Poetry and Calligraphy

Date: Sunday, April 5, 2020, 11 am – 4 pm
Price: $50, $45 Friends, $40 students and seniors (+$25 materials fee).

Spend a day at the Museum exploring themes of culture, migration, and memory through creative techniques. In this one-day workshop, you’ll go on a journey through Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, an exhibition delving into the experiences of first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants. Inspired by the art, you’ll participate in dynamic writing activities, and generate poetry independently and collaboratively. You’ll have an opportunity to experiment with traditional reed pens and ink and play with the possibilities of Islamic calligraphy. The day wraps as you pair text and image, transforming your poetry into calligraphy art.

We encourage you to register with a friend or family member of another generation, so that we can facilitate the kind of intergenerational dialogue explored in the exhibition, and we ask you to bring to the workshop an image or object that you associate with your culture – please interpret “culture” openly. 

BIO: 

Soheila Esfahani grew up in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Canada in 1992. She is an award-winning visual artist and recipient of numerous grants. Her work has been exhibited across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax and collected by public and private institutions, including the Canada Council’s Art Bank. She is a lecturer at the University of Waterloo and a member of the Red Head Gallery in Toronto.

Laboni Islam was born in Canada to Bangladeshi parents. Her poem “Lunar Landing, 1966” was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize (2017).  Her poetry has been anthologized in The Unpublished City (Book*hug Press, 2017), which was curated by Dionne Brand and shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards (2018).  She teaches at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Aga Khan Museum, animating the gap between art and audiences.