Performance | Media | Music
WAY OUT WEST (2024)
At one of Sweden’s biggest music festivals, Way out West, Jafar The Superstar took center stage, debuting her first EP and performing with her smashing comedy drag trio Al Jizz Queera. High camp, an angelic voice, and big boobs. What more could you want?
Photo: Josefin StacySOULLESS WEST (2023)
Performer.
This performance is available for commission.
Jafar The Superstar builds upon their previous work on spiritual capitalism and new-age consumerism to bring you the all-new participatory performance workshop, SOULLESS WEST: a reenactment of a tantric workshop they attended as a teenager. Based on one of the most profound "what-the-fuck" moments in their life, SOULLESS WEST is a whimsical exploration of exercises in energetic cock manifestation, cacao ceremony, and celestial feminine/masculine activation. The performance delves into the ritualistic manipulations of self-proclaimed spiritual leaders, exposing how binary gender systems are reframed as cosmic truths within near-sectarian communities. Premiered at the performance festival Revolve Elsewhere produced by Köttinspektionen.
Photo: Pär FredinThe Enchanted Corner: Live (2023)
Performer.
As part of the open source live-stream project Under Solen, Madam Yzmera hosted a magnificent tarot reading session, where you could personally meet her for an in-person reading, or call in and ask about your heart's desire. Did you just break up? Want to change careers? Do you want to become famous but don't know how because you are a loser? Don't worry! No questions is too big nor difficult for Madam Yzmera to tackle. A live version of the video work The Enchanted Corner (2023).
AfS: Assimilation for the Subaltern (2022)
Performer.
This performance is available for commission.
In this ultimate Swedish workshop, Sweden’s most Swedish cultural minister Jeanette Superstjärnan will teach you everything you need to know in order to become an ultra-Swede. How to speak (don’t), how to speak when you are forced to (even out topics of the weather with casual racism) and how to dance (unlearn any sense of rhythm.) Welcome to Sweden (permanent residency currently unavailable!) Premiered at the art festival Queer Art Fest produced by StaDemonia Tattoo Stockholm
Keeping up with the Iranians (2022 - ongoing)
Performer.
This performance is available for commission.
‘’Dance and music are the choreography of belonging and dreaming.’’ Afrang Nordlöf Malekian’s Keeping up with the Iranians is a celebratory performance that invites the audience to reexamine Iranian pop-culture from the 80s and 90s as acts of resistance through kitch and enthusiasm. An interactive party which combines joy of community with storytelling of how exile affects everyday life. Performed at Stockholm’s Royal Insitute of Art and The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.
A Gay Bar Called Everywhere (2022)
Actor and monolouge scriptwriter.
This performance is available for commission.
Every Ocean Hughes interdiciplinary performance work A Gay Bar Called Everywhere invited fifteen performers and artists around the world to indivually and collectively think through and perform, the myriad changes, challenges, and glories that have shaped our queer lifetimes within the space of the gay bar. Jafar wrote and performed their monolouge ‘’A Gay Bar in Teheran’’ which traces the gay and fashion scene in Iran during the 1980s. Played at MDT in collaboration with Moderna Museet.
Al Jizz Queera (2021 - ongoing)
Performer and co-writer.
This performance group is available for commissions.
Al Jizz Queera is a queer SWANA drag-trio consisting of Jafar The Superstar, Baba Jaan (Ruhani Islam) and Ortolana Fontana (Abdullah Al-Khafaji). They perform comedic sketches that deal with diasporic experiences, saterize orientalist discourse and always leave the crowd begging for more. The trio were crowened Best Avant-Garde Drag at Stockwig Drag Festival and have since performed at CinemaQueer Film Festival, Fake Daughter,
and Spotify SoundUp.
Photo: Anna Ronja JönisBaba Karam - genom Jamileh och Khordardian (2021 - 2024)
Actor and monolouge scriptwriter.
In this participatory dance piece, three performers and a DJ welcome the audience to dance and listen to memories of dance in a room inspired by queer clubs and separatist parties, where everyone get to dance for and with one another.
Through the popular iranian dance baba karam, with queer desires always present, drag is explored from a perspective that does not necessarily reproduce the given truths of a white, Western drag tradition, but instead welcome expressions and traditions created within the diaspora and the decolonial field of thinking and art making. The show has toured across Sweden with Riksteatern and played internationally at venues such as Stora Teatern, MDT, Kilowatt Festival, Sibiu International Theatre Festival and Fringe Reykjavik, among many others. Produced by Konstgruppen FUL and directed by Nasim Aghili. Excerpt from the offical website.
Photo: Nemo Stocklassa HindersMea Culpa (2021)
Co-writer and actor.
‘’If you were to live forever, would you recycle?’’ A vampire collective have invited a group of humans to an unoffical climate summit which will determine the future of planet earth. However they seem to disagree on exactly how to go about it. Should they globalize vampirism or domisticate humans so they can no longer do earth any harm? The choice is yours. A campy interactive ‘’walk-along’’ production in collaboration with Gathenhielmska Huset, Gothenburg. Check out the trailer here!
Photo: Miina Anahita
The Hoe Hoe Hoe Kiki Ball (2021)
Producer and host.
The Hoe Hoe Hoe Kiki Ball was a holiday-themed Christmas ball held at Kulturhuset Skärholmen, as well as a fundraiser for the LGBTQIA+ youth organization Egalia. The event hosted an international panel of judges and had participants travelling in from all over Europe to compete. A co-production with dancer and choreographer Nikos Arapis with support from Folk i Skärholmen.
Photo: Anna Ronja Jönis
Gen Z Yoga: Live (2020 - 2021)
Performer.
This performance is available for commission.
A live version of the meditation web series Gen Z Yoga consisting of a 45 minute long guided yoga, zumba and meditation class with Jafar The Retired Superstar. A whimsical and over-the-top interactive session on the commercialization of spiritualism, new-age capitalism and individualist rhetorics of care-taking and love. Performed at CinemaQueer (2020) and My Wild Flag Dance and Performance Festival (2021).
UR: Källkoll (2020 - 2021)
Television host.
This informative web series produced by The Swedish Educational Broadcast Company (UR) covers everything one needs to know about fact-checking, fake news and journalism. The first season Källkoll Corona focused on the massive influx of fake news that spread during the height of the corona pandemic. The second season Källkoll USA-valet covered the US 2020 election, and the third and final season offered navigational tools for elementary school students to critically examine media. Check it out here.
Photo source: URFeminist Comedy Night (2018 - 2019)
Producer and presenter.
Jafar’s Feminist Comedy Night is a club/performing arts hybrid event packed with talented artists showcasing burlesque, drag, stand-up and musical performance. The club focuses on highlighting and expanding upon the multitudes of feminist sensibilities through comedy and performance. Hosted at the concert stages Oceanen and Pustervik, Gothenburg.
Photo: Melissa ZahibiItalo Bitches (2018 - 2019)
Dancer.
The italo-duo Italo Bitches
consists of musicians Mira Aasma and Anna Törnqvist from Planet Bi_tt_ch. Jafar
the Trooper has made several apperances on various stages, ranging from Way out
West to Gothenburg’s International Film Festival as one of their promiscious
dancers and guest performers. Where will they strike next?!
Voices (2018)
Actor.
VOICES is a production by GEST (Gothenburg English Studio Theatre) that consists of testimonies from people who have experiences of exile, forced displacement and the Swedish and British asylum system. In the performance, four actors tell these stories in a narrative and minimalistic documentary reading. Directed by Kristina Brändén Whitaker.
Photo source: Göteborgs-PostenExposé Dance Festival: Balls (2017 - 2018)
Producer and host.