Pakistani truck art links Shakespeare and South Asia

BIRMINGHAM: The DESIblitz Truck Art Bus, a unique nine-seater minibus, is set to visit schools across Birmingham on Tuesday 20 June, in a collaborative effort with the ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project. 

The bus, adorned by renowned Pakistani truck artist Haider Ali, will showcase South Asian material from Birmingham’s Shakespeare Collection, culminating its city-wide journey in Centenary Square from 5pm to 7pm.

The initiative aims to share a mix of digitised pages from plays and adaptations, along with scans of posters in a variety of South Asian languages, reflecting the more than 94 languages featured in Birmingham’s Shakespeare Collection. 

The DESIblitz team will also share items from their recent exhibition, ‘Influence of Shakespeare on Bollywood’, exploring the Bard’s direct and indirect impact on Bollywood cinema.

The ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council, celebrates the Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library, the world’s first great Shakespeare library and the only one belonging to a city’s populace. 

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and History West Midlands, the project aims to return this unique Shakespeare heritage to the people and communities of Birmingham, according to a report by the University of Birmingham.