The Lines of Resistance exhibit took place at the Beit Zeitoun Gallery from April 9-17, 2011.

The artwork was organized into three broad categories, Experience of Prison, Resistance and Images of Hope, which can be viewed in their online galleries.  Images from the exhibition can be viewed in this gallery below.

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An informative brochure was produced for the exhibition, and an information sheet was written for visitors to take with them, following the exhibition.  Please explore both of these for more information about the Lines of Resistance show.

Talking Prison: Creating Art and Making Justice was a multidisciplinary art event held at Hart House at the University of Toronto on June 19, 2010.  The event featured dramatic performances, music, and visual art displays.  The performance was recorded and documented.

December 10, 2011.

This project had three distinct parts. The first two parts occurred simultaneously while the third part was more about the sharing of experiences with broader audiences within both Canada and internationally. Participants in this project explored various visual art mediums including painting, sculpture, photography and mixed media works (including photo transfer); creative written works including story and poetry; and dance.

Participants in this project were either former political prisoners or had been affected by violence in the Islamic Republic of Iran. All of them had a connection to Iran but had also come to Canada at various times over the past 20 years. They began to create art together as a part of arts-based research done by Bethany Osborne. Although former political prisoners faced language barriers in talking about their experiences within the prison system, the art workshops offered a safe place for them to be able to express themselves.

A number of individual and collective projects were undertaken over a six month period. At the end of the workshops, the participants decided to continue to meet. The art creation had a therapeutic effect on them as well as fulfilling a community building function. They also had many discussions about speaking out against state sponsored violence through art mediums.

There were three initial workshops, exploring writing, theatre and dance.  The project culminated in the Talking Prison performance on June 19th, 2010.

Here’s the poster from the theatre workshop that was hosted at OISE as part of the Words, Movement and Colour project.

This poster advertised a dance workshop in 2007 that was held at OISE.

On Saturday November 24, 2007, a workshop was held with Special Guest Haifa Zangana, discussing emerging literature about women’s memoirs about Middle East experiences.

Here is the poster that advertised the Words, Movement and Colour writing workshop that took place at OISE in 2007.

This is a flyer from an early event exploring the stories of political prisoners from the Middle East at the University of Toronto, in 2004.