Lok Virsa to hold classical music mehfil talk

Islamabad

Dr Fawzia Afzal Khan, a Professor visiting from New Jersey, USA will sing and talk on classical music at National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage Lok Virsa here on February 25. Dr Fawzia Khan is a scholar and a classical singer living in New Jersey, USA.

She will sing ‘Kafi’ from Bulleh Shah in ‘Raag Yaman Kalyan’ and ‘Khayal’ in ‘Raag Malkauns’.  She will also screen four short samples from her ongoing documentary film project Siren Song Pakistani Women Singers.

She received a development grant in 2012 from the National Endowment of the Humanities in the USA and is currently seeking production funding to complete the project which is a cultural history of Pakistan as told through the lives and music of its women singers.  She will also discuss some of her research on this project entitled From the Melody Queen to the Muslim Madonna A Her story of Pakistan Through its Women Singers said the organizers.

Fawzia Afzal Khan’ is Professor of English at Montclair State University and won University Distinguished Scholar Award 2009 10. She was Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program from 2009 15. She is author of two books of scholarly criticism Cultural Imperialism Genre and Ideology in the Indo English Novel (Penn State Press 1993) and A Critical Stage: The Role of Secular Alternative Theatre in Pakistan (Seagull Press 2005).

She is co editor of The Pre Occupation of Postcolonial Studies (Duke University Press 2000) and Editor of the best selling anthology Shattering the Stereotypes Muslim Women Speak Out (Interlink Books 2005).  Her memoir Lahore with Love Growing Up With Girlfriends Pakistani Style was published by Syracuse University Press in 2010. Afzal Khan is a trained vocalist in North Indian Classical music a published playwright and poet and has worked as an actor and performer for Ajoka Theatre Troupe of Pakistan as well as with the experimental theatre collective Compagnie Faim de Siecle of which she was one of the founding members.

Her one woman show Scheherezade Goes West and plays Sext of Saudade (co written with Annie Lanzillotto) and Jihad Against Violence (co written with Bina Sharif) have been published inTDR (The Drama review) and performed at universities and other venues in the USA as well as internationally.