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VBB’s Second Decade: 2014-15
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This season, Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) initiates Part II in our Borderlines project, Migrations and Movement, a year-long arc of programming that juxtaposes intercultural conflict in North American and South Asian border regions.
VBB's 2014-15 LRA productions will examine labor trafficking across North American and South Asian border regions: Canada-Mexico-US and Afghanistan-Bangladesh-India-Pakistan. In South Asia, we will continue exploring the borders between these countries and track how the carving of them has led to 'illegal' crossings, even as people continue to grapple with diverging narratives of historical events. Likewise, we will explore the ongoing legacy of US-Mexico border disputes and its impact on the Houston Latina/o communities, including the buying, selling and exchanging of human bodies for labor.
With the support of organizations such as Baker Ripley, part of Neighborhood Centers, Inc., productions and workshops in Migrations and Movement will be grounded in Gulfton, Houston's most densely populated, diverse neighborhood.
As VBB explores different layers of history through the creation of new and innovative art, we aim to illuminate local and global connections that bring communities together, so cultural borders can be erased and histories better understood.
Fall 2014
a vbb cultural narrative Zinda Bhaag (Run for Your Life): A Screening
5:30 PM, Sunday, November 9, 2014
At the home of Sandra Boccara
$ Free
VBB kicks off our 2014-15 season with a special screening of Zinda Bhaag (Run for Your Life), a 2013 Pakistani Punjabi-language drama film co-directed by Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi. Zinda Bhaag unravels against the theme of 'illegal' immigration and was constructed out of stories, anecdotes, and events that the directors encountered.
Join VBB for this special screening and an exclusive conversation with co-director Meenu Gaur + producer Mazhar Zaidi!
Join VBB's board as our special guest for an intimate luncheon with Zinda Bhaag filmmakers Meenu Gaur + Mazhar Zaidi at Royal Restaurant in Houston's Alief neighborhood.
Seating is limited, so please reserve your seat by e-mailing infovbbarts.org, or by purchasing a ticket above!
Join VBB for a Borderlinesliving room art production where artists will transform a Gulfton apartment home from the inside out by examining what it means to live close together, yet still be far apart.
Close Together will feature:
-Performances and installations by Houston-based artists
-Digital media installations from international artists
-Refreshments donated by Whole Foods-Montrose and Saint Arnold's
Bring your families and join us for an evening filled with art, community, and food!
This production is part of Gandhi's Legacy Houston, an initiative by the Menil Collection with other Houston organizations.
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Únese con VBB para una producción Borderlines de arte que transformará un apartamento en el barrio Gulfton de adentro hacia afuera examinando que significa estar cerca y aún así seguir separados.
La producción presentará:
-Actuaciones e instalaciones de artistas locales
-Instalaciones digitales de artistas internacionales
-Refrescos y botanas donadas por Whole Foods-Montrose y Saint Arnold's cervecería
Traigan su familia para una noche llena de arte, de comunidad y de comida!
Esta producción es una parte de Gandhi's Legacy Houston por el Menil Collection con otras organizaciones en Houston.
Join VBB for the second annual launch of our newest living room art (LRA) catalogue, Borderlines: Volume One, which contains essays and photographs about the first year (2013-14) in Borderlines, a series of productions and workshops grounded in Near Northside that explored cross-cultural connections between the US-Mexico and Pakistan-India-Bangladesh border regions.
Co-sponsored by Cafe Brasil, the book launch will feature:
-readings from Houston-based contributors Daniel Bustamante, Jimmy Castillo and Shreerekha Subramanian
-an exhibition featuring prints from Borderlines productions
-books for sale at our special discounted rate
-local contributors and artists who will be on hand to sign copies
This catalogue features essays written by a large pool of community activists, artists, and academics including Chintan Girish Modi (India); Tehmina Ahmed (Pakistan); Sadya Mizan and Hafiza Nilofar Khan (Bangladesh); Minerva Laveaga (El Paso); Mónica Arreola and Adriana Trujillo (Mexico); Sehba Sarwar, Bapsi Sidhwa and Shreerekha Subramanian, (Houston, Texas/Pakistan, India); and interviews with Daniel Bustamante by Monica Villarreal and with LRA homeowner Frank Aguilar by Rob Block and Jimmy Castillo (Houston). The essays are edited by Drs. Margot Backus and Maria Gonzalez, professors at University of Houston, and designed by Joshua Turner and Angela Martinez. VBB's Associate Director, Ana Laurel, serves as the publication's Managing Editor.
Woven throughout the essays are photographs by Logan Sebastian Beck, Alejandro Cossio, Mónica Arreola, and many more, as well as links connecting the reader to VBB documentaries by Karen Martinez. These multimedia features allow the reader to experience VBB's productions as they unfurled!
On "Sunday Funday," grab your friends and family + join VBB staff, artists and board members for libations and a special treat! 'Til they kick everyone out at 2 AM, Poison Girl will donate all drink proceeds towards the support of VBB and our ongoing Borderlines project.
Join Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) for Monitor 10: South Asian Experimental Film + Video (72 mins). Curated by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) in Toronto, Canada, Monitor is dedicated to the presentation of experimental short films and videos by/and/or/about South Asians from all around the world. From found footage to performance video, reality television to observational documentary, the works in Monitor 10 engage various forms of melodrama to produce wry, highly entertaining and complex political commentaries.
After the screening, moderator Marian Luntz (MFAH's Curator of Film and Video) will lead a panel discussion with Dr. Sucheta Choudhuri (UH-D faculty), Danielle Dean (Core Fellow in Residence at the MFAH Glassell School of Art), and Michael Sicinski (UH faculty) to contextualize the socio-cultural atmosphere informing the short pieces and to discuss the experimental film conventions being used or subverted by the filmmakers.
Monitor 10 features mature content not suitable for children. There will be staff on site to watch children under 10 so parents can enjoy the film and snacks donated by Whole Foods-Montrose.
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Uneté con Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) para Monitor 10. Compuesto por SAVAC en Toronto, Canada, Monitor esta dedicada a la presentación de cortometrajes y vídeos experimentales creado por/y/o/sobre los asiáticos del sur de los países del mundo. De metraje encontrado a arte en vivo, televisión de realidad a documental de observación, las obras en el Monitor 10 involucran diversas formas de melodrama para producir comentarios políticos torcidos muy entretenido y complejas.
Después las películas, hay una conversación con Marian Luntz (MFAH's Curator of Film and Video) y panelistas Dr. Sucheta Choudhuri (UH-D faculty), Danielle Dean (Core Fellow in Residence at the MFAH Glassell School of Art), and Michael Sicinsky (UH faculty) para proporcionar un contexto para el ambiente social y cultural que informa las películas y para discutir las tradiciones cinematográficas experimentales se están utilizando o subvertido por los cineastas.
Este evento incluye contenido no apropiado para niños. Habrá personal para vigilar a los niños menores de 10 años de edad que los padres puedan disfrutar de la película y refrescos donados por Whole Foods-Montrose.
In response to the hostile crossing points in which they reside, local and international artists challenge regulations to human movement and embrace their transnational identities.
The afternoon features:
-Mixed media installations and performances by local and international artists
-Music by DJ Lalo
-Refreshments donated by Whole Foods-Montrose and Saint Arnold's
vbb's annual fundraising event La Valiente 2015 :: History in the Making, A Quinceañera
7-10 PM, Saturday, August 22, 2015 Location TBA
Evening Co-Chaired by Nita and Dinesh Singhal
Hosts include Hosam Aboul-Ela, Carmen Peña Abrego, Dina Al-Sowayel, Yolanda Alvarado, Teresa Arellano, Janice Hale-Harris, Josef Helfenstein, Rich Levy, Kathryn McNiel, Zeba Shah, Vanessa Sola, Mustafa Tameez, and Lauren Zentz.
Since 2003, VBB and our Board have honored artists and activists who reflect our organization's passionate commitment to speaking out and inciting social change through art. To celebrate fifteen years of VBB breaking boundaries in Houston, we are honoring Lisa E. Harris, Paul Hester, Fady Joudah, Rick Lowe, and Delilah Montoya, five Houston-based artists whose careers push artistic boundaries and whose voices challenge borderlines by documenting stories that refuse to be erased.
For more information on joining our hosting committee or sponsoring the event, please visit our La Valiente 2015 page!
VBB is proud to be a community partner in collaboration with the Menil Collection's upcoming exhibition, Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence, opening on October 2 in observance of the 145th year of Mohandas K. Gandhi's birth. The exhibition will remain on view at the Menil through February 2015.
Honoring Our Heartbeats: A Tour to End Forced Marriage
6:30-8:00 PM, Thursday, October 16, 2014
Baker Ripley Neighborhood Center, 6500 Rookin St., 77057
$ Free | Click here to RSVP
Join VBB, alongwith Tahirih Justice Center, for a community forum at Baker Ripley Neighborhood Center in Houston's Gulfton neighborhood. The forum will kick off with a multimedia performance by the authors of the comic book, Heartbeats: The IZZAT Project, which inspired the six-city Heartbeats Tour. The performance will be followed by a Q+A session and a reception, where copies of the comic book will be available.
Join VBB's Artistic Director Sehba Sarwar for the culminating performance / installation of the first phase of her What Is Home? project that includes an art installation and readings from her eponymous memoir-in-progress. Also present at the show will be students and women who participated in Sarwar's storytelling spring workshops.
Throughout its season, VBB will also host radio shows on Open Journal (9:30 – 10 am) on KPFT 90.1 FM Pacifica Radio. Dates will be announced as they are scheduled. For more details, stay tuned to our website.
