What happens to a people in the spaces between memories of their past and the unknowns of the present and future? Between historical legacies, military occupation, and feelings of abandonment?
The everyday creative capacities of Afghans to resist and to push beyond the usual representations of Afghanistan will be on display at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery’s new exhibit, “Emergenc(y): Afghan Lives Beyond the Forever War.” Co-organized by the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA), and featuring 25 artists and 29 writers, Emergenc(y) will be on view February 22 to March 21, 2023.
“Emergenc(y): Afghan Lives Beyond the Forever War” centers the artistry and voices of Afghans whose work examines the human impact of occupation, the recent withdrawal of the US, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Afghans throughout the world in their struggle to search for refuge and a sense of permanence, place, and belonging.
Presented in tandem with the exhibit is the new collection “Emergenc(y): Writing Afghan Lives Beyond the Forever War: An Anthology of Writing from Afghanistan and its Diaspora,” which includes 32 written works, as well as four photographs from the exhibit. The works speak to the immediate days following the 2021 US withdrawal and Taliban takeover, daily life for Afghans and its diaspora over the past decades, and the futures that these communities see and imagine for themselves.
