Women Life Freedom DFW Opening Event

Woman Life Freedom DFW Collective, Pegasus Media Project, and Irving Arts Center have partnered to present a topical conversation through the visual and performing arts mediums in a special exhibition and performance event at the Irving Arts Center. 

An opening reception featuring performances will be held Saturday, Jan 7, 2023, from 6 – 9 p.m. in the Irving Arts Center’s Main Gallery and Dupree Theater. The program will feature an innovative runway of performance art exploring the diverse perspectives at the dawn of a new era with poetry, spoken word, storytelling, video, performances, paintings, photographs, sculptures, and other mixed-media artworks. It is free and open to the public. Reserved seating can be secured prior to the event by RSVPing to the performance (monetary donations support The Pegasus Media Project) .

January 7 Opening Reception Schedule of Events

• 6PM, Main Gallery:  Reception, Meet the Artists & Runway of Performance Art.
• 7PM, Dupree Theater:  Live Performances by various artists, including Fared Shafinury, a critically-acclaimed, award-winning composer, vocalist, lyricist, and Persian setar virtuoso.

This timely exhibition comes in response to the Iranian women who are courageously demonstrating peacefully, protesting for their fundamental human rights in the wake of unspeakable tragedies including the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, who was arrested and detained in September for failing to adequately cover her hair, before dying in police custody. The women-led uprising against the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose brutal and murderous actions against women are only a portion of their theocracy, has rallied behind the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi).”

“We are making the invisible visible” says Niloo Jalilvand, Director of the Pegasus Media Project.  “While these protests continue around the globe, DFW’s Iranian artists and supporting communities pursued an outlet to express themselves. Thus, The Woman Life Freedom DFW Collective initiated an exhibition which seeks to amplify and expand the voices of those bravely pursuing basic human rights and dignity by bringing together their expressions in response to this historical movement,” she says.

The exhibition Woman, Life, Freedom DFW with its diverse display of works of art by the local Iranian diaspora and other artists, will be running from Jan. 7 – 21.

It is free to view during Irving Arts Center gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. through Jan 21. 

Participating artists include: Alisa Eykilis, Bahareh Momeniabdolabad, Carmen Menza, Chloe Curiel, Christopher Sonny Martinez, Danie Gomez-Ortigoza, Danielle Georgiou, Ehsan Shafie, Fahimeh Vahdat, Fared Shafinury, Fari Rahimi, Hind Chaouat, Kristin Colaneri, Mahboobeh Mohammadpour, Mari Hidalgo King, Marjaneh Goudarzi, Maryam Ashkaboosi, Maryam Baig, Maryam Takalou, Mona Kasra, Nazanin Ahmady, Niloo Jalilvand, Parisa Nozari, Parisa Haghighi, Ramak Baghaie, Shafagh Kalhori, Shahrbanoo Hamzeh, Shahrzad Hamzeh, Shayan Javadi, Soheyla Rashidyan, Steph Hargrove, Tamitha Curiel, Tammy Melody Gomez, Vajihe Zamaniderkani, and Zahra Jafarpour.