Queer Muslim Futures

The STUD, commissioned by SFAC Gallery’s Sanctuary City Series

Saba Taj in collaboration with Laila Nur at The STUD, San Francisco, USA, September 2018.

Saba Taj in collaboration with Laila Nur at The STUD, San Francisco, USA, September 2018.

Arshia Fatima Haq DJ-ing as Discostan at The STUD.

Arshia Fatima Haq DJ-ing as Discostan at The STUD.

Performances by Faluda Islam, Luke Arroyo Mendoza, Maryam Rostami, and Saba Taj, music by Laila Nur and The Muslims and costumes by Hushidar Mortezaie. Followed by DJ Arshia Haq and Discostan.

The Muslim body has become one of the most contested spaces in the United States and is both a site of violence and inquiry. In response to the West’s oversimplified understanding of Islam, this futurist evening uses fashion, performance, video, sound art, and music to explore and challenge the histories of violence, colonialism, and imperialism enacted on Muslim bodies. Organized by artist and performer Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (aka Faluda Islam) in collaboration with Arshia Haq, Hushidar Mortezaie, Laylatul Qadr, and Saba Taj, Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth presents a complex queer Muslim future and post-utopian world in which ‘monsters’-- Queer creatures evolved to fight Western Imperialism and survive in a toxic world ravaged by apocalypse—reveal themselves and the messages received from intergalactic refugees waiting to inherit a better earth.