“Afghan Americans: Ten Years Later” took place on October 7, 2011 at the Mandragoras Art Space in Long Island City, New York and was sponsored by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and 10 Years and Counting. The event fell on the 10th anniversary of the US-led war in Afghanistan, and brought together people from throughout the Afghan diaspora in New York as well as the local LIC community. It was a multimedia interactive exhibit featuring live musical and spoken word performances. The event was meant to show how Afghan Americans use creative expression to critique US policy in Afghanistan and its ongoing war. We explored the entangled histories of both countries, and the role of the diaspora in political and social critique.
The event featured live poetry readings, documentaries, and musical performances. Wazhmah Osman, who is a filmmaker and professor of media communications at Temple University screened her film “Postcards from Tora Bora” which chronicled her and her families’ return to Afghanistan shortly after 2001, and the disorientation of that experience.
