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VBB’s Second Decade: 2015-16
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This year, Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) enters the second half of its second decade in Houston with a continuation of our ground-breaking Borderlines series, including VBB's trademark living room art productions that transform residential homes. Borderlines productions focus on the border regions of North America and South Asia and are based in two Houston neighborhoods, Northside and Gulfton, to explore how people attempt to cross borders, the prices attached to such dangerous treks, and the way these global issues reflect the realities faced by populations in Houston.
The season also includes book launches of VBB's art catalogues Borderlines: Volume One and Two in both Northside and Gulfton as well as in Austin and Karachi, Pakistan. Additionally, VBB is partnering with the Houston Public Library to feature new work by Artistic Director Sehba Sarwar.
Fall 2015
a vbb book launch Borderlines: Volume Two Book Launch
Celebrate with us our newest publication with music from DJ Q from KarmaDJs and Gulfton's own DJ Lalo, food, drinks and more! Throughout the afternoon, contributors including Michelle Garcia, Shirin Herman, Sehba Sarwar, Harbeer Sandhu, Dr. Maria Gonzalez and Christina Sisk PhD will be available to sign catalogues. Also present will be Borderlines design artist Joshua Turner and managing editor Ana Laurel.
Borderlines: Volume Two features essays, poetry, interviews, and photography from VBB's 2014-15 living room art productions. Grounded in Houston's Gulfton community, Borderlines explores cross-cultural connections across North American (Canada-Mexico-US) and South Asian (Bangladesh-India-Pakistan) border regions.
2:00 PM, Saturday, November 21, 2015; exhibition on view till January 4, 2016
Houston Public Library, First Floor Gallery, 500 McKinney, 77002
$ Free
During October and November, VBB's Artistic Director/Founder Sehba Sarwar led women's storytelling workshops at Baker Ripley Neighborhood Center and Somali Bantu Community of Greater Houston (SBCGH). In the gatherings that included writing, food and community, new and veteran entrants to Houston and the US delved into issues of displacement, the state of being transnational, and the urgency one faces in coming to terms with being in-between.
The outcome of the workshops will be shared with the larger public at a special reading and conversation session at Houston Public Library's Central Library in the First Floor Gallery.
The afternoon will include readings and writings by Zema Kelleta, Tanya Jackson, Muna Tamang, Sukhada Tatke and Azeb Yusuf.
An exhibition of interviews from Sarwar's blog, What Is Home? will be on view till December 29, 2015; Sarwar will also read excerpts from her memoir-in-progress.
Living room art returns to Near Northside! This time, VBB will transform a home with work that explores the places of our origin and their lasting effects on our identities and our paths of migration.
Creating connections between two border regions, South Asia and North America, Borderlines Volumes One + Two are high-quality art catalogues filled with essays, poems, and interviews along with images from VBB's visual art productions.
Writers, poets and scholars in the first two volumes include: Tehmina Ahmed (Pakistan), Monica Arreola (Mexico) Nandita Bhavnani (India), Minerva Laveaga (USA-Mexico border), Tayeba Begum Lipi (Bangladesh), Emmy Perez (USA-Mexico border), Sehba Sarwar (Pakistan-USA), Bapsi Sidhwa (Pakistan-USA), Adriana Trujillo (Mexico), Noor Zaheer (India), and many more. The catalogues are edited by Margot Backus PhD and Maria Gonzalez PhD.
a vbb book launch Borderlines: Volumes One + Two
4:00 pm, Friday, March 4, 2016
CLA 1.106, UT Austin Campus
$ Free
At Rothko Chapel's symposium, Alternative Economies, Resilient Communities, which focuses on creative, effective responses to eliminating economic inequality, Sehba Sarwar along with artists Christa Forster and Yaksha Bhatt will create a performance, Feeding Ourselves, that includes monologues collected by Sarwar. The shared stories reflect day-to-day challenges faced by the women in their efforts to create "home" and feed their families. VBB'sFeeding Ourselves performance takes place right before Rothko Chapel's session entitled More than Half: Gender in Alternative Economies. Make sure to attend both sessions!
VBB is excited to partner with Brazos Bookstore to launch our latest publication, Borderlines: Volume Two. Writers include editors Margot Backus and Maria Gonzalez, poet Emmy Perez (via recording from McAllen, TX), Christina Sisk who interviewed members of a Mexican arts collective The Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca or ASARO), and Sehba Sarwar, who conceptualized VBB’s Borderlines project. Sarwar will read from narratives collected by documented and undocumented women and teenagers in Houston. The evening will include refreshments and drinks.
1:00-3:00 pm, Saturday, June 25, 2016
Homes of Carl Doby and Michael Healey & the street in between
401 Winnie St & 309 Winnie St, Houston 77009
$ Free
This pop-up production is the culmination of VBB's three-year Borderlines project and will visual art from the past three years by photographers and videographers Logan Beck, Os Galindo, Karen Martinez, and Victoria Paige Gonzalez. Also, VBB's Borderlines Volume One, which was based in Near Northside, will be highlighted through readings by contributors Rob Block, Maria Gonzalez, Sehba Sarwar, Monica Villarreal and more. Jimmy Castillo will spearhead a street installation creating space for the community to share responses to neighborhood issues, and Devil Killing Moth will close out the afternoon with a live performance. The afternoon includes music by DJ E. Rock, refreshments, and beer donated by Saint Arnold's Brewery.
Borderlines Volume One, featuring art created in Near Northside, will be sold at a special price. The evening is cosponsored by Avenue CDC and is part of Northside Neighborhood Day celebration.
VBB Showcases
Asian Americans in Houston: A Kaleidoscope of Cultures
VBB is excited to be a part of Asian Americans in Houston: A Kaleidoscope of Cultures. The exhibit will feature objects and images from past VBB productions along with other Asians in Houston and their many contributions to Houston and its culture. Topics will include an overview of Asian immigration, a Buddhist temple, and stories of individuals who trace their ancestry to China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The exhibit will bring to life stories in the articles from the fall 2015 issue of Houston History magazine by featuring artifacts, photographs, and documents representing a cultural bridge between Asia and Houston.
The Houston History article will be launched at a special reception on Thursday, November 19, featuring VBB along with other participants from the exhibit!
The material was collected in conjunction with a Fall 2014 HIST 6383 course taught by Dr. Kairn Klieman. Graduate students conducted fifteen interviews with Sehba Sarwar and VBB board and staff members. Community members were also part of the interview process.
10:00 AM-4:00 PM, Saturday, October 3, 2916
Houston Public Library, 500 McKinney, 77002
$ Free
VBB will showcase its living room art catalogues as part of the Gulf Coast Literary Journal and Houston Public Library's annual LibroFEST. The afternoon will include book signings by Borderlines: Volume One writers and editors.
Other LibroFEST activities include workshops, interactive entertainment with a scavenger hunt for custom-made trading cards of Latino Veterans, handcrafted by Jesse Treviño, and loterí a gaming. Also taking part in the festival: musicians, artists, and local literary organizations and vendors including Arte Público Press, Gulf Coast Literary Journal, and many more.
VBB will co-sponsor a panel discussion titled The Artistry of Social Change as part of the University of Houston Downtown's Center for Critical Race Studies (CCRS) Scholar-in-Residence Program, featuring CCRS's scholar -in-residence Dr. Subramanian Shankar, artist Ayanna McCloud, and VBB's Artistic Director Sehba Sarwar. The afternoon includes short readings, a rich conversation between writers and audience, and refreshments. VBB's Borderlines Volumes 1 and 2 will be available for sale.
