Kayhan Irani

KAYHAN IRANI
Performer, Playwright and Activist

I believe that the performing arts, creativity, imagination and writing are intrinsic elements of my being. However, my awareness of art-making as a central part of my life, as something I was capable of doing and proud of, came from the teachers who supported me and who encouraged creativity.

One of my first memories is of a trunk of old clothes in the corner of my pre-school class. It was there that I began creating characters, where I first traveled in time, and where I first experienced arts in the classroom. I thank those teachers for creating the time and space for that simple box, filled with rags and tatters, because from them – I spun gold!

Arts in the classroom are as simple and as complex as that bin of old clothes; those teachers knew it!

Kayhan Irani is an “artivist” dedicated to unleashing beauty and truth from unconventional and irregular platforms. In 2007 she received a certificate of recognition from Mayor Bloomberg for her work in immigrant communities, specifically her one-woman show entitled “We’ve Come Undone,” which highlights the lives of immigrant women post 9/11.

She has co-edited a volume of essays entitled, “Telling Stories to Change the World: Global Voices on the Power of Stories to Build Community and make Social Justice Claims”, about projects around the world that use storytelling as a way of creating social justice. She is also a writer and the Director of Outreach for an ESL TV show produced by the New York City Mayor’s Office of Adult Education and the City University of New York. Kayhan seeks to use theater to activate audiences and transform society. She is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild.

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