Ilana Alazzeh

Happy Friday the 13th! EvilArtForm.com

"Is it love or my ego that I cry for in dreams?" English Ghazal Written, Performed with Sitar and Recitated by Omar Pitras Waqar with Ilana Alazzeh on Tanpuri and Drone Vocals

Diverse crowd comes out to the #OurThreeBrothers Vigil held in Washington DC commemorating the three victims from Sudanese immigrant families: 23-year-old Mohamedtaha Omar, 20-year old Adam Mekki and 17-year-old Muhammad Tairab. 

Iota night club: Arlington, VA

January 30, 2016

DriveTFC 11:50 - 12:30 Fellowcraft 11:00 - 11:40 Evilartform 10:10 - 10:50 Phil Rossi 9:20 - 10:00 Steve Bowes 8:30 - 9:10

Steve Bowes http://www.pharmacyprophets.com/

Phil Rossi http://www.philrossi.net/

we will win.

to those who have been told they are too femme, too dirty, too queer to be loved, to be spiritual, to be embraced–we will win.

—

Background: there’s a common tradition that says when someone is on their period they are not ‘ritually pure’ and they not allowed to touch the Qur'an. not all muslims believe in having a period makes you ritually impure but the tradition is enough to make people feel self conscious and guilty for how God made them. there are many different religious traditions that talk about when someone is on their period that they are ritually impure like Judaism. I’m not here for that.

Since water can’t reach the nails nailpolish is often an indication that someone is on their period.

winning is also in reference to the chapter or passage called “the victory” in the Qur'an.

I want my Islam–as I know Allah already does– to embrace the divorcees, the sex workers, the drag queens, the homeless, the undocumented, the beauty of black and brown skin, the differently abled, the trans man who fears judgement when entering a gendered entrance to a masjid, the immigrant mom who stigmatizes the therapy she needs and thinks she can pray it away, the guy that struggles to find time for self care because he’s at a min wage job trying to make ends meet, that person told that they can’t touch God’s word because they have their menses…..

I don’t want my Islam–or your Islam–your spirituality–your life! to be wholly determined by some book educated, white/Arab, mildly attractive man who tells us to “pray the shaytan away” instead of uninstalling the oppression that made us unwell in the first place, obeying laws that serve an ideal and not humans, manifesting us being in a zombie state and continuing the cycle of trauma and ignoring that the injury even happened.

and i really don’t want my spirituality to be a vehicle to continue that cycle of hurt and pain.

we will win.

“Om is not just a sound or vibration. It is not just a symbol. It is the entire cosmos, whatever we can see, touch, hear and feel. Moreover, it is all that is within our perception and all that is beyond our perception. It is the core of our very existence. If you think of Om only as a sound, a technique or a symbol of the Divine, you will miss it altogether. Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.” ― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.” ― Jim Morrison