No Normal

No Normal

Amal has commissioned a series of short artistic films by Muslim creatives from the UK and the US in partnership with Greenbelt Festival. The films premiered via a live streamed event in September on Social Media. Entitled No Normal, the series of four films were curated and produced by Asad Ali Jafri and were inspirationally interlinked by the narration of storyteller Abdul-Rehman Malik. Both Asad and Abdul-Rehman are Amal Advisers.  The films feature artist Mohammed Ali MBE and poet Muneera Williams from the UK, and hip-hop dancer Amirah Sackett and musical duo The Reminders from the US. The online event was followed by discussion among the artists about creating work which represents experiences of navigating the past 18 months through the Covid19 pandemic.

The films feature powerful and deeply personal creative representations of the artists and their experiences and were commissioned to showcase Muslim artists’ practice across artforms. The films feature music, spoken word, creative documentary and dance.

Amal first partnered with Christian arts, faith and justice festival, Greenbelt, in Amal’s pilot year (2017), hosting the Amal Tent, the first of its kind at the festival showcasing Muslim artists and creative activities. Since then Amal has worked with Greenbelt Festival to reach diverse audiences and create encounters at its festival through the showcasing of Muslim creatives. Due to the pandemic and the difficulty of in-person festival activity, Amal and Greenbelt went digital, creating films that reach larger audiences in a Covid safe environment. Watch this short clip of Amal at Greenbelt to see what we got up to.