In June 2019, Gazelle Samizay and Helena Zeweri led a workshop on creative outlets for expression at the Afghan American Conference at UC-Irvine. The workshop aimed to facilitate a space where participants could think out loud with each other about how to channel their strengths as artists, activists, writers, academics, or advocates to bring the Afghan diaspora into public spaces in innovative ways. It is often challenging for Afghan Americans to bring their whole intersectional identities into either professional or creative spaces. They are oftentimes told to channel their strengths toward professional and educational mobility in place of more creative projects through which they can express themselves politically and culturally. In this session, we discussed how to demarginalize non-normative forms of personhood within public creative expression. Participants thought about how creative work can feed into public engagement and social justice in relation to the Afghan diaspora and beyond.
