A life begun in gunfire and instability is brought to the stage. Fluid motions and words embody the resilience of the stateless—reframing a narrative of victimization to one of powerful actors, playwrights, and directors.
This is the everyday work of Parastoo Theater.
Many are used to election years bringing highly controversial topics to the forefront of social media and news outlets. It is easy to step back from the political conversations, but what happens when this leaves few advocates for highly impacting causes?
Currently, the US-Mexico border has been experiencing escalating tensions, and Americans have taken notice. With the assumption of front-runners being Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a recent poll in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the importance voters placed on the 2024 presidential candidates’ immigration policies. This poll suggested that 13 percent of respondents chose immigration as the most important issue when voting in November of 2024, becoming the second-most relevant issue, only ranked 8 points behind the economy. A large percentage of these voters also claim to refuse to vote at all if the candidates do not provide immigration policies that align with their immigration views.
There are few mediums more expressive and universal than art. As a newly minted Art History major, my experiences with art historical classes, resources, and media have helped me realize that the study of art is really just the study of people. The study of art in and of itself is fruitless; to learn about art is to learn about people, their cultures, and their stories. And that is why I think it is of critical importance to interact with art created by refugees. Studying the pieces of refugee artists and supporting their work not only spreads the word about the refugee crisis and its impacts; it humanizes and individualizes the crisis in a way that few other forms of media are able to. In this post, I’ll be sharing the works of some contemporary refugee artists as well as…
