Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This International Women’s Day, Kamli.NYC and SAAG Anthology invite you to The People’s Forum for an inspiring panel on the centrality of women in global resistance, liberation and anti-imperialist movements—throughout history, and today—with a focus on South Asia.
We will also discuss the role of cross-border collaborations and solidarity e.g. connections between Baloch, Palestinian, Iranian, Pashtun, Kashmiri resistance.
The panel will be followed by songs of resistance by Apoorva Mudgal Ensemble.
________________________________________________
PANELISTS
Gulalai Ismail – Pakistani activist, leading member of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement
Gaiutra Bahadur – Guayanese-American writer, journalist and academic
Suchitra Vijayan – lawyer, author and award-winning photographer
_________________________________________________
Panelist Details:
Gulalai Ismail is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is the chairperson the non-profit Aware Girls, and a leading member of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a social movement for Pashtun rights. Gulalai is the recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award, the Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award presented at the Women in the World Festival in 2018. [Twitter].
Gaiutra Bahadur is a Guyanese-American writer, and associate professor of journalism at Rutgers University-Newark. In 2014, her book Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, a narrative history of indentured women in the Caribbean, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. As a reporter, Gaiutra has covered politics, immigration and demographics across the U.S., and worked in Knight Ridder’s Baghdad bureau during the Iraq War. As an essayist, critic and journalist, she been published in The New York Times Book Review, The Nation and many others. [Twitter]
Suchitra Vijayan is a lawyer, essayist and award-winning photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India. Suchitra worked for the U.N. war crimes tribunal in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before founding the Resettlement Legal Aid project in Cairo. She is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organization. She teaches at NYU Gallatin and Columbia University. [Instagram / Twitter]
The panel will be moderated by Kamli founder, Saba Gul [Instagram / Twitter]
MUSIC PERFORMANCE
___________________________________________________
Apoorva Mudgal Ensemble is:
Apoorva Mudgal – Hindustani Vocals
Quebert Morrow – guitar
Yacouba Sissoko – Kora (African Harp)
___________________________________________________
The ensemble will perform songs with themes of resistance and revolution.
Musician Profiles:
Apoorva Mudgal is a Hindustani singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is centered around composing and performing traditional and contemporary poetry / free verse in North Indian languages viz. Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Poorvi, Brijbhasha, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Persian in the North Indian Classical style of raag-based music. Performance credits include Carnegie Hall, Flushing Town Hall NY, Brown University, Columbia University, NY Kathak Festival, DAG Art Gallery, SAPAN, and Common Roots Festival (India). [Instagram]
Yacouba Sissoko is a Malian Kora master and educator hailing from a generations-long tradition of musical storytelling. He is a Carnegie Hall Teaching Artist, and a featured artist in their Musical Explorers Program. He has performed with Regina Carter, Oran Etkin, and Kavita Shah, blending with musical styles from Appalachian tunes to Indian ragas. He regularly performs with his own band SIYA. [Instagram]
Quebert Morrow is a NYC based guitarist who plays jazz, latin, and Brazilian music. He has performed with Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, YG Marley and Chabuco. Venues include Carnegie Hall, Monterey Jazz Fest, San Jose Jazz Fest, Healdsburg Jazz Fest, Zinc Bar, 55 Bar, SOBs, Bar Lunatico, Cellar Dog, Cornelia St Cafe, and festivals in Europe and South America. Quebert teaches at Jay Z’s RocNation School of Music, Sports, and Entertainment at Long Island University Brooklyn. [Instagram]
__________________________________________________
Event co-hosts
Kamli is an NYC-based Pakistani-American feminist collective. [Instagram / Twitter]
SAAG is a literary magazine for global South Asian solidarities. [Instagram / Twitter]
This International Women’s Day, Kamli.NYC and SAAG Anthology invite you to The People’s Forum for an inspiring panel on the centrality of women in global resistance, liberation and anti-imperialist movements—throughout history, and today—with a focus on South Asia.
We will also discuss the role of cross-border collaborations and solidarity e.g. connections between Baloch, Palestinian, Iranian, Pashtun, Kashmiri resistance.
The panel will be followed by songs of resistance by Apoorva Mudgal Ensemble.
________________________________________________
PANELISTS
Gulalai Ismail – Pakistani activist, leading member of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement
Gaiutra Bahadur – Guayanese-American writer, journalist and academic
Suchitra Vijayan – lawyer, author and award-winning photographer
_________________________________________________
Panelist Details:
Gulalai Ismail is a Pakistani human rights activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She is the chairperson the non-profit Aware Girls, and a leading member of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a social movement for Pashtun rights. Gulalai is the recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award, the Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award presented at the Women in the World Festival in 2018. [Twitter].
Gaiutra Bahadur is a Guyanese-American writer, and associate professor of journalism at Rutgers University-Newark. In 2014, her book Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, a narrative history of indentured women in the Caribbean, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. As a reporter, Gaiutra has covered politics, immigration and demographics across the U.S., and worked in Knight Ridder’s Baghdad bureau during the Iraq War. As an essayist, critic and journalist, she been published in The New York Times Book Review, The Nation and many others. [Twitter]
Suchitra Vijayan is a lawyer, essayist and award-winning photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India. Suchitra worked for the U.N. war crimes tribunal in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before founding the Resettlement Legal Aid project in Cairo. She is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organization. She teaches at NYU Gallatin and Columbia University. [Instagram / Twitter]
The panel will be moderated by Kamli founder, Saba Gul [Instagram / Twitter]
MUSIC PERFORMANCE
___________________________________________________
Apoorva Mudgal Ensemble is:
Apoorva Mudgal – Hindustani Vocals
Quebert Morrow – guitar
Yacouba Sissoko – Kora (African Harp)
___________________________________________________
The ensemble will perform songs with themes of resistance and revolution.
Musician Profiles:
Apoorva Mudgal is a Hindustani singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is centered around composing and performing traditional and contemporary poetry / free verse in North Indian languages viz. Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Poorvi, Brijbhasha, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Persian in the North Indian Classical style of raag-based music. Performance credits include Carnegie Hall, Flushing Town Hall NY, Brown University, Columbia University, NY Kathak Festival, DAG Art Gallery, SAPAN, and Common Roots Festival (India). [Instagram]
Yacouba Sissoko is a Malian Kora master and educator hailing from a generations-long tradition of musical storytelling. He is a Carnegie Hall Teaching Artist, and a featured artist in their Musical Explorers Program. He has performed with Regina Carter, Oran Etkin, and Kavita Shah, blending with musical styles from Appalachian tunes to Indian ragas. He regularly performs with his own band SIYA. [Instagram]
Quebert Morrow is a NYC based guitarist who plays jazz, latin, and Brazilian music. He has performed with Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, YG Marley and Chabuco. Venues include Carnegie Hall, Monterey Jazz Fest, San Jose Jazz Fest, Healdsburg Jazz Fest, Zinc Bar, 55 Bar, SOBs, Bar Lunatico, Cellar Dog, Cornelia St Cafe, and festivals in Europe and South America. Quebert teaches at Jay Z’s RocNation School of Music, Sports, and Entertainment at Long Island University Brooklyn. [Instagram]
__________________________________________________
Event co-hosts
Kamli is an NYC-based Pakistani-American feminist collective. [Instagram / Twitter]
SAAG is a literary magazine for global South Asian solidarities. [Instagram / Twitter]
