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Find your place in the RESISTANCE
by Farhana Sobhan Shama | Alliance of South Asians Taking Action
Acrylic painting
Image by Nordlys Photography
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Find your place in the RESISTANCE is a project that highlights indigenous resistances and other sociopolitical resistances that are currently taking place in South Asia. The intention is to draw attention to homeland resistances that we may not be paying attention to. Farhana wanted to learn more about South Asia by researching about it and talking to people who know more about parts of South Asia than her. Farhana welcomes feedback, corrections, and additional nuanced history that she may have missed or misunderstood in compiling this together. Farhana relied on verified Instagram content creators (albeit Instagram’s censure algorithm) and first hand accounts of folks to do research for this project. This was intentional due to the ongoing suppression of Palestine content in academic and journalist institutions. Farhana wanted to decolonize who we deem as “experts,” and centered the voices of the people.
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Accompanying the art piece is a curated Spotify playlist that gives listeners a window to discovering new songs and sounds from South Asia and its diaspora. Guided by the concentric rings in her piece Find your place in the RESISTANCE where each ring represents a region in South Asia, the playlist mirrors this progression, weaving together a journey of five songs per circle, beginning with Palestine at the center, and radiating outward to Kashmir, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Ilankai/Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, India, and then the South Asian Indentured Ancestries. Inspired by the structure of the Five Rhythms, the playlist is designed to evoke a flowing sound “wave” listeners can dance to. Listen to the playlist here.
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About the Artist:
Farhana Sobhan Shama (she/her/সে) is a queer Muslim Bangladeshi-American psychotherapist, Expressive Arts therapist and artist located in the Bay Area. She weaves together multimodal expressive arts tools such as visual, music, dance/movement, literary arts, and play in her work with clients, both individually or in groups. Farhana often incorporates art to aid in processing trauma as it can bypass the intellectualization of a traumatic event and encourage quicker processing. Farhana loves to do collaborative art to expand the narrative of art as process and community building rather than something that’s to be owned or purchased. Farhana believes that each person is born an artist and has the innate ability to create and express themselves. She works with Alliance of South Asians Taking Action.
