Asif Noorani, a versatile journalist, works for the Dawn Media Group in Karachi. He started his career in 1963 as the editor of Eastern Film, Pakistan’s most widely circulated English magazine. He also taught English Literature and is currently lecturing on media marketing at a private university. He writes on a wide variety of subjects; art, literature, humour, music, travel, and even cricket. He also reviews books and music.

In 2008, Asif co-authored a book, Tales of Two Cities, with the noted Indian columnist Kuldip Nayar. The book was edited by David Page of the BBC and published by Roli Books in New Delhi.

A year later when Pakistan won the World Cup Twenty20 Tournament, Asif edited and compiled a book on Shahid Afridi, the architect of the victory. Boom Boom Shahid Afridi is a mini coffee table book and has been on the bestsellers’ list for several months.

Asif is currently working on a book on Mehdi Hasan and has involved his fans, well known personalities and music critics from India and Pakistan. The book will carry two CDs featuring popular and rare songs and ghazals, recorded over the last four decades.

Tales of Two Cities and Boom Boom Shahid Afridi are available at T2F’s Bookshop. Asif Noorani will be available after the readings to sign copies of his books.

Date: Saturday, 13th March, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

“Spices of madness. The foremost component of change in Pakistan’s literature and the performing arts – the werewolf of Pakistan’s literati.”
F Yazdi, The Nation, 1997

Sarmad Sehbai is one of Pakistan’s most mercurial artists – a poet, playwright and director of theatre and video plays – a man who has struggled towards existential revolution but always shunned intellectual labelism, remaining firmly on the other side of the mainstream.

Whilst studying at Government College Lahore, Sarmad became renowned for his Urdu poetry, which stood out for its fresh imagery and contemporary idioms. After college, he joined PTV and started writing original plays for television and the stage. After scripting a number of ground-breaking plays, Sarmad came to be known as the ‘enfant terrible’ of Pakistan, for his powerful, authentic content, firmly rooted in social realities and local vernacular.

During the military dictatorship of the 1980s, General Zia officially banned cultural and theatrical activities. A few like-minded individuals started performing plays in clandestine locations and one of the first productions was Sarmad’s “Panjhwar Chiragh”. Sarmad was then banished from Lahore and sent off to Islamabad. Eventually, he was re-admitted to PTV where he wrote and directed a number of vibrant dramas, all created with meagre resources and protracted battles with the censor board.

Sarmad is frequently admonished for not having been more prolific. His response: “The mainstream art mafia does not allow me to do my work.”

Rejecting a society increasingly dominated by consumerism, Sarmad has distanced himself from the mainstream art world and is currently writing poetry and a novel in English.

Date: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Using Social Media to Market Your Business:
A Workshop by Shahjahan Chaudhary
Tuesday 9th March | 6:00 pm

An Evening with Poet and Playwright, Sarmad Sehbai
Wednesday 10th March | 6:30 pm

A Lecture-Demo by Ustad Zafar Ali Khan (Gwalior Gharana)
Friday 12th March | 6:30 pm

T2F is proud to offer lessons in eastern classical and semi-classical singing by Ustad Zafar Ali Khan, a vocalist and composer representing the 28th generation of the Gwalior gharana.
Details: http://www.t2f.biz/eastern-classical-singing-classes

Readings and Conversation with Asif Noorani, Author of “Tales of Two Cities”
Saturday 13th March | 6:30 pm

“Jihad Against Violence” – A One-Act Play by Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Sunday 14th March | 6:00 pm

Opening Date: Monday, 8th March 2010 | 7:00 pm

Pakistan is labeled as a war-torn nuclear power besieged by terrorists, intolerance and corrupt politicians.

How do we begin to change that?

We start at home.

D.U.C.K! (Designers United for a Cause – Karachi) and Rebuild-Rebound are non-profit organizations initiated by a handful of Indus Valley Alumni who are bringing together designers, photographers, sculptors and visual artists to exhibit their work, create awareness and raise funds for humanitarian causes.

To Karachi With Love is one of a series of events aimed to raise awareness about the loss of lives and destruction that followed the suicide blast on Ashura at Bolton Market in Karachi. All funds collected will go to the rebuilding of the market and surrounding area.

100% of the proceeds will go towards renowned architect, Shahid Abdullah’s efforts to reconstruct the affected area and to the shopkeepers whose livelihoods have been put on hold for the past three months and still await the end of the reconstruction. Their lives may never be the same again but we can help be a part of the change.

The change can begin from your heart. Show Karachi some LOVE!

The exhibition will continue until Wednesday, 17th March 2010

Opening Date: Monday, 8th March, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F | Faraar
Address | Map

Ustad Zafar Ali Khan received vocal training from the age of 6 by his father, Ustad Qudrat Ali Khan. His vocal repertoire includes khayal, thumri, dadra, ghazal, geet and kaafi. He is well-versed in the tabla and harmonium, and his compositions have featured in the media, including films, television and radio.

Lesson Structure

• 15 minutes of riyaaz – vocal exercises to stretch and train the vocal chords and tune the ear
• 20 minutes of sangeet – bandish, ghazal, khayal etc, to apply riyaaz training to the delivery of sangeet
• 25 minutes of theory, including Q&A

Important Notes

• Classes will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm
• Classes begin on April 3rd 2010. Enrollment will close after the second class
• Duration: 3 months / 24 classes
• Cost: Rs. 1,500 per class
• E-mail sabeen@peaceniche.org to register

Lecture Demo by Ustad Zafar Ali Khan

Ustad Zafar Ali Khan will be at T2F on Friday, March 12th at 6:30 pm, to introduce himself and his approach to teaching singing. If you are interested in getting vocal instruction from a scion of the oldest classical gharana, come and meet the Ustad, hear him sing and sign up!

Thursday, 4th March 2010 | 6:30 pm

Munzir Ahmad, the grandson of “Deputy” Nazir Ahmad and elder brother of Shahid Ahmed Dehlavi, reached out for his gun more readily than the pen. A reputed shikari who hunted big cats all over North India with a passion, became a champion of animal conservation when he realized that the forests and wildlife were under serious threat of extinction. Around this time, he was also inspired to write Big Cats of India. He spent many years writing the book but died before it could be published. Nearly thirty years after it was written, the book has just been published from Karachi and seems more relevant now as the threat to wildlife has become even more serious. Full of interesting accounts of jungle lore, the book provides an occasion to discuss and debate the larger questions around wildlife in South Asia.

Programme

• Introduction to the book and author by Masroor Ahmad
• Memories of Baray Bhai (author’s nickname) by Dr Aslam Farrukhi
• From Shikar to Wildlife Conservation by Obaidullah Baig

About the Author

Munzir Ahmad (1903-1986) was born in Delhi and went to school in Aligarh. He then studied law and graduated from Delhi University. Despite his literary lineage, he became fascinated by game hunting during his student days. His love for nature and the pursuit of his hobby took him to the jungles of the “United Provinces” where he spent 40 years interacting with nature and wildlife. Like most big-game shikaris, his long association with wildlife and “big cats”, brought about a metamorphosis in his relationship with wildife. Munzir Ahmad’s book, Big Cats of India, is a record of his observations of the lives and ways of big cats in their natural habitat.

Date: Thursday, 4th March, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Sunday, 28th February 2010 | 4:30 pm

Dr. Clarence Lusane will talk about how jazz has been politically and ideologically appropriated by a wide range of social groups throughout the international community.

Dr. Clarence Lusane is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations in the School of International Service at American University and an expert on Minority Rights. He is also an author, activist, scholar, lecturer, and journalist. For over 30 years, he has written about and been active in national and international human rights, anti-racism politics, globalization, U.S. foreign policy, and social issues such as education, crime, and drug policy. He has lectured and presented papers at a wide range of colleges and universities including Harvard, Georgetown, University of California-Berkeley, University of Chicago, Yale, London School of Economics, and University of Paris. Dr. Lusane is currently Co-chair of the Civil Society Committee for the US-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, a bi-lateral agreement involving governments and civil society.

Date: Sunday, 28th February, 2010
Time: 4:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Opening Date: Thursday, 25th Feb 2010 | 6:00 pm

“Carving our perspectives, etching the skeleton of our subconscious, we are what you made us. As a triad of aspiring artists, we each examine our experiences within the labyrinth as it shapes our outlook of the world”.

Zeerak Ahmed
Growing up with artists in the family, I’ve always been passionate about the subject. After successful art grades throughout my O-Levels and A-Levels at the Karachi Grammar School, I decided to take it up as my major at Hiram College (USA), where I am pursuing an undergraduate degree in Studio Art and a minor in Music.

Shoaib Rizvi
I grew up in Karachi and studied at Karachi Grammar School. Being born into a family of doctors sparked my early interest in science. However, receiving classical sitar training and voice training from a very young age, resulted in my interest in music, and eventually painting. I graduated from Karachi Grammar School in 2009 having studied both art and the sciences. I will be attending Imperial College in London to read medicine in October 2010.

Abdullah Khan
I am a nineteen year old freshman at Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida, where I am working towards my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. After completing my O-Levels from Karachi Grammar School, I moved to a boarding school in Switzerland, where I was exposed to a multitude of cultures. Piling up experiences left me curious and wanting to indulge, document and keep creating. My biggest influences are the world I am a part of and the people in it. I love loud music and the wind blowing in my face.

The exhibition will continue until Sunday, 7th March 2010

Opening Date: Thursday, 25th February, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F | Faraar
Address | Map

Tuesday, 23rd February 2010 | 6:30 pm

Renowned architect, town planner and writer, Arif Hasan will trace Karachi’s history from the time it was established as a fortified trading settlement in 1729 till today. He will discuss its pre-1729 places of Hindu and Muslim pilgrimages and local folklore; and apart from history, will discuss the City’s post-partition master plans, their successes and failures, and analyse its present civic problems and sociology.

Asim Butt’s graffiti practice engaged the politics of the moment. It evolved from large scale murals executed in the aftermath of America’s Shock and Awe campaign in Iraq to a more hit-and-run style responding to the imposition of Emergency rule by General Pervez Musharraf in November 2007. Most recently, Asim created public art at the site of the Metropole Hotel and started a campaign to preserve parts of it as a heritage site.

In his own words: “The process of creating public art raises awareness about art as a vehicle of social change, creates foment about the social and political themes running through my graffiti, creates alternatives for channeling political will, creates ownership for civic space so often the victim of the Tragedy of the Commons in Pakistan as well as interjects with a unique aesthetic into a commercially dominated visual domain”.

Date: Tuesday, 23rd February, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Reem Khurshid has an avid fan following online and has several cool feathers tucked into her artistic hat, including album art for local band, Mole. Reem Khurshid is very young and very talented. And she paints. That is probably all one needs to say about her – if one sees her work, the statement will make sense enough to stand on its own. But then that would be unfair to someone who has managed to show her work solo while still pursuing an education.

Read the Full Report in Instep Today [The News]

Saturday, 20th February 2010 | 6:30 pm

Professor Aijaz Ahmad has taught at universities in the US, India and Canada. In New Delhi, where he resides, he has been a Professorial Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. He has also held the Rajiv Gandhi Chair at Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy and the Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Chair at Jamia Millia Islamiya University. Currently, he is on the editorial board of the Delhi-based publishing house, LeftWord, and Senior Editorial Consultant for news magazine Frontline, where his political essays appear frequently. He writes in English, Hindi and Urdu. Some of his books in English are Ghazals of Ghalib, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, Lineages of the Present, Globalization and Culture: Offensives of the Far Right, and Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Imperialism of our Time. His work-in-progress is provisionally entitled In Our Time: Empire, Politics, Culture.

The discussion will be moderated by:

• Syed Jaffar Ahmed – Professor of Politics & History at Karachi University
• Asif Farrukhi – Writer and Critic
• Nadeem Khalid – Activist

Date: Saturday, 20th February, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Wednesday, 17th February 2010 | 6:30 pm

Artificial volcanoes? Ships creating clouds over the oceans? Forests covering the Sahara Desert? These sound like crazy ideas, but they are actual proposals from top scientists for cooling Earth – approaches known as geoengineering.

The planet’s temperature keeps rising, driven by humanity’s increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. But the world isn’t making much progress on tackling the root problem – emissions from power plants, cars, buildings, and more. So scientists are increasingly talking about radical ideas of how to cool the planet, by blocking some of the sunlight hitting Earth’s surface, or through planet-scale projects to suck up greenhouse gases and lock them away.

But some of these approaches could have serious side-effects, such as disrupting the monsoons that more than a billion people in Asia and Africa depend on. Hacking the planet like this is a risky way of dealing with global warming. Do we understand the planet well enough to tinker with it like this? Who decides where to set Earth’s thermostat? And how do we regulate these technologies?

About Mason Inman

Mason Inman is an American journalist, currently based in Karachi, who covers science and the environment for National Geographic News, New Scientist, Science, Nature, and other publications. He also blogs at Failing Gracefully.

Date: Wednesday, 17th February, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Sunday, 14th February 2010 | 6:00 pm

Mohammed Hanif, author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes, will introduce the authors after which H.M. Naqvi, Kamila Shamsie, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, and Nafisa Rizvi will read from their works. The readings will be followed by a discussion led by the regional judges of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2010; Muneeza Shamsie (Regional Chairperson), Dr. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, and Dr. Stephanos Stephanides.

Dr. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick University, UK. He was born in Kolkata, India, and has worked, studied and taught in India and England. He is the author of ‘Crime and Empire’ (OUP, 2003) and ‘Postcolonial Environments’ (Palgrave, 2010), and a wide range of scholarly articles and edited collections.

Dr. Stephanos Stephanides is an academic, poet, critic, translator and documentary film maker. He was born in Cyprus but since he was a child, he has lived in several countries. He returned to his native island in 1992 where he is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cyprus. He is on the editorial board of a number of academic publications and is the author of several books.

Muneeza Shamsie is a Pakistani writer, critic, bibliographer and editor of ‘And the World Changed – Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women’. The Feminist Press edition in the USA won the Foreword Bronze Award and the IPPY Gold Award for the best anthology by an independent publisher. She contributes regularly to the Pakistani press and international scholarly publications.

H.M. Naqvi has worked in finance and taught creative writing at Boston University. His debut novel, ‘Home Boy’, has been published by HarperCollins. Presently he resides in Karachi.

Kamila Shamsie is the author of 5 novels, most recently ‘Burnt Shadows’ which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and is being translated into 21 languages. She was born and grew up in Karachi, and now lives in London.

Mohammed Hanif’s first novel ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ won the Commonwealth Prize for first novel, the inaugural Shalkti Bhatt prize and the Corine Award in Germany. It was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and James Tait Black Memorial Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker. Hanif works for the BBC and is working on his second novel.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is the author of ‘The Story of a Widow’ which was longlisted for the 2010 IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. He has translated the Urdu classics ‘The Adventures of Amir Hamza’, ‘Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism’, and the forthcoming poetry collection of Afzal Ahmed Syed. He is currently the Urdu Publisher at Oxford University Press.

Nafisa Rizvi started her career in advertising. It took her over a decade and a diploma in advertising to figure out that she was in the wrong profession. She then took to teaching and is presently assisting A level students with art theory courses. Nafisa recently published her first novel, ‘The Blue Room’. 

This event is sponsored by Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2010 which is organized by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation.

Date: Sunday, 14th February, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

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

Opening Date: Thursday, 4th Feb 2010 | 5:30 pm

“Based in part on my experiences living in Karachi, Fever Dreams is a non linear narrative of the imprints this city has left on me, from monsoon power cuts to winter riots. It is the tale of a sojourn through deep waters, a subterranean world where fantasy and memory, myth and reality combine, and the possibility of escape, of finally coming up for air.
Reem Khurshid

Reem Khurshid was born in 1986. A self-taught artist, she divides her time between painting and creating customized apparel for fellow sneakerheads. In 2009, her work was published in CURVY, an annual art book celebrating one hundred established and upcoming female illustrators from around the world, and exhibited at the book launch held in Sydney, Australia. As resident artist/co-founder of indie netlabel Mooshy Moo, she has also produced album art for local acts Dalt Wisney and Mole. Fever Dreams is her first exhibition in Karachi.

After the opening, there will be a music performance by Mole accompanied by Reem Khurshid painting live on canvas.

Time: 7:30 – 8:30 pm | Cover Fee: Rs. 100

The exhibition will continue until Wednesday, 17th February 2010

Opening Date: Thursday, 4th February, 2010
Time: 5:30 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F | Faraar
Address | Map

Sunday, 31st January 2010 | 6:00 pm

Zehra Nigah is one of Pakistan’s most prominent and loved poets. She burst onto the literary horizon as a child prodigy in the 1950s and has consistently been hailed as the one voice worth listening to on the mushaeraa circuit.

In an interview conducted by Aasim Akhtar, Zehra Nigah says:

A great poet is one who can form his own school of thought and inspire younger people. Political acumen is essential to great literature. How can a sensitive writer be oblivious to his surroundings?

Zehra Nigah has published three volumes of poetry, Shaam ka Pehla Taara, Waraq, and Firaq. She says she has never felt the urge to be prolific, to write when there is nothing to say. Yet every word that emerges from her pen, every syllable that she speaks, carries the spark of a luminous intelligence. (Some excerpts from the Hindu Literary Review)

We are truly grateful to Zehra Apa for always readily agreeing to come to T2F and to Dr. Asif Farrukhi for moderating the evening.

Date: Sunday, 31st January, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm
Minimum 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.

Saturday, 30th January 2010 | 6:30 pm

Shades of Prey, a 52-chapter murder mystery set in Karachi, is the culmination of the project, A Novel Experience, which began at Generation’s School, Karachi, in 2005, with the intention of enhancing the writing skills of young people. Its authors are currently at college at a variety of institutions in Karachi, Lahore, and New York. Four of the six authors will be present at the book reading.

“Shades of Prey’s universal appeal lies in its being a gripping page-turner with an intriguing twist in the tale. But Shades of Prey is more than that. The backdrop is recognizably Pakistani. As the action moves across the urban landscape of parks, shopping malls, fun-fairs and suburban communities and enters the workings of newspaper offices, schools, police stations and television channels, it explores the functioning of our society.”

Lynette Viccaji – Teacher and Coordinator, English Literature
Convent of Jesus and Mary and The Lyceum, Karachi

The novel will be available for purchase at T2F’s Bookshop. If you already have a copy, bring it along and get it signed!

For more information and to view excerpts from the novel, please visit www.shadesofprey.com

Date: Saturday, 30th January, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

A Novel Experience
Readings from Shades of Prey and conversations with the authors of Pakistan’s first collaborative novel
Saturday Jan 30th 2010 | 6:30 pm

An Evening with Zehra Nigah
Readings and anecdotes featuring one of Pakistan’s most loved poets
Sunday Jan 31st 2010 | 6:00 pm

Our society is politically gridlocked, says Sophiya Khwaja, a Rawalpindi-based artist, whose latest works, “Forced Gridlock” opened at Faraar, the Second Floor (T2F) Friday evening. Her paintings, a contemporary mix of her print making, training, draughtsmanship, and miniatures, presented a dialogue on how people, while living in their limited bubbles, at some point or another, are affected by other social spheres …

Read the Full Report in The News

The inhabitants of the 21st century are observing “forced gridlocks”, especially those living in the third world countries: a major chunk of the youth feels they cannot do anything on their own; politicians feel there is no way out of the political mayhem; and economists are worried about the recession that has engulfed their minds …

Read the Full Report in The Daily Times

If you’d like to say a few words about Asim or share memories, videos or photographs, please let us know before Monday so that we can accommodate as many people as possible.

In Complete Solidarity!

T2F: mariam@peaceniche.org
Citizens Archive of Pakistan: citizensarchive@gmail.com

Date: Monday, 18th January, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Sunday, 17th January 2010 | 6:30 pm

Bindiya Chamkay Gi is a short documentary-narrative focusing on the life of Bindiya Rana – an outspoken member of the Khwaja Sira (or Hijra) Community in Karachi. The film traces a day in her life and portrays the legal, social and cultural challenges that her community faces in present-day Pakistan. Bindiya Chamkay Gi is Ragni Kidvai’s first complete film, and is part of an academic thesis-project focusing on the Khwaja Sira Community in Karachi.

After the screening, Bindiya will talk about her new organization, GIA, and the work they are doing in the areas of transgender rights and social justice.

About Ragni Kidvai

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Ragni Kidvai has been politically active from an early age. Starting with a high school internship at a video-production house, she has been using the media as a tool for social justice work ever since. Ragni went to Hampshire College in the US to study Political Philosophy with a focus on Identity Politics and Video Production. Ragni now lives and works in New York.

Date: Sunday, 17th January, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Minimum 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.

Saturday, 16th January 2010 | 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Animation and Visual Effects is arguably the most rapidly evolving industry in the world. From Star Wars to Avatar, visual effects have come a long way. This fascinating session, conducted by Rehan Zia will demonstrate how computer generated characters and visual effects are combined seamlessly with live action film footage to take you through magical environments, realms of mystical creatures, and the ends of space.

Digital Multishot Photography techniques and their application to computer generated images will also be discussed.

About Rehan Zia

Rehan Zia is an amateur photographer and Demonstrator in Computer Animation and Digital Effects at the prestigious National Centre for Computer Animation, Bournemouth University, U.K. He was responsible for establishing and heading the Department of Media Studies at Iqra University before leaving for the UK to pursue a Masters in Digital Effects. He is also a moderator for www.cgexpanse.com, the Pakistani Digital Artists Forum.

Rehan is starting his PhD (By Practice) in the same discipline and wants to contribute as much as possible to academia and the local industry during the course of his research.

Date: Saturday, 16th January, 2010
Time: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Minimum 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.

Opening Date: Friday, 15th Jan 2010 | 5:30 pm

“My work deals with unwelcome external interferences in an individual’s everyday life. More recently, these interferences have evolved into those of a rigid, frustrated society that is found flourishing within our permanently gridlocked political and economic system. Through my work, I illustrate the individual’s varying reactions to these interferences, where these reactions range from acceptance to disconnection and even rejection”.
Sophiya Khwaja

Born and raised in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sophiya attended the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she selected Printmaking as her field of choice. After three years of intensive etching, she pursued a two year Printmaking Masters program at the renowned Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) that she attended on a Fulbright Scholarship awarded in 2004. Her focus through the duration of her MFA at RISD was also primarily on etching.

Back from RISD, Sophiya now resides in Islamabad, Pakistan, with her husband and is currently exhibiting work both in Pakistan and the United States. She is also a visiting professor of Printmaking at NCA.

This exhibition marks the inauguration of “Faraar”, a new PeaceNiche project created especially to showcase the work of emerging artists, designers, and photographers.

The exhibition will continue until Sunday 31st January 2010.

Opening Date: Friday, 15th January, 2010
Time: 5:30 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

Zeerak Ahmed & Shoaib Rizvi

Zeerak and Shoaib spent the summer painting after finishing their A Levels from Karachi Grammar School in 2009. They got in touch with us looking for an opportunity to exhibit their work. We liked what they showed us and agreed to a show, and also asked them if they’d like to paint a mural on one of our walls.

“We got to work, completely overwhelmed by this opportunity, and at the end of three painstaking weeks we were finally done. The mural is mainly a comment on the world through our eyes. It is loosely based on the sufi idea that listening to music is a spiritual experience which can bring people closer to God, leaving behind the physical world fraught with catastrophe and urban squalor.

As we have both had training in classical eastern music, we feel very strongly about the power of this art form. The mural explores the concept of paradise, and our individual attempts to reach paradise while still living in the physical world. Being raised in an urban setting, we have become aware of the disappearance of vibrant colour from the cityscape that is now turning into various shades of gray. This mural was our little attempt to bring back color to the city and in doing so bring back color to our lives.
 
We thoroughly enjoyed the freedom we were given by the T2F team, who not only trusted us amateurs, but also enthusiastically welcomed our psychedelic palette and non-traditional style. Probably the best start that we could ask for as aspiring artists.”

Zeerak Ahmed is currently at Hiram College, USA, pursuing an undergraduate degree with an Art major and Music minor.

Shoaib Rizvi lives in Karachi and is going to be studying medicine in London in 2010.

Uzair Akram

Uzair Akram is a graphic artist living and working in Karachi. He spends his days working as a Creative Director at RGBlue Communications and the rest of his time drawing MyndMaps.

“The mural at the entrance of T2F is the first time I did a MyndMap for an organization as opposed to an individual. It took me 12 hours. Love & Peace”.

Ammad Tahir

Ammad is a graduate of Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture with a major in Painting and a minor in Print-making. Since 2008, he has been actively involved in art projects, residencies, group shows and mural painting.

“I was delighted when T2F offered me a wall in the new space. The balcony, which is also a smoker’s area, was the perfect place for me to use my imagination and draw something close to my realities and emotions. I had been thinking about these unusual creatures that originate from the sea. These carnal characters, stung by jelly fish, have entered a trance-like space and become people of pleasure. They are alive and are celebrating the darkest realities of life, but nothing in them is human”.

I finally stumbled upon Checkout by a cool little company called Sofa. I knew them as the developers of Disco, a disc burning application which had gotten a lot of flak from the old-guard Mac community for being nothing but eye candy. But anyway, Checkout looked fantastic and did everything we needed and more. However, the US$ 400 price tag was daunting so I wrote a beseeching note to the Sofa guys and told them about PeaceNiche and what we were planning to do and requested a discount. One of the founders wrote back immediately and offered a 30% discount. I was thrilled. The next day he wrote again and said that he and the other boys had discussed our case and wanted to give us a 50% discount. I was gob-smacked.

Checkout is a beautiful piece of software with all the polish of a Mac app. Beneath the prettiness, lies a robust point of sale application, packed with features, reports, and functionality that a retail environment needs. I especially love the Import Products feature that works like a charm. Very useful when you need to input hundreds of book titles.

Moving on … T2F 2.0 is on two floors and we’re having trouble with one Point of Sale station. So, I wrote to my Sofa friends again to ask about a second license and whether there were any chances of a discount :D The company has now been acquired, is much bigger, and they have a dedicated support team so I had no expectations. I got a response immediately and the support gentleman said we could get a second license at 50% off, just like the last time. I just couldn’t believe it. So, I stayed up a couple of nights and did some graphic design work worth $200 and paid for another license of Checkout yesterday. Super excited. I still cannot get over how supportive the Sofa team have been and will remain devoted to them forever.

If anyone would like to see a demo of Checkout and how it works on the network and with receipt printers, please let me know. I’d love to show it off :)

Thank you Sofa!

Sunday, 3rd January 2010 | 6:00 pm

The nine Rural Support Programs featured in Mahmood Hasan Khan’s book have helped organise over a million rural households into participatory organizations with nearly two million members. Discover the stories of ordinary men and woman who have made a demonstrable difference in their communities through participatory rural support programs.

About Mahmood Hasan Khan

Mahmood Hasan Khan is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has been a keen student and researcher of different aspects of agricultural and rural development, particularly in Pakistan, for over 40 years. The author has published thirty-five articles in professional journals and seven books, and co-authored five books. His well-known titles are: The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development (1966); The Economics of the Green Revolution in Pakistan (1975); Underdevelopment and Agrarian Structure in Pakistan (1981); Climbing the Development Ladder (1998); and Agriculture in Pakistan (2006). Mahmood Hasan Khan has worked as a consultant for international organisations, including OECD, ILO, FAO, IMF, UNDP, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank, and several public and private sector organisations in and outside Pakistan.

This event is brought to you by Oxford University Press

Date: Sunday, 3rd January, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: PeaceNiche | T2F
Address | Map

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