SHAHARAH GAZNABBI

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To put it simply, I’m a short (4’11’’ to be exact!), quirky, queer, 17 year old of south asian descent who has Tourette Syndrome. Yes… it's a lot! But through living in a world where you are stared at in public for making loud noises and having strange movements, being judged for your sexuality, feeling dysphoric about which bathroom to use, or embarrassed that a kid at school ridiculed your traditional south-asian lunch… In living in a world through the lens of adversity you learn to be strong, to be accepting, and to find ways of letting people, just for a moment, understand what you are going through. For me, I did this through art, whether be though writing poetry, a play, or having the privilege of writing a song with the theme “Queer Space”.

Content Warning: Because I have Tourette Syndrome, there will be some background high pitched noises in the performance.  Please be aware that there may be some swearing & middle fingers due to symptoms of my Tourette Syndrome called Coprolalia and Copropraxia which affects 10-15% of those with TS (Despite pop culture painting inaccurate pictures that may suggest otherwise!)