First all-women panel in city fosters new platform for creative growth of young women

Islamabad

In a first-of-its-kind feature event, ‘The Missing Slate’ and ‘Minerva’ introduced a series of chats aimed at emerging female artists and writers here at The Hive.

Titled ‘The Professionals: Fireside Chats,’ the series aims to facilitate a platform for female professionals in the creative arts by introducing them to women already established in their respective fields of literature, art, and film.

The panellists were Sophia Khan, author of ‘Yasmeen’, HarperCollins 2016; acclaimed poet Ilona Yusuf, Alia Bilgrami, visual artist and winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Public Vote Prize (Schoeni), 2015; and Madeeha Raza, who launched the Women International Film Festival, to much acclaim, earlier this month.

Speaking on their roles as professional women in their fields, Ilona Yusuf said, “I don’t see myself as a poetess. ‘Poet’ works fine for me.” Following on from this statement, Alia Bilgrami said, “I would just want to be perceived as an artist, not a female artist.”

 “Thinking about how your work is perceived is like shooting yourself in the foot—you can’t cater to everyone,” Sophia Khan mentioned when talking about her writing. She added, “I’ve never written anything autobiographical but people try to connect the lives of my characters to me (anyway).”

The Fireside Chats aim to fill a gap currently missing in the city’s events scene that caters exclusively to women emerging in the creative arts. Speaking on the need for such events, Sana Khalid, CEO of Minerva said, “There are a lot of panels out there that either cater to men (in largely technology) or are too broad in their focus.” Maryam Piracha, Editor-in-Chief of The Missing Slate added, “We don’t see much, if any, events beyond the three literature festivals that cater to the creative arts…and there’s a lot of interest out there.”

The Missing Slate is the creative brainchild of Maryam Piracha and Creative Director Moeed Tariq. The magazine was founded in 2010 and has published work from over 90 countries and translations from over 40 languages. Minerva is a social enterprise operating from Islamabad since 2011, known for its employability and job readiness programmes. The enterprise has helped over 100 young students and graduates design personal brands to help them kick-start their careers. Over 5,000 individuals have graduated from its creative career workshops and courses. Minerva now plans to launch an online learning platform and a personal branding boot camp to facilitate learning and employability.