Being Unveiled

Rohina Malik from Chicago Dramatists, performed her one woman show- Unveiled, on Tuesday, January 28 at the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Community Center in College of the Atlantic.

In the hour-long play, Malik entwined five completely different lives facing a common hardship- being a victim of hate crimes, along with a cup of Masala chai (spiced milk-tea). From a lawyer to a rap artist to a wife, Malik, successfully presented the detestation and struggle of a normal Muslim woman, especially after 9/11, here in the US and also in Europe.  

UNVEILED, was generously sponsored by the YWCA in association with the College of the Atlantic Human Studies, Education, and Performing Arts Programs.

“Her work is quite powerful and her visit led to some extremely interesting conversations both on and off campus,” Jodi Baker, the Head of Theater here at COA said.

A Human ecology forum titled, “Anti-Muslim Bias, Harassment and Hate Crimes in the US and Europe”, was organized at the YWCA Mount Desert Island headquarters, 36 Mount Desert St., Bar Harbor, ME, the next evening, which was open to public community.

UNVEILED

The play was written and performed by Malik and premiered at the 16th Street Theater in 2009, where Rohina performed her play to sold-out houses and received critical acclaim. The play has received five different productions as of today.

                                                                                                        

More coverage on UNVEILED:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/rohina-malik-unveiled_n_4039062.html  http://www.bates.edu/news/2014/01/17/solo-performance-to-unveil-muslim-womens-lives/

The artist

 Malik is a critically acclaimed playwright, actress and solo performance artist. Malik is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, and an artistic associate at the 16th Street Theater. Furthermore, she has performed at universities across the US and Canada, including Princeton University, University of Chicago, and many more.   

Malik was recently awarded the Y Award with the Evanston YWCA for her work to end racism and empower women.

Visit Malik's website for more information: rohinamalik.weebly.com 

Personal Experience

Most of the scenes were derived from personal experience, which made the audience shiver a bit while the others presented real tragic stories.  

For Grace Jia ’17, Malik’s a one-woman play, UNVEILED, proved to be very ”moving”. “She experienced it first hand and the events portrayed in the play didn’t needed to be manipulated for us to understand,” she said. “The different cultures and religions that people consider opposites were so similar. It was eye-opening,” she added about the performance.

Here in US

As per the FBI Hate Crimes statistics of 2012, 19 percent of the 5,790 single-bias hate crime incidents were due to religious bias. Likewise, other reported case motivations were against Hispanics, Jews and against sexual orientations.

 “During the questions section after the play, a member of the audience said that he hated Muslim and he thought women wore the veil to celebrate 9/11. That’s what he thought. “That’s why so much hate come from ignorance,” reminisced Malik at the interview for COA Newsworthy. “It’s Heart breaking. Rather than drop bomb drop books. It also makes me angry when people blame everybody for the action of a few,” she added.

More on hate crime statistics in the U.S.          http://www.civilrights.org/hatecrimes/united-states/          http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/hate_crimes          http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-hate-crimes

“The anti Muslim bias is in some ways getting worse in the US.  And I fell like the play is a good way to have a dialogue to discuss this with folks and keep it going,” said Malik. 

“The solution is education. Build schools. It’s the power of the pen; it’s the power of knowledge and we do have real problems but the solution is not violence. Its more knowledge and education,” Malik added.

Human Ecology Forum at the YWCA

With audience including COA student body, faculty and general community people, the discussion was lead by COA visiting faculty member Steve Wessler and Malik on the intensity and effect of hate crimes in western nations including Austria, U.S and Germany. Furthermore, Malik concentrated on the detrimental stereotyping on Muslims and on why Muslim women and girls are at greater risk in the community to be abused.

In class

Malik also spent some time discussing religious conflict in Wessler’s class on Religious Intolerance. “[I] Had a great discussion. It was interesting hearing what moment of play resonated with different students. I hope to come back and work more with the students,” Malik said about the class.

Visiting Guest Artists

“We've been lucky to get a really diverse line-up of guest artists to COA this year (Mark Hosler of Negativland, Donna Oblongata of Vorführeffekt, Rohina Malik of Chicago Dramatists and in the spring we hope to have some members of Double Edge Theatre here). These artists are all extraordinarily unique in aesthetic and mission and they all approach their work with a level of intensity that is pretty inspiring to watch,” said Baker. “The dialogue that's sparked from live performance and from guest artists in the classroom and in the community is invaluable. It's such a great way to strengthen those connections between theory and practice, art and life, campus to local to global. It's been most impressive to see how students take the experience and filter it into their course work and personal work in all sorts of very cool and unexpected ways. I just love that,” she adds.