buhguhz: Asad Ali Jafri is a cultural producer, global arts leader and multidisciplinary artist with
buhguhz: Asad Ali Jafri is a cultural producer, global arts leader and multidisciplinary artist with a creative vision for sustainable social change. As an innovative thinker, Asad utilizes the universal language of art to connect communities, cultures and people to transform our interactions, perceptions, and consciousness. Since 2001, Asad has worked passionately with artists, creatives, and thought leaders across nations, disciplines, and genres to curate meaningful productions, design sustainable initiatives, and build strong communities. As a cultural producer, Asad is the creative mind behind many festivals, concerts, events and productions. In the role of Director of Arts and Culture for IMAN (Inner-city Muslim Action Network), until 2012, Asad produced Takin’ It to the Streets: Urban International Festival and the Community Café series featuring hundreds of artists and attracting thousands of people. Asad has also produced events across the globe, including, most recently, the Marketplace of Creative Arts in Kuala Lumpur and London. As a global arts leader, Asad works closely with emerging and established artists on new opportunities for original work, developmental workshops, artist retreats and residencies, cultural exchanges, network building, and resource sharing. Asad has served as a touring Cultural Ambassador for the US Sate Department as well as an advisor for the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Center Stage and Art Midwest’s CaravanSerai programs to bring international performing artists on US residency tours. One of Asad’s newer projects, launching in London, is MOCAfellows - a three-day intensive on professional and business development for artists. As a multi-disciplinary artist, Asad plays and blends soulful, spiritual, and, of course, funky music from around the globe as DJ Man-O-Wax. As a founding member and director of FEW Collective, Asad directs and tours with a rotating group of performing artists and musicians using art to engage, educate, and inspire. One of Asad’s signature productions as an artist is “Turntable Dhikr” - a spiritual meditation on the Divine through turntablism. Asad has performed as an artist across five continents and ten countries and is a proud member of the Universal Zulu Nation. But what makes Asad’s work unique and important is how he brings it all together around Community Building. He leads many youth workshops and leadership programs, including, for example, the recent Young Fellows program on behalf of the World Islamic Economic Forum, which brought 25 young people to Durban, South Africa for a week of holistic leadership development. Asad also helped establish “thinkTALK,” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a way to build community dialogue around topical issues. In short, Asad melds his love of people, communities, and travel with his experience in art, music, and cultural production while aiming to create positive and intergenerational transformation within communities. -- source link