Cultural comedy club
Tanveer Arora, left and KeLanna Spiller The Kufiya Comedy Festival adds a touch of queerness to its cultural celebration RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer rich@dallasvoice.com For three days beginning Friday, May 10, the Kufiya Comedy Festival will celebrate the diverse cultures of South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and East and Southeast Asia through comedy, film and music — but mostly comedy.
With this festival, organizers Alex Hanson and Marena Riyad are giving visibility to communities that may be overlooked — and that includes LGBTQ creatives.
This year, three comedians will bring a bit of rainbow to Kufiya. “The festival uses art as a weapon of resistance against censorship and stigmatization, particularly for LGBTQ artists and performers who face discrimination both from within and outside their communities,” Hanson said. “We [the festival organizers] believe that the lack of rights, representation, and self-determination for any group affects us all.
Our freedoms are intertwined.” And what better way to fight that than through laughter. The three days of the festival celebrate cultural diversity specifically.
