Asna Adhami’s insatiable curiosity for people and their stories began early, really early. Just ask her mother. Asna’s destiny as a storyteller was firmly in place by the age of 12, as the popular gossip columnist/music reviewer for an indie, elementary school newspaper. This work laid the foundation for an education and career as a writer, broadcaster and journalist, and includes affiliations with the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, CBC Television, CBC New Media, CBC Radio, and with Black to Business and Touch Base magazines, to name a few.
Asna was recently selected to compete in the 29th Atlantic Film Festival (2009)’s Inspired Script program. Her fresh and funny idea for a romantic comedy feature film was transformed from a five page treatment to a first draft script – in four months. Prior to that she completed Phase 1 of AFCOOP’s Film 5 (2008) program, and wrote a script adaptation of her poem, “Angry Tea”. She plans to seek financing and partners to produce and direct these projects in the near future.
Asna’s work has a local, national and global reach. Asna produced almost a hundred Artist Profiles for CBC Artspots, which presently reside on the internet. She also produced over 100 public service announcements for CBC Radio and CBC Television, for local, regional and national broadcast. Asna produced a documentary titled Where Are You From? for CBC Radio’s Maritime Magazine show in 2000, examining multiplicity in cultural identity.
Asna specializes in telling intercultural stories, in singular and plural contexts. She also worked with the Aboriginal People’s Television Network as a Video Journalist, traveling the Mi’kmaki region (areas also considered to include the Atlantic Provinces) researching, writing, preparing, coordinating, shooting and editing a variety of stories presented from Aboriginal communities to Canadians of all perspectives.
Asna’s passion for the resilience of the human spirit manifests in her work on justice and equity initiatives aimed at transformational societal change on a local, national and global level. She also applies this sense of equity to her media work by participating in programs that offer media access, awareness and training, often to those who may have previously been underrepresented in the media industry.
Asna’s poetic works are ignited by spirit, love, nature and simple moments in human experiences. She is influenced by many, including Urdu, Persian and English poets, and is especially inspired by the traditional Sufi poetry of her elders and ancestors. Asna regularly engages audiences with her provocative poetry, headlining shows and performing at cultural and human rights events. Asna created and runs the outdoor summer series Poetry in the Park, in Halifax. She enjoys designing collaborative opportunities for intercultural poetry offerings such as Fusion Infusion and Light of the Heart; an Iftaar Party.
She explores themes of culture, identity, multiplicity, success, struggle, transcendence and resilience in all her work – as a poet, photographer, journalist – calling herself a cultural expeditionist.