The Archivist

by Shaista Latif

The Archivist is produced in association with Why Not Theatre

Shaista Latif is a perpetual guest.
She has been invited to tell a story.
Shaista Latif is a storyteller.
Shaista Latif is a story.

To mark her position and her eventual disappearance, Shaista creates a live archive of found objects, music, photos and film to boldly question who has the right to document a history of war.

In this compelling and hilarious documentary performance, Latif invites the audience to name what is at the risk of being erased and forgotten.

Are you a person of colour, and interested in this show? Would you be willing to send us a response/reaction/review of it? We are currently looking for BIPOC folk to respond to the work and continue the conversation.

A message to potential reviewers from Shaista Latif;

“Storytelling is a mirror and a tool. It’s important to me as a performer that the work is not limited to the stage. This form of performance can never be reduced to a simple biography or to a form of self-expression that is made and lived alone. Since the inception of The Archivist in 2015, having BIPOC reviewers take part of the work has been crucial to the growth of the show. As marginalized peoples, we fight to be seen and heard in a world that refuses our humanity. My devotion as an artist, is to disrupt western narratives of our cultures and to push for representations of endurance and empowerment. I want to remove the barrier between artist and audience by opening up channels to speak. Your review/ response can take on any form and any length. I warmly encourage you to address, challenge and explore the complexities of identity and what speaks to you and confronts you in The Archivist.”

Please email [email protected] to reserve a complimentary ticket.

This project is part of Why Not’s SHARE stream of activities. SHARE projects are partnerships with other independent artists and companies to help produce, present or tour their work.

TOUR DATES

On tour with Ontario Presents:

February 27-29, 2020
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, St. Catharines, ON
More info here

March 5-6 2020 (March 6 CANCELLED)
Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, ON
More info here

March 10-11, 2020
The Rose, Brampton, ON
More info here

March 13, 2020
Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, Oakville, ON
More info here

March 18-22 2020
The Grand Theatre, Kingston, ON
More info here

ABOUT SHAISTA LATIF

Shaista Latif is a working-class Queer Afghan-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, consultant and facilitator. Her works and collaborations have been presented by Koffler Gallery, Ontario Scene Festival, SummerWorks, Why Not Theatre, Blackwood Gallery, Mercer Union, the AGO, Halifax Queer Acts Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and recently the Undercurrents Festival. Her video installation Learning the Language of My Enemies was recently presented in conjunction with Nevet Yitzhak: WarCraft at the Koffler Gallery. Her current project How I Learned to Serve Tea, a series of workshops focused on the politics of inclusion and the language of invitation, is co-funded and supported by Why Not Theatre and Koffler Centre of the Arts. Latif is a published playwright (Playwrights Canada Press) and voiced the character Soraya in the Oscar-nominated film The Breadwinner.

"I marvelled at how unapologetically and uncomplicatedly she identified as a person of colour...Shaista’s show pushes. It pushes you to ask yourself how you locate yourself, or not.”

–Sofie Arifat, More Than Food Mag

"I learned things—interesting, wonderful, and upsetting things. I’m not sure there’s any higher praise I can give than that: this show made me laugh, made me think, and made me just a bit wiser. Within five minutes of leaving the theatre I’d told two people to see it."

–Mer Weinhold, Apt 613

“Bold, funny, and inspiring...her delivery and stage presence feels fun and captivating.”

– NOW Magazine (NNNN out of 5)

“Never have I seen a story flow through a human being so intensely; facilitated by the warm tones of Shaista’s narration, her sarcasm, the way the rims of her eyes watered when she remembered memories she didn’t want to remember, and her tongue-in-cheek quips at performance art. You couldn’t fully immerse yourself into the performance, because she would cough loudly and laugh, ‘that was art’. Like a grown-up show-and-tell, Shaista handed us photos from her childhood and warned us, smiling at the corners of her mouth, to not get our fingerprints on them or ‘they would be there forever’. I can’t pinpoint why this performance will be printed onto me forever.”

-Rachel E. Chiong, BIPOC Reviewer

“Shaista quietly demands the audience’s attention and trusts that we are listening, which is something quite refreshing to witness in a performer…What I love about The Archivist is you can’t neatly put it in a package and sell it off. It’s tough to even describe the show because the show just is.”

-Bilal Baig, BIPOC Reviewer

“The Archivist isn’t the usual binary of the ‘caught between two cultures’ narrative; instead, it’s a story of transgression, without forgiveness, without familial reconciliation. If she is looking for her own kind, she does not find them in this story. She leaves home and names herself, her own country. I don’t feel The Archivist to be simply Shaista’s narrative, but a critique of narratives, of our expectations. She is generous, but there is also the sense that we are in danger, and that she, too, is in danger. I am not sure if the story has wholly been told, but if, as Shaista has said, The Archivist ‘is not a show it is a process taking form’, then it is one that we should go back to and see again, to see the new shapes and forces it assumes.”