And now for the good stuff and a lot of thank you’s.

I have met hundreds of intelligent, kind, inspirational people willing to share their time, skills, energy, and enthusiasm. I’ve had the opportunity to give and take. I now have new teachers, the likes of which I never had at school or college and am able to learn something new every day. This broken city is full of promise if you learn to love it for what it is. To have had the opportunity to create something in Karachi that has made a few people happy is more than I could ever have dreamt of.

Our Founding Board members believed in the early vision and got their hands dirty. Thank you so much for all your support over the years. To our newly inducted board members, thank you for validating our work and coming aboard to steer us towards sustainability and greater impact.

PeaceNiche is powered by the most incredible co-workers, interns, and volunteers anyone could ever hope to have. Some of us have been together since our inception and I can’t thank each of you enough for being part of the journey and for not running away during the dark days.

To every single artist, designer, photographer, musician, writer, poet, dancer, actor, performer, thinker, doctor, techie, activist, and human being who has been part of our programming, thank you for your generosity and goodwill and for entertaining and educating us for 6 years, without asking for anything in return.

To everyone who comes to our events, meetups and workshops, to every customer who has ever bought a coffee or a sandwich or a painting, to every single person who hasn’t ignored the suggested donation messages, you make this insane dream work. We generate 50% of our operating budget thanks to you. We want to take that figure to 100% so that we can be fully community supported. Thank you for your patronage. Please keep coming and help us become independent.

I am humbled by the organizations and individuals who have donated services, time, and money over the years. Your appreciation of our work gives us the courage to keep going and no amount has been too small. To each of you who have considered the liberal arts important enough to support in a country where charity is given to other causes, I cannot thank you enough.

Finally, to my first teacher and eternal source of strength and values, my mother, Mahenaz Mahmud, thank you for being who you are, for letting me run amok, for never second-guessing, for giving me the space and time to figure things out, and for being a monumentally supportive parent. To Zak, my second teacher and mentor, thank you for introducing me to the Macintosh computer in 1989, for pushing me to take risks, for teaching me to ignore the bozos, and for everything in between.

With much respect, love, and wishes for peace, I hope we all stay connected and continue to work together to transform Karachi.

In solidarity!
Sabeen Mahmud

Calling all civic-minded geeks! Come apply your geek or creative skills to transforming your city for the better!

We need to start thinking differently about public service and the institution of government if we want to make a change. Around the world, civic hackers are building open source solutions that enable city governments to be more open, efficient, and in tune with the needs of citizens. This first meetup follows up on the launch of Pakistan’s first Civic Hackathon, which brought together developers, designers, urban mappers, data analysts, and problem solvers to create web and mobile solutions to Pakistan’s civic problems.

We’re bringing together a peace corps of geeks for civic betterment. Join us at T2F to discuss how your tech, creative, and problem solving skills can come together to transform your city.

Date: Saturday, 18th May, 2013
Time: 6:00 pm
Suggested Donation: Anything you like. Please support our vision of intellectual poverty alleviation by donating generously.
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Join us at T2F for an evening of eastern classical music as Karam Abbas, Waseem Abbas and Yousuf Kerai pay tribute to the late Ustad Ahmed Ali Khan.

Karam Abbas Khan and Waseem Abbas Khan belong to the Gwalior gharana, famous for its repertoire of khayal singing. Sons of the late Ustad Ahmed Ali Khan and grandsons of Ustad Umeed Ali Khan, both classical vocalists of great renown.

Karam and Waseem are committed to continuing their family legacy and finding ways in which to experiment with merging their techniques and styles with contemporary musical forms. Karam was awarded the Nigar Filmi Award in 2002 and was nominated for PTV’s Best Classical Singer Award in 1997. He released a ghazal album, produced in collaboration with the late songbird of Pakistan, Mehnaz, in the year 2000. Karam worked with a fusion band called Garaj in 2005 and has had the honor of performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London that same year. His most recent tour was in the USA in the year 2010. Karam has now shifted his focus to grooming his younger brother Waseem, who is proving to be a promising vocalist in his own right.

The musical performance, featuring Karam and Waseem Abbas on vocals and Yousuf Kerai on tabla, will be preceded by a lecture-demo elucidating the art of khayal singing and the Gwalior style.

Date: Sunday, 2nd June, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm
Entry: Rs. 300
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Join us at T2F for an evening with percussive guitarist, Usman Riaz who will perform music from ‘Circus in the Sky’, screen his film ‘Ruckus’ and also share updates about his new projects.

TEDGlobal Fellow Usman Riaz is a young Pakistani musician making a worldwide mark with his astonishing and fun-to-listen-to technique. Influenced by percussive guitarists who move beyond strumming to striking, treating their fretboard like the soundboard of a piano, Usman makes a sound that feels larger than the instrument itself, with a compelling pattern of repetition and variation that harkens to mystical music traditions. In 2011, a viral video for his song ‘Fire Fly’ helped bring his sound from the Pakistani music community to a global audience. He is now collaborating with other musicians in Pakistan and working on a new album of original music.

Date: Friday, 17th May, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm
Entry: Rs. 300
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

When I was setting up The Second Floor, I didn’t want mundane paintings or posters on the walls. Someone, and I just can’t remember who it was, but THANK YOU, suggested I meet this mad chap, Asim Butt who had been running around painting elaborate murals outside mazaars. I called him and requested an appointment. When I got there, we both said, “Oh, it’s you!” We had met earlier but had never spoken. This was in March 2007.

I explained the idea of T2F to Asim and he got excited but he was skeptical. Zak and I were able to convince him to do a mural for us and he brought out his sketch book and started talking animatedly about a concept he was working on. He said it would take 3 months to complete and I said, but, we’re opening on the 15th of May and now that we’ve had this discussion, this just has to happen. So he said, these things take time and let me give you a painting to hang on the wall and I said NO, why don’t you just start scribbling something on the wall and we can say it’s a work in progress and it’s under construction and you can keep working on it, even after we open. He was noncommittal.

The next day, Asim came to see the space. I will never forget how he jumped up and down and clapped his hands gleefully. He was like a child – pure and uninhibited. I imagine the sight of those empty walls drove him into a state of ecstasy. He asked for the keys so he could work nights. Each morning, we’d come to work, and Asim would have encroached, just a little more into areas he was not supposed to touch. He’d then jump up and down and talk our ears off about what he’d added and why. Sometimes, he’d drive us to distraction. He threw a fit one day and demanded that the speaker wires be removed because they were getting in the way of a puff of smoke that he’d painted just below the ceiling. I was exasperated and wanted to murder him.

Thanks to Asim’s boundless energy, the mural was completed before we opened our doors, and it became an intrinsic part of T2F’s identity. Losing our original space meant losing Asim’s mural and to this day, I have weeping fits. It was heartbreaking walking out of that space for the last time.

In 2008, Tehelka had an India-Pakistan summit in London and asked us to suggest Pakistani artists. We suggested Asim Butt, amongst others and I got an insight into Asim’s manic attention to detail and dedication to perfection. He just wouldn’t let go of that canvas despite the fact that the packers went to his house twice and the rest of the shipment was being held up because of him. Finally, I had to threaten him and then he grudgingly handed it over.

Another cherished experience with Asim was just after Pervez Musharraf’s ‘emergency’. A group called the People’s Resistance was formed and Asim, myself and a bunch of younger people created the naujawan wing of PR – to keep ourselves sane and cope with the old left. Asim suggested that we call ourselves SOS – Subversive Operation Services and we became the art, design, graffiti, media, and technology service providers for PR. It was at this time that Asim created the Eject and Loop symbols and we would gather at T2F where he’d teach us how to make stencils, then we’d go buy spray paint, and let loose on the walls of Karachi. We had many escapades, encounters, and narrow escapes during our flash protests. Eventually, Asim got fed up with the lack of clarity and focus and left PR.

I’d just also like to clarify that it was not Asim Butt who made the I ♥ KHI graffiti. Asim’s graffiti was intelligent, funny, satirical, political – and dangerous.

When T2F shifted to its new location, Asim came bounding in one day and fell in love with the new mural painted by two A-Level students. He sat there for hours marveling at the quality of work and went on and on about how much he liked it. One day, he was sitting on top of a table admiring the painting and someone, whom we didn’t know, came in and stood by us. By now, Asim was delivering an academic lecture on this painting, and the girl reached out and touched the wall. Asim leapt off the table and screamed “Don’t touch it, you’ll wear it out”. The poor girl ran away, never to return. This was the last time Asim came to T2F.

A few days later, on the 12 of Jan 2010, I met Asim at his Nani’s house and we made plans for him to do a painting and installation using Metropole Hotel remnants on T2F’s balcony. He was to come and start work on the 14th of January. He messaged me at 9:03 pm saying, “Hey. Sorry. Will go tomorrow”. And the next day, he was gone.

I can’t claim to have known Asim well but I feel blessed to have met him and to have had several opportunities to work with him. He was a shining star. We still go and post things on his Facebook wall – memories, songs, videos, quotations. He is alive in our hearts and minds and I know he helps many of us get through the chaos of our lives.

Each session will consist of warm-up writing activities, in-depth critique shares and a closing discussion. All those attending are requested to bring a piece of original poetry, fiction or non-fiction that they have been working on. Meetups do not require attendance at subsequent sessions.

Date: Tuesday, 7th May 2013
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 200 (redeemable at the café)
Additional Details: E-mail sadiakhatri91@gmail.com

On the 3rd of March, I attended a session called Kohl and Chalk: Readings and Conversation with Poet, Shadab Zeest Hashmi at T2F. I hadn’t heard of the poet before, and didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised.

The talk followed the different stages of her life, affording the audience a deeper look into the poems and their composition. However, the poems are not esoteric, or to be viewed through the narrow chink of the poet’s particular experience; they are quite enjoyable on their own, and invite the reader to have his/her own interpretations. That is the poet’s intent: ”I want to be friends with my reader, whoever that reader is.”

Shadab spent the first twenty years of her life in Pakistan, and has spent the other twenty in the U.S. The moderator, Afia Aslam, introduced her as a poet of ‘immense talent and skill’. This was evident from the first poem read:

“I was never
a black and white begum
blooming out of a soufflé
of silk gharara,
leaning on a gold cane,
nor a sepia Sahab Bahadur
with his shoe on the lap
of a native.”

“…When I close my eyes
I am the ripped tire
rolling beside a barefoot boy
with a stick
I spin to his whim
across a rocky,
jasmine scented hill.”

-excerpts from It’s In Sleep a Soul Will Know Itself.

The poet explained that the poem is about the Arab Spring and is a “rant against Empire”. However, as with her other poems, there is a delightful, subtle intersection of the personal and political. It’s like a soft-spoken person trying to be heard in a din. “It’s really trying to talk about, finally, the fact that the actual focus is on the ordinary person. We’re all that person, we really are, but we fall into the trap of defining ourselves and identifying ourselves with other people’s definitions. It’s really time to go beyond that.”

Another poem read was Facial Palsy. Shadab commented that, “So much of this book has to do with identity…Muslim identity, Pakistani identity, American identity, Pakistan-Muslim-American identity, hyphenated identities, multiple identities…so this poem is an emblematic poem; it sort of represents this whole madness of looking for oneself.” The poem is about a time when half of the poet’s face was paralyzed.

There are two interesting points here. Firstly, identity is a personal/political search that is hard to explain without the discussion turning into a set of assertions and counter-assertions that may pit one identity against the other:

“And you, face, feeble as falling ash, an eggshell when it breaks for trembling new chicks, a treble that even the swift air won’t carry, one half of you abandoned, its muscles the weight of lead, dragging to keep up with the sprightly half.”

-line from Facial Palsy

Secondly, though, there is the state of being, with the contradictions coexisting.

“There is rouge from Paris, coconut oil from Orissa, Turkish bracelets, flame-colored roses from the garden, the sewing machine’s crescendo.”

-line from Facial Palsy

The poet deals with both beautifully, and tells her story without alienating the reader.

On a personal level, the moderator noted how Pakistani the imagery in Shadab’s poetry is, and asked if she still thinks of Pakistan as home. She does, the poet said, though she is still split about what home means. “There’s a home in our memory,” she reflected, talking about how some things have changed while others haven’t.

Having grown up in Peshawar, Shadab said, “It’s very strange…I never really saw the war [the Russian invasion of Afghanistan] itself, but I could hear it.” Some of her poems deal with (directly or peripherally) this war. However, the poet never comes out and talks in grand terms about the war; rather, her poems focus on the small, almost unnoticeable changes – unnoticeable, of course, in the face of large-scale death and destruction – and give her work the feel of documentation.

“I am
still trying to remember

ghosts
the space between news and songs
voices in mud”

-excerpt from Radio Moscow

Fascinatingly, though, the poet is not only good at presenting experiences; her skill and versatility as a writer cannot be fully appreciated without also considering a set of creative historical poems that were read out: Gunga Din’s Revenge, Jinnah’s Typewriter, Fatima Jinnah Enters Her Brother’s Study, and Malabar Hills.

“Your typewriter has been found
in a tangle of seaweed

clacking over the waves of the Arabian Sea
in sand-grit staccato

for sixty-odd years
churning the same speech”

-excerpt from Jinnah’s Typewriter

I found the composition of these poems, in particular Gunga Din’s Revenge (which is based on the Kipling poem), very interesting. From a technical point of view, it is difficult to balance the creative and the historical (or the material from the source) – to create something new without compromising its historicity. However, Shadab Zeest Hashmi makes it look effortless, and is able to communicate with the reader through the richness of her imagery.

There is something very special about this poet. The session was followed by conversation, and Sabeen put her finger on it: “the blade of sarcasm” is missing from her poetry. Her poems are not cynical or dark. She does not try to show off and is not overtly clever or pretentious. In fact, the poetry is almost earnest.

“I think writers should be brave enough to be vulnerable,” said Shadab, and I agree. It’s no wonder that I haven’t come across many new poets that I like – the poetry is devoid of meaning because poetics seems to have become a set of language exercises. Shadab’s poetry, though, manages to avoid the stagnation and stereotypes of modern poetry without compromising an examination of the modern condition and its themes. It is thus, by default, refreshing and welcome; what makes it all the better is it’s a set of original, rich and accessible poems.

“We weep in both languages
And anything round is a planet”

-excerpt from Notes for My Husband

Shadab Zeest Hashmi’s book, Kohl and Chalk, is available at T2F.

Join us at T2F for an evening of qavvaali featuring Taj and Shaad Mohammed Niazi.

Hailing from the Atrauli Gharana, Taj and Shaad Mohammed Niazi are amongst the finest contemporary practitioners of Hazrat Amir Khusrau’s kalaam. The progeny of the late, critically acclaimed Moin Niazi, recipient of a Pride of Performance award, the troupe has performed widely across the subcontinent, from Pakpattan to Dhaka. Taj and Shaad Mohammed Niazi perform regularly in Karachi and we are delighted to host their first performance at T2F.

Date: Sunday, 5th May, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm
Entry: Rs. 300
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Join us at T2F for an evening of conversation with Dr. Attiya Inayatullah as she discusses her journey to the National Assembly, shares her thoughts on women in politics, and her hopes and aspirations for the next generation of Pakistani women leaders.

Dr. Attiya Inayatullah is a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. She holds a PhD in Social Demography as well as a Masters in Sociology and Anthropology. She is acknowledged in the fields of international relations, human rights, population and social development, and women’s empowerment, in Pakistan and globally. In recognition of her services, she is the recipient of the coveted Ceres Medal, the only UN award for women and has received the highest civil award in Pakistan for public service.

Dr. Inayatullah has served as Minister for Women’s Development, Social Welfare, and Special Education. She was successful in using her ministerial office to obtain political space for women at all three tiers of the democratic structure through constitutional amendments. Dr. Inayatullah is among the most senior parliamentarians with a record for initiating a range of women and child related legislation, which include the Domestic Violence Bill, Acid Throwing and Burn Victims Protection Bill, Corporal Punishment Prohibition Bill, Reproductive Health and Rights Bill, Marriage Act, Restraint Act, and the Child Rights Charter Bill.

Date: Saturday, 4th May, 2013
Time: 6:00 pm
Suggested Donation: Anything you like. Please support our vision of intellectual poverty alleviation by donating generously.
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.