Aysha Taha
ABOUT
Aysha Taha is a queer British-Arab multi-disciplinary artist, communications consultant and entrepreneur based in London. Her work lies at the intersection of faith, the arts, and advocacy.
Born and raised Muslim in the Middle East, Aysha was an elite athlete growing up. She was the youngest athlete at the World Youth Games in 1998. Over the course of her sports career she represented her country at international events in gymnastics and taekwondo, competing at the Mediterranean Games, Asian Championships and World Championships. She continues to draw on that experience today as a performance artist and dance film writer/director.
Aysha's creative journey began while studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at The University of Pennsylvania. There, she discovered a passion for spoken word poetry, becoming a US national collegiate slam poetry champion and a world youth poetry slam finalist. She was on the cast of an HBO docu-series, 'Brave New Voices', directed by Russell Simmons and hosted by Dave Chappelle. She was also the main subject of a short documentary by Fon Cortizo, 'Aysha', which won Best Short Documentary at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival in New York.
As an entrepreneur, Aysha founded two investor-backed creative industry startups in the Middle East. This included a talent-focused digital publishing company and a film & TV development house. She led the company as CEO for four years. She is experienced in fundraising, business management, and developing talent in the fields of poetry, storytelling, writing, performance, and film.
Aysha's work as a writer/director in film and TV has been recognized internationally. She has written and directed short films, music videos, documentaries, and dance films. She is a Global Media Makers Fellow (Film Independent, Los Angeles), and has had an immigration-focused science fiction TV concept developed at The Producers Guild of America Diversity Workshop in Los Angeles.
Aysha’s journey took a significant turn when she encountered Christ while caring for her father during his battle with lung cancer. Her directorial debut feature, 'She Who Lives' (in development), is a bilingual, art-house, dark comedy, dance film inspired by her experience. The film won several development awards in the Middle East. Since then, she's been developing a creative process that approaches art-house filmmaking as a pioneer ministry and fresh expression of church, in collaboration with artists, intellectuals, youth and people from marginalized backgrounds.
Aysha has global experience as a senior communications consultant across the US, UK and the Middle East. She specializes in launching new initiatives, change management and achieving Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) targets through marketing, PR, internal communications and multimedia storytelling. Her recent work supported SAT-7, the Church of England, and the Warm Welcome Campaign, contributing to the latter's win of a Third Sector Breakthrough Award in 2024.
Aysha is experienced in designing and delivering workshops and artistic programming for diverse communities. Currently, she is invested in creating spaces that focus on reconciliation based on race, faith, gender, sexuality, age, disability and migration background. Previously, she was recruited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop and deliver a spoken word poetry curriculum for youth, focused on gender-based reconciliation in the Arab world. She has given spoken word poetry workshops for pretrial incarcerated youth in the Philadelphia Prison System in the US, as well as for disadvantaged youth in refugee camps in the Middle East.
Aysha is currently discerning vocation in the Church of England. On the creative front, she is developing 'Discernment', a feature-length documentary that reflects on her journey of understanding a calling that first emerged while she was part of the persecuted church abroad. Her short film, 'Bethesda', is in progress; a contemporary reimagining of the biblical healing narrative at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-15) through the lens of queer, faith-based migration to the UK. Aysha is also conceptualizing an audio-visual exhibition in London exploring queer Christian journeys of displacement and the process of making a home in the Church of England. She is excited to be collaborating on a traveling immersive two-woman show and workshop series, 'On Spirit, Water and the Blood', with her best friend, Afro-Atlantic US-based poet and linguist Dr. Alysia Nicole Harris. Finally, she is on the lookout for research opportunities for her science fiction TV series, 'Zenith', set in a migrant facility. To learn more about these projects, see 'Current Projects' below.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Films in Development
Role: Writer/Director
Bethesda (arthouse, dark comedy, short film): on a film set in the Middle East, a queer local film writer/director contends with accusations of apostasy due to her Muslim background and faith in Christ. As her social and professional fabric collapses at the heels of a queer female crucifixion scene, immigration as a dual British citizen becomes the only path towards redemption. An adaptation of the biblical narrative of healing by the pool of Bethesda, John 5: 1-18.
She Who Lives (arthouse, dark-comedy, feature film): In a comedic odyssey through a Muslim household, a queer dancer navigates the impending loss of her father to terminal lung cancer while grappling with questions of grief, faith, and identity. Stumbling upon unexpected encounters with Christ amidst the chaos of familial tensions, hospice rituals and spiritual discovery, laughter intertwines with danger, revealing the absurdity and liberation of a journey to salvation.
*Winner of The Jordan Film Fund development grant and two Amman International Film Festival development awards, shortlisted for Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Discernment (arthouse, feature documentary): through performance pieces, poetic visuals, spoken word reflections, and intimate conversations with friends, family and mentors, Aysha, a queer British-Arab migrant and filmmaker from a Muslim background, caught between two worlds, discerns a calling to ordained ministry in the Church of England.
Performances, Workshops and Exhibitions
Role: Creator
Echoes of Exile & Homecoming (exhibition): church/cathedral-based immersive audio-visual exhibition exploring themes of queer displacement, migration, faith and the process of making home in the church.
On Spirit, Water, and the Blood (live perfromance and workshop series): a collaborative project between Afro-Atlantic, U.S. poet and linguist Dr. Alysia Nicole Harris, and queer British-Arab multi-disciplinary artist, writer/director and entrepreneur Aysha Taha. Best friends for 17 years since their time at The University of Pennsylvania, Alysia and Aysha reunite on stage to lay bare and examine the evolution of their faith, artistry, and friendship. Both acclaimed slam poets, they gained recognition as collaborators with their groundbreaking poem Hir, one of the first spoken word pieces on trans issues in the American poetry slam scene. The innovative performance was featured in the HBO docu-series “Brave New Voices” (2009). Born into different faiths—Christian and Muslim—and from opposite sides of the world, their journey began with college discussions about God, truth, and social justice in a post-9/11 context. These conversations deepened after the death of Aysha’s father in the Middle East, which led to a re-exploration of faith that culminated in Aysha’s baptism in the UK, with Alysia standing beside her in the baptismal font.
Together Alysia and Aysha have conducted creative writing workshops for pre-trial incarcerated youth in the United States and refugee children in Jordan. They have also collaborated for the U.S. Embassy in Jordan’s 2017 Black History Month programming. Now sharing a faith in Christ —one Charismatic Protestant and the other Anglican Liberal Catholic—they turn their eye towards a creative exploration of the complex challenges their friendship has navigated, such as LGBTQ acceptance, gender performance, interfaith relationships, conversion, migration, persecution, anti-Blackness and postcolonialism.
Inspired by their shared, and sometimes divergent, theological reflections, this project will culminate in a trilogy of two-women shows. Context-tailored community workshops focused on testimony and reconciliation will accompany these. The live productions will blend theater, spoken word, performance art, sound, and film projection in a dynamic interplay of body and story that unveils the strenuous beauty of maintaining friendship with God, one another, and ourselves. Envisioned as a traveling project, both the performance and workshops profess that in the ever unfolding drama of personal loss and structural violence, God is.
Series in Development
Role: Creator
Zenith (science fiction, TV series): Within a migrant reception facility controlled by a powerful pharmaceutical company, a team of scientists is developing a controversial drug intended to transform the immigration vetting process through a eugenic lens. Their goal is to assess the genetic predispositions for empathy, virtue, and productivity among refugees and migrants, believing that selective admission will accelerate cultural evolution toward a utopian ideal. Unbeknownst to the migrants, they become subjects in this covert experiment. As the government quietly expands the drug's application to the justice system, workplaces, and educational institutions, the ethical dilemmas of a society where only the "good" thrive begin to emerge, challenging deeply held notions of equality, truth, and the human cost of pursuing an ideal state.*
* Underwent development at the Producers Guild of America Diversity Workshop in Los Angeles, and The Writing Fellowship led by Film Clinic (Cairo) for The Royal Film Commission.
Clinic 42 (science fiction, TV series): In a hyper-capitalist world, where an inner-beauty plastic surgeon has discovered a way to implant any virtue or trait into a person, society is turned upside down. Amidst the chaos, a couple on the verge of separation navigates a sprawling, increasingly complex city that seeks to exploit this revolutionary procedure for its own gain. As they struggle to reconnect, they find themselves entangled in a web of intrigue, deception, and the moral implications of altering one's very essence, challenging the boundaries of love, identity, and authenticity.**
** Underwent development with Hollywood talent at The Global Media Makers Fellowship in Los Angeles by Film Independent and the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
IN THE PRESS
Slam Poetry Brings Honesty, and Nervousness, to Jordan
https://theworld.org/stories/2013/11/26/reading-slam-poetry-amman-jordan
Shereen Zoumot: FAT|HER
https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/shereen-zoumot-father/
Global Media Makers 2017: Bridging Cultures, Creating Spaces and Connecting Storytellers
Global Media Makers: Nine Key Takeaways from Our 2017 Fellows about Their Time in L.A.
AMMAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF AMMAN FILM INDUSTRY DAYS PITCHING PLATFORMS
Contact
Aysha is interested in connecting with new partners, especially those who are interested in her current projects. Particularly, she is keen to meet agents, producers, financiers, grant-making organizations, curators, publishers, art spaces and institutions, cinematographers, sound and projection artists, communications clients, and church leaders exploring the intersections of faith, the arts, and inclusion. Reach out at: hello@ayshataha.com.
A three-episode short documentary filmed after arriving in the UK, exploring identity and faith within a conservative evangelical church in suburban London.
Clients & Partners
Below is a selection of organizations Aysha's work has supported (or who have supported her work), along with recent films she led on in the field of charity communications.
