Khūrākī: Celebrating Afghan women's voices through theatre, food, & music

Commissioned by the Office of Public Art, Khūrākī is a live-art event created by Real/Time Interventions to celebrate the Afghan community of Pittsburgh through theatrical portraits of five women. 

I joined the project in 2019 as a student in Professor Monique Mead's class on Audience Engagement at Carnegie Mellon University. Along with my classmates, I met members of the Afghan refugee community, learned about the provinces where they are from, and exchanged themes across traditions to curate the music for Khūrākī.

Since then, I have performed in Khūrākī as a musician on numerous occasions, from City of Asylum at Alphabet City to LESLLA (a national conference on adult literacy and language acquisition).

 

This collaboration is especially dear to me, as it combines my passions for celebrating women's voices, storytelling, sharing music across cultural traditions, community engagement, and more.

 

Video by Emily Gallagher.
 

Update, February 2020:

We are performing another run from March 11 to 14! For tickets, visit https://realtimeinterventions.org/

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To learn more about Zafaron, Pittsburgh's first women-owned Afghan catering business, click here.