About this Event
As part of the UK wide ‘Everything to Everybody’ tour celebrate Shakespeare with DESIblitz. Join us in Birmingham’s Bullring where alongside music, entertainment and food, you will get to hear extracts of classic Indian stories, inspired by the works of Shakespeare, read in Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali by authors Abda Khan, Shamim Azad and presenter Suki Bart.
Visitors will have the opportunity to see the one of a kind DESIblitz Truck Art Bus decorated last year by world-renowned professional truck artist Haider Ali from Pakistan. The truck will feature as part of the 'Everything to Everybody' project, South Asian material from Birmingham's Shakespeare collection. The materials are a mix of digitised pages from plays, adaptions and scans of posters - this will include a range of South Asian languages reflecting the more than 94 languages that appear within Birmingham's Shakespeare collection.
About the speakers
Abda Khan
Abda Khan is a lawyer turned writer and author of the novels ‘Stained’ (2016), and ‘Razia’ (2019). She has finished her third novel, and is researching her next book, which will be her first historical novel, inspired by her late father who fought in Burma in WW2. In 2023 she published her debut poetry collection, ‘Losing Battles Winning Wars’. Her work has also featured in anthologies and other publications. Abda writes commissioned pieces (short scripts, poetry, spoken word, fiction and non-fiction) for various publications, organisations and projects. She runs creative writing courses, and produces and directs a variety of creative projects. In ‘Sidelines to Centre Stage’ (2019) she delivered writing workshops to survivors of domestic violence and female ex-prisoners whose work was shared (anonymously) on stage. In 2022 she created and delivered ‘Tappay Tales’, a community-based project which explored traditional Pakistani folk songs through creative writing, poetry, music and drama which culminated in showcase performances, a book and a short film. She is a DESIblitz Arts Ambassador, a Lloyds Bank Women of the Future Ambassador, and won British Muslim Woman of the Year in 2019.
Shamin Azad
Shamim is a prolific bilingual (Beng-English) author, performance poet and storyteller. She has performed at venues ranging from the Museum of London and Poetry Café to the British Council in Bangladesh and Edinburg Fringe Festival. Her poems and translations were published in New Yorker, Majestic Nights by White Pine Press USA, The Red Beck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry, Velocity the 25 years of Best of Apples & Snakes by Black Spring Press UK, Modern Poetry in Translation and Mother Tongues by Kings College London. She has published 37 books in English and Bangla. Shamim has received many recognitions from Bangladesh and UK including residency with A Poet’s Agora in Athens 2019 and Artist in the Community Award as an Apples and Snakes artist, by National Lottery 2020 UK.
Sukhi Bart
Radio presenter, TV presenter, Lyricist, Singer, Actor, You Tuber, Dancer, DJ, you name it and Sukhi Bart has successfully done it. When it comes to Panjabi Music (or better known as Bhangra) Sukhi has been at its forefront for almost three decades. Sukhi was a founding member of the highly successful Bhangra dancing group, Gabhru Panjab De (GPD), which for the last 31 years has continued to go from strength to strength. He remains actively involved and takes great pride in his longstanding association with GPD. Sukhi has extensive experience on Radio, Television and Open stage live presentation. He has hosted some of the most renowned live stage shows in the industry from Gurdass Mann to Babu Mann and interviewed the biggest names in the industry from Amtabh Bachan to the legendry Dharmindra. No role is too big or small for Sukhi. His creative flare and conscientious nature has enabled him to gain the respect of his fellow peers and legendary figures throughout the world. In the process of launching his own Podcast very soon, so watch this space… It is no surprise therefore that Sukhi is currently one of the most recognised personalities on the British Asian entertainment scene.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bullring & Grand Central, Moor Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00