freeDimensional

freeDimensional @ the ICORN General Assembly – Stockholm, Sweden. 9-11 May 2012

Posted on May 7, 2012 | No Comments

fD Director, Sidd Joag joins more than 100 delegates, guest writers and observers from as many as 32 different countries heading to Stockholm Wednesday 9-Friday 11 May, to take part in the 2012 International Cities Of Refuge Network General Assembly. Established as an independent, international organisation since 2010, more than 30 ICORN member cities from all over Europe and beyond will be represented when it all breaks loose at Kulturhuset in Stockholm.

In addition to the ordinary assembly procedures, the assembly participants will engage in vital issues to help determine the future of the young and growing ICORN network. Should ICORN member cities continue hosting writers only, or should our organisation consider offering shelter also to persecuted artists and human rights defenders? During a Market of Ideas fD has been invited  to discuss and share experiences around various topics including “The Art of hosting”, “Promotion”, “Working with PEN International” and “Preparing for the Afterlife”. fD will present and workshop its Creative Safe Haven and Community Resource Mapping models in dialogue with other participants.

For more information visit : http://www.icorn.org/

CROSSFIRE – Photographs by Shahidul Alam @ QMA – Sunday, April 15

Posted on April 12, 2012 | No Comments

Forum & Opening Reception for Partnership Gallery Exhibition in Collaboration with Drik Picture Library, Dhaka.

Bangladeshi photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam’s Crossfire exhibition will open in the Partnership Gallery at the Queens Museum of Art on 15th April, 2012 and run until May 6th, 2012. The exhibition aims to gather international support for a campaign to end extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh by state forces, usually called “crossfire.”

In 2004, responding to a perceived law and order “crisis” the Bangladesh government created a new, armed enforcement agency, called Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The agency was formed by taking officers from the Bangladesh Police, Army, Navy and Air Force. Over time, the agency’s budget and power grew until today it is one of the largest and most feared groups inside Bangladesh. From the very early days, RAB became notorious for killing people it was trying to capture, often during gun battles, which the government always claims is due to “crossfire.”

RAB has been the subject of repeated condemnation by international human rights activists, including Human Rights Watch, starting with their 2006 report Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force. Activists have also insisted that Bangladesh’s continued participation in UN Peacekeeping Forces be made subject to the government ending the practice of torture and extra-judicial killings by RAB.

Shahidul Alam’s Crossfire project was first shown in Bangladesh in 2010 to draw attention to extra-judicial killings by RAB. The government responded by shutting down the show. Eventually, a court ruled in favor of Alam, and the show was reopened. Now Queens Museum of Art is bringing the project to New York for the first time. The project includes photographs that recreate, through metaphoric images, extra-judicial killings by RAB; videos about the controversy over the show; and a live Google map that pinpoints locations for numerous extrajudicial killings.

Crossfire attempts to reach out at an emotional level where a fragment of the story has been used to suggest the whole. According to Shahidul Alam, “My intention was to get under the skin. I walked those cold streets; heard the cries; sat quietly with the family besides a cold corpse. The show is a quiet metaphor for the screaming truth.”

The exhibition at Queen’s Museum of Art will include a public forum on April 15th, where New York based activists and photographers will discuss the impact of photography on redress for human rights violations. Panelists will also discuss the role of Bangladeshi diaspora populations in international solidarity work. The US role will also be discussed, especially the alleged “training” of Bangladeshi security personnel by the US government in violation of international law.

In conjunction with this show, events are planned in Bangladesh, where posters about abuses committed by RAB will be distributed nationwide, informing and educating local people of their rights, through new data and facts

For more information visit: http://www.queensmuseum.org/9816/opening-reception-forum-crossfire-photographs-by-shahidul-alam-on-extrajudicial-killings-in-bangladesh

freeDimensional is a co-iniator in bringing Crossfire to QMA

 

Art For Health @ Project Reach NYC – 31 March 2012

Posted on March 31, 2012 | No Comments

Art for Health is a charity event that is hosted every spring to support innovative medical projects in Cameroon, Africa. Through art exhibitions, performance, live music, body painting, as well as slam and spoken word poetry, the artist’s creative energy is channeled towards supporting health projects for indigenous communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as towards promoting the message of social justice and free expression for people world-wide.

Since 2009, Hope International for Tikar People, founded by Cameroonian native and activist Issa Nyaphaga and the Bush Medicine Partnership, founded by students from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia have been working together to improve the quality of life in the Tikar villages in Eastern Cameroon as well as other marginalized communities with no access to medical care. Thus far, the partnership has served the urgent health needs of over 8,000 people in the isolated tribal communities of Cameroon.

Art for Health, is a venue for transforming uninhibited artistic expression into tangible medical and public health aid for marginalized communities. Each year, the Bush Medicine Partnership sends medical volunteers and essential supplies to Cameroon to carry-out health campaigns in remote, under-served communities that lack even the most basic health care, villages which include N’ditam, where Issa was raised.  With cleaner drinking water, less chronic intestinal and malarial disease and crippling injuries, our hope is that these communities will become closer to being freed from the burdens of poverty, and be more able to focus on education, art, music and expression of their unique cultural lineage.

Art for Health will take place on March 31 at Project Reach NYC and is co-sponsored by freeDimensional. All are welcome to attend this lively event! The goal is to raise $10,000 which be used to purchase essential medical and surgical supplies for a five week medical campaign in Cameroon this Summer.

Project Reach NYC. 39 Eldridge St. 4FL. New York, NY. 10002

 

Chaw Ei Thein featured in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Project Newsletter

Posted on March 5, 2012 | No Comments

Chaw Ei Thein (2011 Mentee Alum, Burma), is a painter and performance artist whose work stems from her contrasting experiences of growing up in a politically oppressive Burma and then shifting to a very different landscape in the United States. Chaw Ei’s emotionally charged work of addressing these conflicts in her native country has earned her critical acclaim, awards, and residencies in the U.S. and abroad. However, it has also forced her to live in political exile in which returning to her native country could mean reprisal from the Burmese government. Between her experiences in the U.S. and her desire to return home, Chaw Ei balances multiple tensions in her work. She shares how she deals with her experience and how she has found her Mentorship with Alexandra Pacula in the NYFA Mentoring Program helpful to her artistic career and personal pursuits. The Mentoring Program collaborated with freeDimensional to pair Chaw Ei with her Mentor.

 ”I was nominated to participate in the Mentoring Program by   freeDimensional. Since I had to make a decision to live in New York, I  faced a lot of challenges, not only for daily living but also for my artistic career. At that time I felt very scared, worried and confused about starting my career and life again here in the U.S. and especially in New York City where living is expensive and the art field is so competitive. Furthermore, I was trying to engage with a new and different people, culture, language, system and customs for my survival.

When I began the Mentoring Program at NYFA, I found that I was not alone in this situation and with these challenges. All of the artists I met in this program are immigrant artists. I learned a lot about them and how they are trying to survive as artists like I am. During the program I felt that I got back some of the energy that I had when I lived in Burma. And then when I met with my Mentor Alexandra Pacula, I felt like I had received a great opportunity, as my Mentor is generous and helped me with many different aspects of my living and my career. She was also an immigrant from Poland and she shared with me all of her experiences of being an artist in New York.”

To read the full article visit: http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=659&fid=1&sid=145

Press alert: Music Freedom Day – Saturday 3 March

Posted on March 1, 2012 | No Comments

Press alert: Music Freedom Day 
- a global manifestation for freedom of expression for musicians on Saturday 3 March

In 48 hours, on this Saturday, the annual Music Freedom Day is marked with events, seminars, exhibitions, film shows, radio programmes and news paper articles on freedom of expression for musicians and composers all over the world.

List and programmes of events 
Events are currently being prepared in 19 countries:
Activities on Music Freedom Day 2012

Music Freedom Reports 
Freemuse publishes eight Music Freedom Reports from West Papua, Azerbaijan, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Libya, Pakistan, and more, on www.musicfreedomday.org.

Malaysia deports Saudi journalist accused of insulting prophet in a tweet

Posted on February 13, 2012 | No Comments

Urgent Petition: Justice for Victor Leiva !

Posted on January 25, 2012 | No Comments

Dear friends,

On the 2nd February 2011 our friend Víctor Leiva, known as “el Mono”, left the cultural center where he was taking dance classes. Moments later a firearm cut his life short.

Víctor was 24 years old when he was murdered. He was an artist and human rights defender, focusing particularly on the rights of young people, with whom he also worked.

This deplorable act of violence was condemned by civil society and national and international human rights organizations.
A letter sent to Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor on the 2nd August 2011, marking six months since his death and requesting the prompt investigation of his murder, was signed by 44 organizations and over 400 individuals from 26 countries. 

Nevertheless, nearly a year after his murder, the circumstances surrounding his death have yet to be fully investigated. For this reason, institutional and individual signatures are currently being collected for the attached letter, which will be published in the Guatemalan media on the 2nd February 2012. It is hoped that even more signatures will be received than in the previous action, to show that the murder of young human rights defenders like Víctor cannot remain in a state of impunity.

You can sign by emailing quevivavictor@yahoo.com  or by signing online athttp://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/que-viva-victor/ before the 28th January 2012. (Please indicate your country!)

In solidarity,

Friends of Víctor Leiva

 

Image taken from http://nisgua.blogspot.com/

Fearing assassination, Salman Rushdie cancels appearance at Jaipur literary festival

Posted on January 21, 2012 | No Comments

Salman Rushdie has canceled his talk at Jaipur’s literary festival after hearing rumors that there were plans to assassinate him.

The controversial author was due to speak about his early work Midnight’s Children at India’s biggest literary festival, which began on Friday, though influential Muslim clerics had protested his participation, BBC News reported.

“I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ‘eliminate’ me,” Rushdie said in a statement that was read out at the festival.

The author’s controversial 1988 book The Satanic Verses is still banned in India, and it incited Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruohollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his execution, according to The Guardian. The threat caused the author — who was born in India but has lived in Britain for most of his life — to remain in hiding for many years.

Rushdie has visited India privately several times, and attended the Jaipur literary festival in 2007.

Author and festival organizer William Dalrymple called Rushdie’s decision to stay away from the festival “a great tragedy,” BBC reported. Rushdie will speak via video conference instead, according to reports.

On Jan. 10, Darul Uloom Deoband, a leading Islamic seminary in India, called on the government to block Rushdie’s visa as he “had annoyed the religious sentiments of Muslims in the past,” according to the BBC.

The literary festival, in which over 250 authors will be participating, began as scheduled on Friday, according to the BBC. Participants include Michael Ondaatje and Ben Okri, playwright Tom Stoppard, journalists David Remnick and Philip Gourevitch and TV host Oprah Winfrey.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the festival.

The festival’s producer, Sanjoy Roy, said there was a need in India “to question … why we continue as a nation to succumb to one pressure or another.”

“This is a huge problem for Indian democracy,” he told The Guardian.

 

Text reposted from Globalpost.com. Image taken from Vanityfair.com

Malaysia: Political satirist takes government to court over ‘Cartoon-O-Phobia’

Posted on January 19, 2012 | No Comments

Kuala Lumpur 18.01.12: Celebrated Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar (née Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque) appeared at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today for the first hearing of a civil suit brought by himself against the government and the police, in which he challenges them for his wrongful arrest and detention in September 2010.

Represented by the group Lawyers for Liberty, Zunar is seeking the return of confiscated property as well as aggravated losses and damages incurred in the incident which took place on 24 September 2010. That night, hours before the launch of Zunar’s latest compilation of political cartoons titled ‘Cartoon-O-Phobia’, the police raided the artist’s office in Kuala Lumpur, seized all copies of the book and arrested him for sedition.

In a career spanning two decades, Zunar has produced popular political cartoons which dare to lampoon public figures and institutions in Malaysia, with the aim of exposing the abuse of power by the police, judiciary, election commission and government officials. His work is considered sensitive, even radical, in Malaysia.

freeDimensional joins ARTICLE 19 in urging the Malaysian government to hasten progress on a raft of reforms, including an immediate review of regressive media and censorship legislation such as the Sedition Act 1948 and the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984, both of which exert a serious chilling effect on freedom of speech and of the media.

Text reposted from www.Article19.org. Image taken from cartoonistsrights.org

Jenin Freedom Theatre Director Zakaria Zubeidi back on Israel’s wanted list

Posted on January 10, 2012 | No Comments

Zakaria Zbeidi, the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin who was pardoned by Israel two years ago, has been added to Israel’s wanted list again.

In recent days, Palestinian security services informed Zbeidi that upon Israel’s request, he must remain in the Palestinian Authority’s detention facilities during all hours of the day and night, otherwise Israel will arrest him.

Zbeidi confirmed the report to Haaretz, yet said he did not know why the pardon was rescinded. Last week, Palestinian security forces arrested one of Zbeidi’s brothers, along with one of the workers at Jenin’s Freedom Theater, which Zbeidi directs.

In the summer of 2007, Zbeidi was among 200 wanted Fatah militants in the West Bank who turned in their weapons, under an arrangement in which Israel granted them effective amnesty as a gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2009, actor Juliano Mer Khamis founded the Freedom Theater and appointed Zbeidi as its director. Zbeidi also began working as an official in the Palestinian Authority’s prisoners division. The theater’s founder, Mer-Khamis, was shot and killed last April. The case has not yet been solved.

For more information and updates on the case visit:  www.thefreedomtheatre.org

 

Text reposted from Haaretz.com. Image reposted from LinkTV.org

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• Detroit: A tribute to multi-faceted artist, David Blair
• Malaysia: Cartoon Rights Network statement against banning of Zunar’s political cartoons
• Zimbabwe: Bulawayo Arts Forum at Khami Prison
• Freedom to Create Prize 2011 – Only One Month Left to Enter!
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• Precarity & Intersectionality
• CRF seeds Asia Distress Fund
• CRF joins Solidarity Fund for Belarus Free Theatre
• How a Prize Helps
• A Time to Experiment