), a theatre and performing arts organisation, to share artistic practices and lead creative workshops online with young people from both countries. Young people were encouraged to use performance arts, mime, visual arts and photography to develop their own artistic practice.

Dance artists and creatives Uzma Ashraf, Momina Farooq and Alina Chaudhry (Pakistan) worked with Gaudiya Nritya dancer Rachel Perris (Dhaka) and children residing in the Kamahan area on the outskirts of Lahore in Pakistan.

Traditional dance forms such as Kathak and Gaudiya Nritya were reimagined alongside poetry to tell locally-rooted stories, which aim to reclaim and deepen artistic understanding and expression through a socio-economic lens.

21 January

First virtual performance by Haal E Raqs

29 January

Second virtual performance by Haal E Raqs.

27 February

Third virtual performance by Haal E Raqs.

2 March

The fourth and final virtual performance by Haal E Raqs

Bassi News – First post and website release. Baasi Khabrain or Baasi Khobor (Urdu and Bangla for ‘Stale News’) is a publication of forgotten news. Interdisciplinary storyteller and journalist Fahad Naveed (Pakistan) and filmmaker Rezwan Shahriar Sumit (Bangladesh) collected newspaper scraps in Karachi and Dhaka respectively to reflect on the fast-moving news cycle and dynamics of ‘breaking news’ during a pandemic.

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the globe, so did misinformation about the virus. Alarmingly even heads of states added to the confusion, presenting under-researched ‘cures’ and solutions.

Unfortunately, in a hurry to ‘break’ news first, some segments of the media also joined in and reported unverified claims. Baasi (stale) News is an attempt to slow things down. In Karachi, Fahad Naveed collected newspaper scraps on which he is served naan every night. In Dhaka, Rezwan Shahriar Sumit looked around him for repurposed newspapers. With this project they attempt to look at ‘stale’ news with a fresh pair of eyes.

Sreepur Village in Bangladesh partnered with Sampad Arts, Birmingham to create the Shakti a project to bolster female empowerment. On this day they held an online finale of the project.

Shakti, meaning feminine power in Sanskrit, is a partnership between Sreepur Village (Bangladesh) and Sampad (Birmingham). This collaboration enabled new forms and ideas of contemporary expression in craft, with an exchange of traditional crafts and motifs practised by women at Sreepur Village in rural Bangladesh and urban contemporary designs of craft artists in Birmingham. See more on the project on Instagram.

The first I don’t know you, you don’t know me project letter to Mahtab Hussain is published by Shehzad Chowdhury, Bangladesh.

Shehzad Chowdhury (Dhaka) and Mahtab Hussain (Birmingham) corresponded weekly for three months, by making an artwork, using the medium of their choice, inspired by twelve distinct themes. Despite having never met, they came to know each other through text, photography and drawing.

Sahasa was a free dance and live music performance that took place at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It was the result of Sonia Sabri’s visit to Dhaka in April 2019.

This trip was part of Transforming Narratives’ R&D programme, where she visited various organisations and connected with women from different backgrounds.

Sahasa, which means The Brave, saw an open rehearsal in the art gallery and museum’s Round Room and two live performances and a Q&A in the Gas Hall, which focused on women’s stories and empowerment.

Sonia Sabri teamed up with Bangladeshi dancer Arthy Ahmed from the Shadhona Cultural Circle in Dhaka, who was visiting Birmingham and England for the first time.

These projects were scheduled to take place throughout 2020 in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They included three Collaborative Projects and seven Exchanges.

The aim of the collaborative projects was to support artists and organisations to showcase contemporary artistic work as well as building long-lasting cross-country relationships. The Exchanges will support work that brokers new partnerships or develops existing ones through international residences, exchanges and critical dialogue in Birmingham, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Three collaborative projects:

• Epiphania Visuals
  Curator Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin of Epiphania Visuals will commission six visual artists from Bangladesh for a major exhibition at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) addressing different views of issues related to identity and gender politics. The exhibition (pictured) When Speech is Forced Down, Art Must Speak launched on 5 February 2022.
   
• Sampad Arts - My City My Home
  Sampad invite women in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh to develop their writing skills through an online literature project titled My City My Home: Connecting Cities. They initiated an open call for writers to contribute to a book, My City, My Home which was published in November 2021 featuring 184 poems, short-stories and other prose.
   
• Nowka Bais CIC – Shohojogita
  Nowka Bais bring together music artists from Bangladesh and Birmingham to work on a project titled Shohojogita to develop new folk songs that will be performed at the Nowka Bais event in Birmingham. Due to COVID and international travel restrictions, this project was converted to an online music collaboration to develop the Nowka Bais theme song, which was shared at the Nowka Bais launch dinner in March 2022.

Seven commissioned exchanges:

• Deaf Explorer CIC’s Artist Rinkoo Barpaga aim was to transform deaf stories through theatre, working with Deaf theatre makers and young people in Pakistan and Birmingham. This trip was cancelled due to COVID, and instead Rinkoo Barpaga presented a series of films at the Transfroming Narratives Mela & Symposium in March 2022. These films were the culmination of his funded project Words, Signs & VV Photo Dictionary as part of our Digital Collaborations Programme, which connected organisations during the pandemic.
   
• Artist Faisal Hussain developed new works inspired by Pakistan’s urban environments for audiences in both Pakistan and Birmingham.
   
• Artist Hira Butt explored the cultural significance of golden bangles for women of South-Asian ethnicity working with, and taking inspiration from, women from Pakistan and Birmingham. This exchange trip was cancelled due to COVID, and instead Hira Butt co-hosted online event 'Tasbeeh' with Ort Gallery (Birmingham) and Art Soch Gallery (Lahore), where she 'Tasbeeh', explores the years-old South-Asian cultural ritual, 'Khatam'. Khatam consists of people gathering to make repetitive prayers on date seeds or beads that are strung together in the form of a 'Tasbeeh'. Khatam is a community-based spiritual practice that encourages people, especially women, to come together and share their thoughts, prayers and experiences. The event took place in March 2022. 
   
• Mukhtar Dar, Artistic Director of Kalaboration, built on R&D commissioned through Transforming Narratives in 2018/19 – which created a theatre production, Sigh of the Musaafir, which was one of two major events to help launch Transforming Narratives – developing and sharing creative contacts in the UK and Pakistan. This exchange trip was cancelled due to COVID and was instead converted to an online music collaboration - Must Qalandar Dancehall, Part I, that seeked to interweave both Sufi music, reggae and dancehall with a variety of traditional and contemporary dance forms to create a contemporary rendition of the popular Mast Qalandar song.
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• Deborah Kermode, CEO & Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) participated in the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh, building on MAC’s experience of collaborating with artists internationally, with a view to extending international dialogue with artists and audiences. MAC explored the possibilities for showcasing work by emerging Bangladeshi artists at MAC as part of Future Arts programming.This was realised with The exhibition and Exhibition by Bangladeshi art studio Epiphania Visuals When Speech is Forced Down, Art Must Speak launched on 5 February 2022.
   
• Rebecca Bridgman, Curatorial & Exhibitions Manager of Birmingham Museums Trust, connected with multiple partners in Pakistan and Bangladesh to strengthen and develop partnerships, share working experience and explore future acquisitions for Birmingham’s collection.
   
• The K’antu Ensemble developed a contemporary music performance using the musical language and performance styles of Birmingham and Bangladesh for young special educational needs audiences working with musicians and the CHILD Foundation. Due to COVID, this was also converted to an online collaboration.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) linked classical musicians and singers from the UK with those from Bangladesh and Pakistan for Music in Dialogue. In a first for the organisation, BCMG welcomed Gul Muhammad, an expert in Sarangi (a three stringed traditional South Asian fiddle); sitar player Turab Ali Hashmi, vocalist Ahsan Bari, Bamboo Flute performer Neel Kamrul and singer Sheikh Dina for a period of artistic exchange, performances and workshops.

The first concert took place on Sunday 30 June 2019 at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre and the second on Wednesday 3 July 2019 at the Barber Institute of Fine Art at the University of Birmingham.

Music in Dialogue was complemented by a series of workshops in Birmingham schools, where students created new sounds inspired by the musical traditions of Europe and South Asia.

Birmingham and Pakistani drummers also join together for a performance led by Ondřej Adámek.

Sheikh Dina and Ahsan Bari would later team up to produce a short film as part of Transforming Narratives Digital Collaborations Programme and the Transforming Narratives Mela & Symposium in March 2022.

The Transforming Narratives launch event was hosted by BBC Asian Network’s Nadia Ali and had delegates from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Birmingham.

Speakers included Noreen Khan (BBC Asian Network) artist and educator Nilupa Yasmin, Mohammed Ali (Soul City Arts), Mukhtar Dar (Kalaboration Arts) Deborah Kermode (Midlands Arts Centre) Kathy McArdle (British Council), Sophina Jagot (Transforming Narratives) and Lord Mayor of Birmingham Councillor Yvonne Mosquito, with Mr Ahmar Ismail, Consulate General Pakistan and Mr Muhammed Nazmul Hoqu, Assistant High Commissioner Bangladesh also in attendance.

Watch some highlights from the Transforming Narratives launch in March 2019.

This event was followed by two unique and exclusive performances over the weekend at the same venue in Centenary Square, Birmingham.

23 March

Sigh of the Musafir: Led by Birmingham-based Artistic Director Mukhtar Dar, Sigh of the Musafir was a cutting-edge international collaboration featuring artists from Pakistan and Birmingham. The peoples of the Indian subcontinent have been on an epic journey and this pilot production traced the paths taken across, through and beyond the boundaries of time and space by the peoples of Pakistan.

The production at Birmingham Repertory Theatre featured Arif Lohar (award-winning singer – Lahore), Arieb Azhar (writer and singer – Karachi), Suhaee Abro (dancer and choreographer – Karachi), Nirmala Maghani (singer from Tharpakar desert, Pakistan), Azhar Hussain (qawwali singer – Birmingham) and Roach-Killa (rapper – Birmingham).

24 March

Bangladesh to Birmingham: An immersive dining experience that invited guests to experience the sounds, sights and flavours of Bangladesh as they enjoy an authentic three-course Bangladeshi meal, prepared by award-winning chef Munayam Khan.

Guests were surrounded by film projections from in and around Dhaka, created by artist and curator Mohammed Ali with music performed live by electronic music producer Dr Shayekh Mohammed Arif from Dhaka and vocalist/flutist Ifti Chowdhury from Dhaka/New York who were in Birmingham especially for the event.

The selected applicants would begin their R&D programmes in January 2019, including visits from Birmingham organisations to Bangladesh and Pakistan, and a curated visit of organisations from Bangladesh and Pakistan to Birmingham. 

Together they would lay strong foundations for artistic projects that could take place between in the future involving partners in Birmingham, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This also included a study trip to Birmingham in March 2019, bringing five delegates each from Pakistan and five from  Bangladesh for a week-long curatorial exploration of the city and participation in the Transforming Narratives launch events.

Year 1 Collaborations: The first series of artistic collaborative projects selected: Sigh of Musafir, Bangladesh to Birmingham, Music in Dialogue and Sahasa.