TAQWACORE WEBZINE

This past summer I went on this incredible Taqwacore adventure that literally changed my life. I didn’t think I could have another experience like that. I honestly felt like the feelings I had that summer would be the last time I would ever experience anything like that.

But I think I was wrong.

This week Eyad Zahra, the director of the motion picture of The Taqwacores offered me a deal that I couldn’t resist – he asked me to come join the pilgrimage to Sundance for the world premiere and blog about my experience. A 12 hour drive from Los Angeles and 10 days in cold snowy hills with my favorite punk family. A chance to live and write another Almost Famous story sounded just like what I needed to jolt my writer’s block mind state – so here it is the blog I’ll be writing for the next two weeks -  Taqx to Sundance.

And here it is, the long awaited trailer just posted to MTV.com for the motion picture The Taqwacores premiering at Sundance next week, and featuring the song Blow Shit Up by The Kominas.

I call it a pilgrimage to Sundance because in the short time that the Taqwacores scene has been building, it feels like this may be the largest congregation of Taqwacore kids yet. The Kominas and Al Thawra are playing their way across the country on Taqwacore Mini Tour to Sundance  from Chicago, IL to Ames, IA to Fort Collins, CO culminating in the The Taqwacores movie premiere party at Park City, UT. The entire cast that brought our favorite fictitious Taqwacores characters to life will be there, as well as the dedicated crew that helped bring it together. Author of the book version (and co-screenplay writer) Michael Muhammad Knight will be flying out from Harvard. Almost all thirty of us will be staying in a four bedroom “punk house” for the week.

To me, the most exciting thing about this “scene” is the Taqwacore kids that will be descending on Park City and Salt Lake City. Most of these kids connected with each other via facebook and twitter using hastags of #taqwacore or #upthetaqx, finding a virtual community that they related to. I created a list on my twitter Taqx at Sundance of folks that will be heading on this pilgrimage too. I know a ton of us will be writing, taking pictures and documenting the experience somehow, so I wanted to make a list of people who would be writing/flckring their experience.

• Cultural Sindicate w/ Kaitlin, Britney and Dustin
• Kaitlin
• The Gaza Stripper
• Rockistani
• NatalieJill
• Dakini
• Faith

Am I missing anyone from the list? Any other Taqwacore kids heading to Sundance with a blog/flckr to link to?

Of course, stay tuned to this Taqwacore Webzine where Basim, Imran, Shahj and Marwan have all promised me that they will post on while on tour.

Though I will be cross posting some blog posts here on the zine, or over at MTV Iggy, the bulk of my posts will but Taqx at Sundance. You are forewarned – the writing on that blog is not for the Hollywood types or the corporate types. It’s for the Taqwacore peeps like Moumina, PadyCakes and Muna that we wish could be with us at Sundance too.

See you at Sundance.

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Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed is an activist and writer living in Los Angeles. She is the Founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), an aspiring novelist and a long-time blogger for the popular South Asian blog Sepia Mutiny.