yourfriendkas

music

/

research

buulbuul — Nargis-e mastāna/Wilted Rose (Interlude)/What was a single seed, a garden now ¦ 2024

JaJaJaNeeNeeNee Radio residency

During our residency at JaJaJaNeeNeeNee radio for the arts, me and Haider Timur, together as buulbuul, started an ongoing artistic research to explore what shape a modern queer understanding of Central Asian poetry and sound can take. We prepared a poetry bundle as the outcome of that research. The bundle was broadcast on 12th November 2024. The show can be listened to in the radio's archive. We invite you to read the full dossier of the work if you'd like to know more. The poetry bundle, connecting and (re)interpreting traditional and modern themes and imagery, consists of three poems in two languages, English and Kazakh. Birds, flowers, cruising, heartbreaks, flutes, drums, and love gardens with peris; a baq (garden) is an imaginary paradise of longing. We are thankful to our lyric editor Laura Berdikhojayeva, who shared her incredibly deep knowledge of Kazakh feminist literature, and to everyone at JaJaJaNeeNeeNee: Arif, Radna, Andrea, and Monty, for giving us the opportunity, time, and support to engage with this topic.