Art and the visual has played a pivotal role in the socio-political history of humanity. Existing since the time when mankind had limited modes of communication as well as vocabulary, it is an organic canvas representing ideas – shared and otherwise – riveting emotions and angst. Keeping in mind the role of art as a fearless and many a times non-conforming tool of expression in terms of resistance, Ananke’s Women in Literature Festival unveils a fascinating panel discussion titled Illustrated Resistance.
The session will be held on the second day of festival – April 12th, 2023 and will be live-streamed on Ananke’s Facebook page – @anankemag with the option to participate in all live sessions via Zoom. To attend the session, email: media@anankemag.com
The panel Illustrated Resistance will focus on harnessing the power of the visual and illustration in terms of resistance, resilience, identity and more. Speakers of the session include Ita Mehrotra and Samiya Arif. (Watch this space for more speakers’ announcements)
Ita Mehrotra
Ita Mehrotra is a visual artist, researcher and educator based out of New Delhi. Ita creates non-fiction comics, illustrated text and animation, stemming most often from engagements within socio-political shifts around her, and in unravelling their particular histories. Her work has been published and exhibited by thewire.in , popula.org, Zubaan Books, Goethe Institute, Yoda Press, AdAstra Comix, Fumetto Festival, among others. Her book Shaheen Bagh, A Graphic Recollection (Yoda Press 2021) brings together moments and memories from the anti-CAA protests over 2019-2020 across India. She is currently Creative Director of Artreach India.
Talking about her participation, Ita said: “It is essential to have literary Festivals like Ananke, that foreground the voices of women, by women – and I’m so happy to be able to share my graphic reportage work, especially around documenting the anti-CAA movement led by Muslim women in India, at this year’s edition of the Festival…!”
Ita’s co-panelist, Samya Arif is an internationally featured visual artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Her practice focuses on observations of social and cultural paradigms from a woman’s perspective, embodying womxn and the spaces they inhabit. After graduating from the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture in Communication Design, she has created visuals for various publications, music artists, book covers, and film posters.
Samya Arif
Samya has been featured in The New York Times, the BBC, Vice, CBC, The Fader and Pitchfork. Her projects include clients such as Penguin Books, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Al Jazeera, the US Embassy in Nepal, British Council, NPR and Google. She has been a regular illustrator at Pakistan’s renowned Herald magazine. Her work has been exhibited in Pakistan, India, UAE, England, US, Belgium and Spain. Samya currently lives and works in Karachi, Pakistan and is a part-time professor at her alma mater.
Participating for the second time at the festival, Samiya said: “Excited for this literary festival that focuses on featuring brilliant women writers, designers, and philosophers especially from the South Asian hemisphere!”
Eminent names from across South Asia, MENA and beyond will be gracing the third edition of Ananke’s Women in Literature Festival 2023 (AnankeWLF). Planned to be held on April 11th and 12th, independent publishers, authors, filmmakers, artists, writers and journalists will congregate remotely to engage in dialogue focusing on new immersive approaches to storytelling, publishing and experiential interpretations. The conversation will also center on the importance of inclusion in the production and dissemination of the written word, which not only envisions to diversify and democratize the publishing landscape, it offers access and representation.
Partners of the event include Zubaan Books, Seagull Books, Zuka Books, Neem Tree Press, Yoda Press and Readomania. More partners and collaborators will be announced soon.
Watch this space for more information!
Festival Topics Ideas (not limited to the below)
- Exploring New Pathways to Creativity and Literature
- The Language of Grief vis-à-vis the Dialectics of Freedom & Autonomy
- The Migratory Experience of Language
- Digital Disruption & Content
- Decentralizing the human to realize an inclusive world – Ending the era of the Vitruvian man
- Reimagining Anthropocene: A post-humanist exploration of climate resilience, urbanism, and nonhuman habitat loss in South Asian fiction
- Blurred Lines: On Science, Fiction and Fantasy
- The Age of the Graphic Novel
- Inclusive Publishing
- Publisher’s Corner
- Spotlight
- Illustrated Resistance
- Transnational Feminism in Print and Media
