Beautiful Books: Acha Bacha

Below is a reproduced conversation between playwright Bilal Baig and cover artist Harmeet Rehal.

Bilal Baig: hey!!

Harmeet Rehal: hello!! shall we do this thing ahah

BB: YES

HR: hmmmm shall i start with a question i’d love to ask! or would u like to start the direction of this chat heheh

BB: omg no ok u go first

HR: okokok!! i feel like i’m fishing for compliments asking this LOL but mostly just bc i am curious! but atm what’s ur favourite part of the cover design? and i think beyond that when u open the book itself – what part of it leaves u in awe!!

i feel like i have so many parts of it i tear up at LOL when i read through – so i’m excited to hear which parts maybe bring up those same emotions of elation i guess!!

BB: omg u deserve ALL the compliments…ok I’m going to respond to your first question FIRST.

idk how to properly explain this but i’m looking at the cover right now it’s like, I love the cloudiness of it. the blurriness…like literally, parts of it are foggy, like you’re forgetting something, or something is incomplete….and that’s like the ESSENCE of the play basically u know??

do u agree?

also loved when u brought this image into the mixxxxxx I was like

HR: OMG YES YES!! I also feel like this being libra season – ur descriptions around this cloudiness + blurriness resonate so much!!! and it reminds me of this airy, creative and ethereal energy of this szn but also ur libra energy + creative energy!!! and outside of zodiac jargon – yeah there’s this grounding element to the cover but also totally this air of like “forgetting something” that ur describing, and it is rlly visceral!!

BB: did the image I tried to send never send?

HR: no not yet!!

BB: lmao one sec

HR: loool np!!

BB:

when u brought THIS innnn

HR: AAAAAH!! i was just about to send this later in our chat about how much this image meant to me!!

i remember even when watching the play, this scene just got me very emotional oof!!

BB: ugh omggg WOW

HR: it’s so tender and intimate – the still of this scene feels like it’s speaking volumes truly

BB: I totally agree, like where the two are actually comfortable and then the rest of the play kinda puts them thru series of uncomfortable circumstances…

HR: my reaction at this brown queer love + comfort! but tbh at the whole play ahah

BB: omg yesss cry ur eyes out

ok also what part of the cover feels grounded to you?

HR: the boldness of the title! i think the meaning and history and relationship to the terms “acha bacha” is complicated – but i feel a sense of home in those words. That feels grounding, i also think the hands! while i know they are reaching towards the centre – and there’s some level of tension in their positioning. But knowing it’s the hands of zaya and salim – just feels grounding in the fact that there’s this sacred queer relationship at the forefront of this cover!

BB: ugh yes omg sacred is such a good word…I just keep thinking about what it means to me to see queer/trans BIPOC ppl/characters ACTUALLY TOUCHING each other like why is that so uncommon u kno lol

HR: oooof for sure! and i think that touch being able to exist outside of colonial/white gazes, makes it even more special and imp!

i feel like especially during a pandemic where so many folks are touch starved and the ways safe/comforting touch can be so grounding for some survivors also – 2sqtbipoc affirming each other physically feels so much more vital to see and read about

BB:

HR: omg !! i love this gif aaaaah!!

BB: lmao

HR: also quick check in – how r we feeling for time?

BB: maybe if u wanna pop in ur first draft and then ur last draft I’d love to just see the two of them and we can chat about that and pce out??

HR: omg yes yes !!

let’s talk about it !!

it feels wild to see them side by side wooow

* * *

BB: OMG.

ok tell me what was the most frustrating part from getting from draft 1 to FINAL??

HR: omg i was just about to ask u the same q LMAOO

um ok i think

my own anxiety and self doubt!!

BB: oh yeah that’s so real

I think for me, I was just like… how can we hold all the elements that make up this cover together??

like this could go south at any moment so easily u kno……

but it didn’t bc I think we just fundamentally understood each other so deeply

HR: omg yes i agreeeee!! like you had these vv intricate sensorial understandings of what energy the book needed to have and felt that and yeah i think my anxiety was similar like how do i make sure i don’t fuck this up LMAO

but being able to work on it with u like everystep of the way was a rlly like honest and wonderful time – like i had a blast

BB: well it was just so lovely that u kept throwing shit on the wall kinda u kno? u were just down to try anything

HR: omg ty !! yeah i rlly enjoyed like making a thing and than tearing it apart over and over until we felt that like aha moment and even though we arrived at that digitally

i remember the air shifted – it felt idk its indescribable !!

BB: ugh yessss I think its bc I know how much u care about the play and that’s why I was like to the  publishers it has to be HARMEET or the cover can just be BLANK lmao

HR: omg yeah i was floored when i was notified i would be doing the cover !! like it’s just such a gift to the communities we are accountable to !!

ur play is magic

ty again for thinking of me for this !! i am so grateful for u and all u are!

BB: YOU ARE MAGIC, I really had such a lovely time working with you on this. It’s seriously been an immense PLEASURE AND PRIVILEGE working with you.

And I can’t wait for MORE

HR: ooooooof ty for those affirming words!!!!! and me 2!!!!! like our creative energies together ???

so healing and expansive !!

BB:

HR: HAHAHHAH

THE BESTTTT

BB: lmao lets end on this beautiful note

HR: agreeeeed!!! hehehe

* * *

Bilal Baig (they/them) is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer, and workshop facilitator. Bilal’s first play, Acha Bacha, had its world premiere in 2018 and has been published by Playwrights Canada Press. Other written work in development includes Kainchee Lagaa, Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain, and I want that free mind! Bilal is a core team member at non-profits such as Story Planet and Rivers of Hope, where they develop and facilitate workshops for youth in under-resourced neighbourhoods in Toronto focused on creative writing and literacy (Story Planet) and combatting Islamophobia through the arts (Rivers of Hope). Bilal has been the Playwrights Unit Facilitator for the Paprika Festival since 2019. Bilal is the lead and co-creator of the CBC/HBO Max/Sienna Films series Sort Of.

Harmeet Rehal (they/them) is a trans, Disabled, and fat Sikh-Panjabi, multidisciplinary artist, educator, and community organizer. Through illustration, textile art, and collage, they tend to the messy archives of their intergenerationally disabled family full of artists and survivors. Through these mediums, they also explore pandemic grief, and the cripping of normative design. Harmeet’s work has been shown at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Spadina Museum, Workman Arts and they have completed artist residencies at YTB Gallery, Creative Connector, National accessArts Centre and Whippersnapper Gallery. Currently they are the co-lead for Digizine, a covid-cautious zine residency for Deaf and Disabled 2SQTBIPoC.