Kayhan Irani

Storyteller, performer, cultural activist, and grassroots educator Kayhan Irani creates socially engaged art that uses the tools of participatory theater and popular education for critical analysis, healing and community building.  Irani is a 2016 Obama White House Champion of Change, recognized for her art and storytelling work. Irani is also an Emmy Award winning writer.  She won a New York Emmy award for writing We Are New York a 9-episode broadcast TV drama used as a civic engagement tool for immigrant New Yorkers. Her previous one-woman show, We’ve Come Undone toured nationally and internationally, telling stories of Arab, South Asian and Muslim-American women in the wake of 9/11. She has trained hundreds of groups in Theater of the Oppressed and participatory storytelling tools over the years, both nationally and overseas, in Afghanistan, India, and Iraq. Her newest one-woman show, There is a Portal is a continuation of Irani’s artistic work which centers immigrant stories to advance an inclusive American narrative and activate audiences.