Interview with Frishta “Fresh” Bastan

Recently, we had the pleasure of interviewing Toronto-based Afghan artist Frishta “Fresh” Bastan. Frishta’s profile famously reads: “Spoken Word artist, activist, religious coffee drinker.”

Fittingly, she brews herself a fresh cup of coffee as we begin the interview.

The daughter of two Afghan immigrants, Frishta Bastan began writing poetry to navigate her identity. Noticing the surge of non-Afghans speaking for and on behalf of the community, Frishta was inspired to express herself through poetry to take back agency and disrupt the singular, often painful narrative of Afghanistan.

She explains, “While all those are true about Afghanistan, there’s so much more to being Afghan, there’s so much more to the land, to the people. It should be us writing about the pain, it should be us writing about how we are ultimately exiled from the country.” 

While her poetry is widely celebrated in the Afghan community, she could not say the same ten years ago when she first put pen to paper. Her poetry largely started off as a body of criticisms against the U.S.-led NATO occupation of Afghanistan, which some found controversial.

“Back then, not many Afghans were aware of the ongoing war crimes, most of them were very relieved that there was some sort of intervention and pushback in Afghanistan from Western powers. I was called a fascist for speaking out against the intervention and was told to stick to what I knew. I studied political science – that was what I knew. It seemed like there was no middle ground; you had to be critical of one or the other, which is not correct, you can be critical of both the invading forces and the internal issues and conflicts that exist in a country,” she explains.

Over 8 years later, she finds her biggest supporters to be Afghans, “I’m so grateful for it, and I’m so happy that it has progressed over time. In the beginning it was really hard to get these kinds of messages and feedback, but I persevered. What I write, according to me, is the truth.”

Frishta also, amusingly, found it challenging to convey the medium of her poetry to other Afghans. “Of course, in the beginning it was hard because what’s even Spoken Word in Farsi? How do you even describe what it is? In the beginning a lot of Afghans were like, ‘What do you do? Do you just go up there and rap?’ A lot of khalas and kakaws that I would perform in front of thought I was rapping. So it was always interesting to have those kinds of conversations, where I would say no, it’s poetry, it just has a beat to it –  so it’s kind of like rap but with no music.”

While her poetry is often politically charged, she didn’t want her debut book, Sher solely focused on political issues, “I knew I wanted to write about the issues in Afghanistan and my hyphenated identity, but I wanted to ensure that my book still honoured who I am and all that I care about; I wanted it to also include other short poems that I could relate to.”

When asked about the significance behind the title of her book, she explains, “I considered ‘Land of the Lions’ since that’s what Afghans are typically referred to as. But then I thought, no, it’s too close to my Afghan identity. I wanted it to represent my entire identity, my Canadian identity as well. Then I thought, well ‘Sher’ is a play on words in Farsi which also means poem. Now it represents ‘Land of the Lions’ which is my identity, but also my poet identity.” Frishta has generously donated the author proceeds to a women’s shelter in Toronto.

Like many Afghans in the diaspora, she has not visited Afghanistan. “In my dreams, I have been there plenty of times. I would love to go, it’s my dream to go visit and see where my parents grew up and just have that connection to the land in a physical way, because I think like most diaspora kids, we understand and we know this connection exists to this land, and a connection we can’t really describe, but it exists. You want to go see where your parents grew up and where these memories that they always talk about come from.”

When asked what advice she would offer to other Afghan youth who are navigating their hyphenated identity, Frishta responds, “I would say stick to your gut. I know it’s really hard to navigate between these two worlds that you feel attached to and it’s really easy to feel lost and abandoned by both or feel like you’re not good enough for both, but you are. Trust your gut – things that are important to you, you do. If you care about something, you’re passionate about something, you’re super talented in something, use it. Use it but I also say use it to benefit the identity that you serve. So follow your gut and express yourself in different mediums that serve you, it doesn’t need to serve anyone else, it doesn’t need to be for anyone use. It’s for you. If you’re a writer, or dancer, or painter, use these outlets to express this identity you live in.”

Keep in touch with Frishta “Fresh” Bastan

Instagram @Freshpoetry