Postcards
Can Art Heal?
12-Apr-2023
Earlier this month I did a session on period art with the undergraduate students on the Public Health programme at the University of Pittsburg.
The subject of my presentation was specifically Raqs-e- Mahvaari, or menstrual dance which is included in Period Matters, and choreographed and performed by Amna Mawaz Khan. I discussed various forms of art and how they can help community healing, self expression, raise awareness, help to educate, as a data collection tool and more…
June Gachui interviews Farah Ahamed
11-Apr-2023
Listen now on SoundCloud. Farah discusses her motivation for writing Period Matters and draws out four main themes which she feels would be of interest to young Kenyans. These include period tracking apps, climate change and period poverty, art and activism and policy and regulations relating to periods at work and social media spaces. She also speaks about the need for inclusivity and highlighted the trans experience, those of people with disabilities and others…
Book launch at Muthaiga Country Club, Nairobi
24-Mar-2023
On a warm Friday evening in March, fifteen people gathered at the Muthaiga Country Club in Nairobi to discuss period art as a way of opening up the conversation into the many ways in which menstruation is experienced. Through an engaging power point presentation, participants discussed film, art, sculpture, poetry and other artistic mediums which depicted menstruation. They made period art, shared personal experiences and talked about how periods were shrouded in myths and shame…
Workshop on Why Period Art Matters
7-Mar-2023
I conducted a workshop which looked at how menstruation is depicted in different forms of art at a university in Lahore. It attracted over 40 participants who engaged in the images and clips I shared, and also made art of their own.
I spoke about the diversity of menstruation experiences and the importance of inclusivity to ensure all menstruators were part of the conversation.
A Period Piece
3-Mar-2023
By Azadeh Monzavi
My period journey began while walking through the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s historic train which was making a stop at various cities throughout Turkiye in either 1998 or 1999. I remember vividly jumping off from the train steps and suddenly feeling something happen within my body. I was unsure of what it could have been at the time….
Why period art matters
3-Mar-2023
Why Period Art Matters was a live session on Instagram, held on 8th December to celebrate Dignified Menstruation Day It was hosted by the publishers of Period Matters, Pan Macmillan.
The session focussed on the importance of period art as a tool for healing, community building, activism, education and as a pathway to self-connection.
Meeting the Pan Macmillan Team
6-Feb-2023
It was wonderful to finally meet the superb team at Pan Macmillan in Delhi. Teesta and I had been in contact for over five years. I found her name in the back of Love in Chakiwara when I checked to see who the editor was because the writing was so smooth. I thought then, if I ever had a book, I’d want to work with her…
Menstrual art for sale
6-Feb-2023
Lyla FreeChild has made her artworks Aadya Shakti and Reflowering available as prints for sale. These are A3 size Giclee Prints on Museum Etching Paper (high archival quality). Each print is individually signed by the artist…
Meeting Shashi Deshpande
6-Feb-2023
In December 2022 I made a special trip to India to meet with the contributors of Period Matters. Through the book I feel I have made lifelong friends. I first read Shashi Deshpande’s work in the 1980’s and there I found in one of her novels a description of menstruation. One of the characters Saru, descriped how awful it was for her. I was surprised because menstruation was never talked about in those days, let alone appearing in fiction…
No need to be quiet
6-Feb-2023
Eleanor Roosevelt asked, where do human rights begin? Where do they matter? In places too small to be seen on maps, in classrooms, playgrounds, offices and homes… Obviously she was speaking before the days of Google maps, but she made an important point that if they didn’t matter there, they didn’t matter anywhere else.
Book event at Kunzum Bookshop
6-Feb-2023
In December we had a live book event at the Kunzum Bookshop in Delhi. There I met for the first time the artist who did the artwork for the bookcover Lyla FreeChild, my editor Teesta Guha Sarkar, and Saburi Pandit from Pan Macmillan.
Reviews in 2023
9-Jan-2023
I finished Farah’s Period book a while ago, but it has really affected my view of the world. It’s not that I didn’t know about these problems, but somehow the way it came across with the variety of stories and perspectives and scholarship gave a very powerful impression of what women all over the world are up against, in these times when we ought to know better…