Discipline/Field: Performance Poetry

Based in: Phoenix, AZ

About: Robert Farid Karimi designs games and interactive performance experiences to spark audiences/players, in all manner of civic spaces, to imagine worlds of mutual community nourishment. They serve as Assistant Professor in the Film, Dance and Theater department at Arizona State University.

Project Title: ForTheFutureHybridsConfused2BeCylonsWhoMayHave2WorkAsStormTroopers2MakeEndsMeet or Poems Para Paladear Por Puro Party People (Persian or otherwise) contains performance poems Karimi wrote as a letter to other non-binary half-identified beings to celebrate a speculative future that they may have to create for themselves. These are a series divided into 3 sections: Secret Origin of the Half-Muslim, To the Future Hybrids, and, I am a (Man).

Karimi’s artistic practice originates from Catholic rituals, Muslim prayers, hip hop music, punk rock moshpits, cooking shows, Iranian pop music, their parents’ recollections of “home”, factory workers, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, their parents’ tales of CIA infiltrations in their countries, their mothers’ recipes and humor and joy. Their goal at Yefe Nof is to produce a first book manuscript to send to publishers.

Relevant Links: Instagram: that_karimi, Twitter: @robertfkarimi; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertfkarimi; website: robertfaridkarimi.com