Friday 28 January, 6-7.30pm, free
Ikon Gallery
Join us in person or online for a live streaming via YouTube
Multidisciplinary artist Osman Yousefzada discusses his memoir, The Go-Between (2022), with Sara Wajid MBE, Co-CEO, Birmingham Museums Trust.
Set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, Osman opens a window into a closed migrant community living in a red-light district.
The adult world is seen through Osman’s eyes as a child: his own devout Pakistani/Afghan Pashtun community, with its divide between the world of men and women, living cheek-by-jowl with parallel migrant communities.
Children balance Western school teachings with cultural traditions. Alternative masculinities compete with strict gender roles, and female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail.
This event includes a book signing.
Ikon presented Osman’s first solo exhibition, Being Somewhere Else, in 2018 and most recently worked with him to present Infinity Pattern 1, a new large-scale installation which covers the entire Selfridges Birmingham building.