The Gossiping Aunties , A communal experience by Mahsa Attaran
خالهِ زَنَکبازی با مَهسا عَطّاران
The Gossiping Aunties is an intimate communal experience in which artist Mahsa Attaran reclaims the gendered term khâleh-zanak-bâzi, transforming it into a space of care, reflection, and collective understanding.
خالهِ زَنَکبازی با مَهسا عَطّاران
The Gossiping Aunties is an intimate communal experience in which artist Mahsa Attaran reclaims the gendered term khâleh-zanak-bâzi, transforming it into a space of care, reflection, and collective understanding.
The experience begins by screening a five-minute short film from her cookbook project, Ja Oftadan (‘Settle In’). After the film, attendees are invited into a warm ritual of togetherness: sitting on Persian rugs (no shoes on!), cleaning fresh herbs, preparing a simple Iranian snack — noon, panir, sabzi — and sharing tea and sweets.
As hands move through the herbs, the conversation naturally shifts into a different kind of “gossip” — one rooted in honesty, personal storytelling, and thoughtful reflection on the cultural expectations and labels carried across gender, identity, and lived experience. Participants are invited to share whatever they carry, whether they arrive as women, men, queer individuals, immigrants, or anyone navigating these layered identities. Everyone is welcome to join, listen, and contribute in their own way.
Food becomes ritual.
Conversation becomes truth-telling.
Gossip becomes connection.
Sunday, December 7
50 Arrow Gallery,116 Pleasant St, Suite 136, Easthampton, MA 01027
Conversation becomes truth-telling.
Gossip becomes connection.
Sunday, December 7
50 Arrow Gallery,116 Pleasant St, Suite 136, Easthampton, MA 01027
Photo Credit: Barinder Saini
Photo Credit: Barinder Saini
Photo Credit: Barinder Saini
