for the sake of dancing in the street

for the sake of dancing in the street is a group exhibition celebrating the interconnectedness of feminist and queer resistance. Collectively the work documents and amplifies individual acts of resistance as well as historical and ongoing global feminist protest movements, including the current uprisings in Iran--creating connections between these movements across space and time. Archival materials, videos, zines and posters trace these connections and create new reverberating calls to action. Central to the exhibition is a focus on dance as a liberatory practice, using disruption, joy and irreverence as critical tactics.

The exhibition features installations by LASTESIS, Morehshin Allahyari and Yasmine Nasser Diaz, in conversation with works by Ava Ansari, Geochicas, and archival materials compiled by Caitlin Abadir-Mullally and Raja Bella Hicks. An original print by Entangled Roots Press is featured in the gallery space and available as a takeaway.

As part of for the sake of dancing in the street, LAND is thrilled to present For Your Eyes Only (FYEO) by Yasmine Diaz. FYEO is the latest iteration of multidisciplinary artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s bedroom installation. The space contains signifiers familiar to SWANA* communities, but relatable to many adolescents of the diaspora. Against the graphic pink wallpaper, a two-channel video includes a projection of women and non-binary persons dancing in a reel of online selfie videos. A second video montage of news clips featuring women-led political rallies from around the Global South plays on a 90’s-era television set. FYEO presents a layered constellation of interrelated realities, spanning borders, identities, and time, aligning along intersectional and transnational movements of solidarity. The project intends to create a space to strengthen bonds between female and non-binary diasporic communities. By juxtaposing the diasporic dilemma alongside ongoing struggles for rights by women across the region and beyond, the FYEO installation generates complex yet hopeful connections rooted in possibilities for the future.

The exhibition and associated programming were conceived and organized in collaboration with OXY ARTS, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), and Yasmine Nasser Diaz.

Yasmine Nasser Diaz is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice draws from nuanced, discordant, and evolving concepts of culture, class, gender, religion, and family. She uses mixed media collage, photo-based fiber etching, immersive installation, audio, and video to explore connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures. Born in the United States to parents who immigrated from the highlands of Southern Yemen, her youth was shaped by traversing the discordant environments of a tightly collectivist Yemeni diaspora, ‘90s inner-city Chicago, and Western society that prizes individualism and consumerism.

Diaz uses her work to navigate these experiences while exploring themes of gender and bicultural identity; family honor, shame and reputation. She sees her practice as a place of relevance for others, particularly those of the growing multicultural diasporas of the Global South who have migrated to areas of the Global North. Diaz is especially interested in complex narratives of third-culture identity, their precarious invisibility/hyper-visibility, and the friction often experienced between the individual and the collective.

Opening Reception

June 3

6-8PM

Celebrate the opening of for the sake of dancing in the street with a live DJ, food, drinks and dancing along with a special dance performances activating the exhibition. TCS (Tea Devereaux, Simrin Player, and Chryssa Hadjis) will perform an original dance piece commissioned in response to Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s installation, For Your Eyes Only. The performance will be set to the FYEO soundtrack composed by Carol Ohair, who will also be DJing throughout the night.

Performance times: 6:30PM and 8PM

Workshop: Social Media for Social Justice

June 22

7-10PM

Join us for an art workshop facilitated by Mandy Harris Williams of the FCCW exploring the use of social media as a tool of resistance. Participants will consider and create through multiple mediums (visual, text, video, etc), innovate and share best practices, and develop their own social media praxis.

Mandy Harris Williams is a theorist, multimedia conceptual artist, writer, educator, radio host and internet/community academic. She works as the Programming Director for Feminist Center for Creative Work (Formerly Women's Center for Creative Work). And joins us, as with most things, in all of these aforementioned capacities.

Raï Dance Workshop with Esraa Warda

July 8

1-2PM

Join us for a dance workshop by artist and educator Esraa Warda. This workshop will explore the movement of Raï, the popular, grass-roots music of West Algeria associated with social protest. Raï music is rebel blues - it challenges the religious, the colonial, the social, and the acceptable status quo and therefore has been historically disenfranchised by colonialists and local Algerian nation-state. Despite its marginalization, it has been a symbol of soulfulness, freedom, and groove. Participants will learn Raï "groove" through rhythmic and fundamental footwork. The workshop is open to people of all experience levels.

Esraa Warda is New York's emerging dance artist and educator specializing in Algerian & Moroccan traditional dance forms. A child of the Algerian diaspora, Warda is a cultural warrior advocating for the representation & preservation of North African women-led dance traditions and the decolonization of euro-centricity, orientalism, and patriarchy in dance. Her dance workshops and lectures have trailblazed their way to educational institutions such as Cornell University, Wellesley College, King's College (London), and University of Ottawa. She performs with notable North African women's groups such as Rai icon Cheikha Rabia (Paris), and Bnat el Houariyat (Marrakech) and often performs internationally in New York, Paris, Belgium, Casablanca, and London.

Raï Dance Performance with Esraa Warda and Fella Oudane

July 8

6PM

Join us for a Raï dance performance by artist and educator Esraa Warda accompanied by local percussionist, Fella Oudane.

Raï is a popular, grass-roots music of West Algeria associated with social protest. Raï music is rebel blues - it challenges the religious, the colonial, the social, and the acceptable status quo and therefore has been historically disenfranchised by colonialists and local Algerian nation-state. Despite its marginalization, it has been a symbol of soulfulness, freedom, and groove.

JOYLAND (2022) Screening + Conversation

July 20

6-9PM

JOYLAND is an Urdu and Punjabi-language Pakistani drama film written and directed by Saim Sadiq in his feature film directorial debut. It was the first Pakistani film to be shortlisted in the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards. It won the Jury Prize and Queer Palm Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. JOYLAND is an achingly honest, luminous drama tackling gender and desire.

Synopsis: JOYLAND explores the many sides of love and desire in a patriarchal society. Gentle and timid, Haider (Ali Junejo) lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), his father, and his elder brother’s family in Lahore, Pakistan. Following a long spell of unemployment, Haider finally lands a job at a Bollywood-style burlesque, telling his family he is a theater manager, when in actuality, he is a backup dancer. The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. As he acclimates to the new job, Haider becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman Biba (Alina Khan) who runs the show—an unforeseen partnership that opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview, in ways both unexpected and intimate.

This screening is curated by Womxn in Windows.

Post-screening conversation with: Zehra Zehra, Founder of Womxn in Windows Mohammed Ali Naqvi, Producer & Director Sana Jafri, Co-Producer and Casting Director, Joyland Nova, Actor, Model, and Social Media Manager, Womxn in Windows

Poetry Reading Hosted by TQR Mag

July 29

6-8PM

To close out the season, TQR (The Quarterless Review) presents a selection of poetry readings curated by Managing Editor Sarah Yanni. The invited poets will weave stories of queerness, joy, and placemaking, prompted by the various themes of for the sake of dancing in the street.

Featuring readings by Safia Elhillo, Ikram Lakhdhar, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Ivanna Baranova, and Sarah Yanni.

TQR is a multidisciplinary arts journal, publishing both digital and print works. Currently run across LA and NYC, the journal began in 2020 and features work in all / between genres. The annual riso-printed magazine can be found locally at Skylight Books, Stories Books & Cafe, des pair, and North Figueroa Bookshop.

LAND’s 2023 exhibitions are made possible with lead support from the Offield Family Foundation, the Jerry and Terri Kohl Family Foundation, and The Perenchio Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, the LA Arts Recovery Fund, Brenda Potter, the Wilhelm Family Foundation and LAND’s Nomadic Council. Special thanks to Artist Sponsors Karen Hillenburg, Liana Krupp, Abby Pucker, Stacy and John Rubeli, Ben Weyerhaeuser, and the Poncher Family Foundation.

LAND is a member of and supported by the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition.

LAND is a member-supported organization. Support LAND’s free, public programming by becoming a member today.