I am a theatre director based in Beijing, China. And I'm visiting Oslo on this artist-in-residence program arranged by Safe Muse. Hello. Hello. Nice meeting you. Very nice meeting you too. Welcome here to the city hall of Oslo. I'm an actress primarily, but I've also been head of the National Theatre, artistic director at the National Theatre for ten years to get all together. And I've been minister of culture for one and a half year, fighting for the importance of cultural dialogue and that's what we are having. I've been working very hard to establish and develop the Ipsen Festival. Did you work with Ipsen? We did Ghosts 2.0. Basically it's a performance set in contemporary China. We used Ipsen's Ghosts to examine, you know, what are the counterpart situations and characters in contemporary China. In Chinese theatre, you know, it's very difficult to face the harsh situation in general and people do not want to face it and the regulations do not want you to face it or to be critical in any sense. Culture is not to be critical in many people's views, but I want it to be critical. The imagery, the symbolism we had on the stage were so shocking. It said a lot of direct things that I wouldn't dare to say in this conversation. You do say it aloud with body, with the set in combination with poetic text. You know, self-censorship is everywhere.  Then through the layers and layers of self-censorship, what's to be shown to the audience actually would be reduced. So sometimes it's a game to be played with your audience and censorship. It's a complicated, you know, net work of meanings.  I think it's great that we have this conversation just in this town hall of Oslo where our female mayor invited us for co-film before we had this talk and she's much supporting the freedom of speech and this system of dialogue. In China you would never expect to meet the former Minister of Culture and the current city mayor in a, you know, face-to-face manner. It's only us, not a huge meeting where the mayor greets a hundred artists. I see a human in here. My knowledge of government buildings is that it wants to keep away from its people. People are afraid of the government and the government is afraid of its people. Then you do not want to put the two things together to complicate situations. Then, you know, here it seems very accessible and nobody is afraid of anybody. That itself is very impressive for me. And also this portrait of the king sort of surprised me because obviously it's not in straightforward realistic style and with a face in shadow and in a not so straightforward way of being handsome. You know, I was just surprised that this kind of work could be commissioned and displayed in such a formal way. They would be considered blasphemy and insult to the royal family in some countries. So this definitely shows the appreciation of artistic values, alternative styles and also the freedom of artistic expression. This is just unthinkable for me. But people in Norway discuss these paintings as well. Some people don't like them, think the king looks not like that and he is much more beautiful, but the king and queen themselves they really appreciate artistic view also on them. You can tolerate different styles. You can tolerate different opinions. When people don't disagree, they say it out loud and you also talk about your opinions out loud. That's what we call a society. You know, I want to quote the now national hero, Dr. Li Wenliang. For dying, he said this, a healthy society should have more than one voice. You know, that's maybe common sense to some countries but that's what we need in some others. Tolerance is extremely important in all aspects. Tolerance of being different, different sexes, different meanings, different people, old and young. That's what it's all about in the end. Totally. You know, I do not speak whatever I want, even if I'm in Oslo because there could be consequences if I go back to China. Especially, you know, I'm a bit afraid of saying things out loud from the camera. I guess in some countries in the world, the risk is just simply too high. Not only for the activists and artists, but for anybody to speak out in any forms. Freedom of speech is the basic for everything. You want to create new stuff. You want to be innovative, provocative. You need freedom. You need the free space where you can wonder and think and challenge and criticize. That's the very basics of creating arts. You have to have that first. Then maybe the result is you come up with something completely new or maybe you come up with something not so interesting. But the first and foremost, you have to have something that sets you free. I'm from the first generation of Norwegian extreme metal. So my first band was Cadaver, which was releasing its debut album in 1990. So that means we did that before you guys were born. Yes. What was it like growing up in Iran and how did you get into music? I grew up in a family that actually my father was a kind of type of religious guy. And my mom was into music. So there had been a little bit of struggle there for me always. But at the same time, my father was a fan of traditional music, like Persian traditional music. So I've been seeing my father playing instruments and all of that. But since I grew up, my most biggest impact that made me to get into this music was Link. I grew up in a metal class family that art was very important in it. And my dad was a rock music fan, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. And I used to listen to them with him. And the first time that I heard it, it just got me like, I was like, I don't know what they're doing, man. But I just want to do this. So I just begged my mom to please buy me drums. And she was like, are you kidding me? We're living in an apartment and it's just too loud. So just second best thing was playing guitar. Yeah. That's the magic. When I was growing up, shows we wouldn't play in normal venues. There was no venues that would allow music like this. So it was very underground. There was a very different environment also for us in Norway. The topic in school, which now is all kinds of religions and ethics and stuff. Now they will learn about everything. But we had to pray in the morning and sing songs to praise God. And when we left school, we had to praise God again. And this upbringing certainly led me faster into being anti-religion than anything else. Now this is a thing with religious oppression. This is a fact that, for example, Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't understand that religious oppression makes people to lose their religion faster. Even the people who believe in it, like deeply or pure or for no kind of like pretending or hypocrisy, even they lose it as well. So at what point did you realize that what you were doing was leading you to trouble in your country? The music that we're making with the approach that we have, which is political and like very criticizing against organized religion. We knew that it's very risky and we knew that one day we will meet with the authorities. So our music was very like talking about the stuff that is happening in our society. In 2015, after we released our second album, Pursuit of Dreams, the music that we make has a political theme in it, most of the songs. So it didn't really sit well with the government, so of course it showed up. I was at home, was 8 in the morning. I was arrested inside of our house. They had warrants and everything. And waiting for a trial. And in our first trial, they gave us six years, maximum sentence for blasphemy and something that would be interpreted as doing propaganda against the state through our music. And I was 21 back then, unless I was 19. So even prison is not, it's pretty notorious. It's basically a place that the government keeping the politicals. But still we were like going through this and we stopped music and everything because we had bigger things to fight for, which was a freedom. Long story short, we were in a solitary confinement for three months. And then we were transferred to the public sector of prison. We were there for another 15 months. And waiting for a trial, so we were released temporarily from jail. So I left Iran. I was living in Turkey. And I came to Norway in December of 2018, seven months after me. Arash also came over. And while we were here, they gave me 12 years and six months in jail. So they doubled up my sentence from six to 12 years and a half. Plus 74 lashes with additional charges. Especially nowadays, artists are very important to support this movement and just give it all they have. Just be the voice for voiceless. People just want to live. They just want the regime to be gone. The circle of tyranny just became like tighter. And it's just really hard for people to stand that. So yeah, people are protesting. Our generation and the generation after us are the ones that are really doing it in the streets. Revolution is not a project, it's a process. So it takes time. Sometimes I've played with people that have no language in common with. And then we can still play together these 12 communications. Something that really touches me. My mother was singing always. She was in love with music, but she didn't know that. She was working, cooking and cleaning. And she didn't know that she can be a great singer. So I grew up with this folk music. And singing is not difficult for me, but singing in my language. This is Hazara song. It's difficult to sing that kind of music because my mother was like, no. And I have to question why no. And then when I was like adult, I'm thinking that she just wants to survive us. As a Hazara, you're under the pressure. And there is like 200 years that we are under the genocide. So we had a darker story. As a Muslim, at that time I chose to be a singer. If I go to hell, that's okay. When I couldn't say to my family that I'm doing guitar classes, it was hidden. You know, I hadn't any place to put my guitar in. One day my father broke that guitar. He broke it? Yeah. And my father didn't talk with me about that. No. I have always been thinking about that. What if I had a family that they support me about music, you know? I didn't have that experience and I have not still that experience. What made you have to leave Afghanistan and come here? I heard lots of news that they are targeting activists. And they are killing journalists and artists. And there is one journalist, a woman who was working in a government, and she told that I'm in a dangerous situation. So I'm just thinking that if I live here, they will kill me. I'm just very impressed about how strong you are. I don't feel that I'm strong. I'm just thinking that we have lots of women that they are living still in Afghanistan that they don't lose their hope. And it's so difficult right now to live there as a woman because all politicians that they are right now trying to normalize living with Taliban. You know, I'm always thinking as an Afghan female, you have nothing to lose. If women just think, just have time to sit and think about these things, they can understand that they are inside of manipulating, control ship from patriarchy, censorship, and they have nothing, you know? I think as a woman who grew up in Afghanistan, they even cannot about the dreams, you know? And it's unbelievable. How do you feel you can use your art to do something? I think art has a power. I just want to make that music, that people know that there is something that we are not talking about, that I don't want to censor, that I want to show these things. What I want to have, effect and influence on other people. Yeah.   People want voices that are true and that are not making compromises. I can be a singer because they can take my voice and my thoughts and my feelings. To be an artist you should feel free, you should think freeway. We shouldn't just keep silence.


this vintage napco Santa figurine holding a wreath. Another thing that I really enjoy selling aside from toys is vintage Christmas items. Just love it. Got this at a garage sale for 50 cents and I sold it. Hey, Bolo Buddies, thanks for watching. On my little pony. Amazing, right? All right, let's get started. Hey, Bolo Buddies, thanks for watching. All right, this is a bread butter Bolo video. This is where I tell you what I sold on eBay for $35 or less. That's what I call my bread and butter. Items that I can pick up cheap and easy at thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales items. You may walk past. I'm gonna tell you where I got it, what I paid for it and what it sold for. All right, the first item here are these ornaments. And these came out of a thrift store Christmas box. Not something I would pick up at all. I almost didn't list them. And I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna try it. I ended up selling these pretty quickly for $14.50 plus shipping. The next item I sold is this Monty Python Rabbit. This came out of a mystery box that was sent to me by a viewer who is now a good friend and a member of my channel.  And you've got to go sub her up. Her name is Terry and her channel is Mindful Recycle Terry. So back when I first met her, she sent me this box and it was a mystery box. And she had like these little clues and I had to guess what the item was. And she put a lot of thought into it, but I'm telling you, I pulled so many big money Bolo's out of that box. This is one of the Bolo items and I sold this for $35 plus shipping. Definitely be on the lookout for this little guy. I did another video recently where I sold a puppet and I knew about that puppet because of this item that I had received from her. And I paid 50 cents for the puppet at a garage sale and it sold really quickly, I think for like 15 bucks. So this Monty Python, I don't know, I guess he's something that people search for. This Lego Bionicle, the Bionicles I usually pick them up. I love it when they're already put together. They stay put together pretty well, but this one was incomplete and I was selling it for replacement parts. I sold this for asking price of $8 and 40 cents plus shipping and this came from a garage sale for 50 cents. This right here is a vintage Barbie Rapunzel Children's Collector First Edition Barbie doll. I got this at a garage sale for $3 and I sold it for a best offer of $30 plus shipping. The next item is this vintage napco Santa figurine holding a wreath. Another thing that I really enjoy selling aside from toys is vintage Christmas items, just love it. Got this at a garage sale for 50 cents and I sold it for a best offer of $15 plus shipping and it did have some paint loss. So always disclose anything like that right there on the wreath on his hand. And I always say see photos and use zoom. The next item that sold is this vintage. It's a Dominican Republican Porto Plata Hat. And I actually sold this once and it got returned because they said it was too small. And I was like, okay, so I got it back and then I sold it again and I sold it for a best offer of $10 plus shipping and I got that at a garage sale, I guess in 50 cents or less on that. I was hoping it was gonna be worth more. These are vintage Breyer horses. I went ahead and put these two together because they kind of looked similar. I don't know if they're from the same timeframe or not but I ended up selling these for $30 best offer and I got these at a garage sale and I don't remember what I paid for them. This right here came out of a thrift store toy box and I looked her up and her name is Jade and she is from the sleepover party but she has no feet friends and she's still sold. So people will use these for replacement parts or they will put feet on them and she has her cool little outfit and I sold her for $9.80 plus shipping. The next item is this Transformers Rescue Bots Optimus Prime from the Mobile Command headquarters. And I got this at a thrift store for a quarter and I sold this for $16 plus shipping. I always pick up these little rescue bots. Some of them can go in the $30 range, some of them in the $20 range but a lot of them are just bread and butter but you can usually pick them up really cheap. The next item I pulled out of the Goodwill Benz. I went to the Benz, I left and I came back and went through the Benz that I had already looked through and I put that video over on my sourcing with Bolo Buddies channel. This was one of the items that I picked up. I ended up selling him for $15 plus shipping. The next item is this Vintage Gund Plush. I picked this up at a thrift store. It's in one of my videos, a huge plush haul. I went and they had totes and totes of plush. It was amazing. I pulled a plush out of there, a Vintage Small Steif plush that I ended up, I think selling for like 75 bucks. So, and I paid a dollar for it but this was 99 cents plus shipping or I'm sorry, plus tax and I sold it for $10, best offer plus shipping. The next item is this Alex and Ani Zodiac Pisces Charm expandable bracelet. This was actually out of an estate lot of jewelry that my husband brought home. I picked out some pieces and listed them for him. This sold pretty quickly for $15 plus shipping. The next item is this Boyd's Bears Bailey in England ornament. This came out of a thrift store mystery box. I don't typically pick up the Boyd's figurines unless they're like Halloween or something special. This one was in a mystery box. So I went ahead and listed it because it was in the original box, had the original packaging, easy list, ready to go. And it sold pretty quickly for $14 plus shipping. This guy right here, I don't remember where I got him. He may have come out of a mystery box. He may have come out of the mystery box that I got from tee auctions for you. I pulled a lot of vintage toys out of there but I ended up taking a best offer of $10 plus shipping for him. He's from 1984, Glob A Team Rattler. Man, what is going on? I am selling all kinds of stuff tonight. Late night shoppers tonight. Wow, it's midnight. That's my third sale tonight while I've been recording. So this figure is from Hong Kong and we will look at that sale at the end of the video. I don't know if it's gonna be good or not. Okay, I looked at it. I'll tell you guys at the end. It's nothing big, it's a bread and butter. It'll go perfectly with this video. $10 on that one. Okay, this little guy right here also came from that same thrift store video where I bought all the plush. I paid a buck for this, but I just thought he was so cute. He's a vintage jointed miniature poseable teddy bear and it said ACS 113 on it. I couldn't find any comps. I actually can't believe how quick it sold considering but I sold it for $7.50 plus shipping. These red flocked Christmas reindeer came out of a thrift store mystery box, a Christmas box. I sold these for $10 plus shipping. This little guy, I always pick these up. They are the laugh and learn figures. There's a monkey, there's a bear and I think there's something else. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. If anybody knows, put it in the comments. I got this at the Goodwill Bins. I have sold these on multiple occasions. So I knew it would sell. Sold it for $8.40 plus shipping and did not weigh very much. So probably maybe a quarter, 50 cents in that. This is the authentic Disney store Aladdin genie and he did take longer than I thought to sell. I picked him up at a garage so I don't remember what I paid for him. I usually play a dollar or less for my plush. Sold this for $13.99 plus shipping. This right here is a vintage Fairfield greeting card and it is so cute. Let me show you some pictures here. It's got the yarn and they're like playing with this yarn. Is that adorable? I should have put that as my main photo so you could actually see it. It is written in, so not perfect condition but I ended up selling this for $4.50 plus shipping. This item here is a Fisher Price Loving Family Dollhouse pet dog food water dish. Again, probably not something that most of you are gonna mess with but sometimes if I'm listing like, I'll get a tote of Loving Family and I'll just start listing it and if there's not something I can bundle it with and I've already looked it up, I might as well just list it really quick. Sold this for $4.90 plus shipping probably had like pennies in it. Here's another Fisher Price Loving Family item. This is a bed. I sold this for $17 plus shipping. This is a Playmobil replacement hinge for the folding take-along house. I bought the house. I can't remember. I think it was broken or there was an issue with it and I was like, how can I make some of my money back? And I'm like, I'm gonna try to list this hinge and you know what, it sold. There was also another piece I pulled off of there that also sold. So just unbelievable, these little weird replacement parts that do really good. And again, check out that replacements parts video. I have a whole video, a what sold video on items that are parts, pieces, replacement parts that I have sold on eBay for good money. So check that out. This I ended up selling for $6, best offer plus shipping. I feel like that went internationally also. This vintage Delft pottery hand-painted elephant, I got this at a thrift store for $3 and I sold this for $18 plus shipping and that's the information on the bottom. This right here, Eddie Walker Midwest of Cannon Falls, Halloween Cat Witch Ghost signed. I got these for, I'm sorry, out of a mystery box from a thrift store, a Halloween box and I sold these for $18 plus shipping. This right here is a Madwell Sun Hat, or I'm sorry, not Madwell, Madewell Sun Hat and it's got the scarf accent. I got this at a thrift store for $2, ended up selling this for $28 plus shipping and I never sold straw hats until I watched Butterfly Hustles.  That's where I learned about these hats. And if you guys have been watching me a while, I always shout her out whenever I sell a straw hat because I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for her. So go sub her up, she is amazing. Her channel is awesome and she is just the sweetest person. The next item is this vintage playmate's, little playmate's Space Station Green Alien and it says I got it out of a mystery box. So I'm gonna take my word for it. I remember getting something like this from a garage sale also. So maybe I've sold multiples. Sold this for $12.60 plus shipping. This right here is a really cool Marvin Garden's title deed Monopoly card broach. I got this at a garage sale. I probably had 50 cents or less in it and I sold it for $14 plus shipping. All right, so this here is an RCA, motorized cassette adapter allows VHS C-tapes to play in VHS VCR. No clue what that means, I just wrote what was on the package. Got this at a garage sale for $1, took a best offer of $20 plus shipping. This item right here came from the Goodwill, I don't know, wait. I have garage sale, but I am certain I got this at the Goodwill Benz. I got this at the Goodwill Benz. Maybe I had something that I built the listing off of and I forgot to change it because this was definitely the Goodwill Benz. And what on earth? I think I just forgot to log this one. Yeah, cause it says that it sold for $20 and it didn't. This is an auction for $34.99. So I just forgot to write it down. So Goodwill Benz, so probably three or four bucks. It was a little bit heavy. It's a Wildbird baby carrier wrap in bluish gray linen, $34.99, one bit on that. This next item here is this Wild Republic Goose. It's a water bird and it's a plush. And I have done really good with this brand. They seem to sell really good. I don't know why, but I guess they're collectible. Sold this one for $9.99 plus shipping. So not big money, but usually a quicker item to sell. This is one of those where I can't believe I listed it. Usually I just donate things like this, but it's a just play kids play stethoscope, doctor, nurse, hospital pretend play dress up.  I ended up selling this for $7 plus shipping, which I think is pretty fantastic. This right here came out of a mystery toy box. I kind of knew what was in there, but I went into the auction late so I didn't see everything she held up, but I knew I was getting toys with damaged packaging. And I removed the toys from the packaging. There was an outer packaging on this that I took off, but left it in this part. I got this from Donna Telebotelino's YouTube channel. She has selling events and she wholesale items, pre-owned items and sells them to resellers. Donna Telebotelino and auctions for you, definitely check them out. I had two of these in the box and I sold let's say one of them for 30, both each for $30 each. So 60 bucks just in those two items. You can check out the whole unboxing over on this channel. This vintage Fisher Price Happy Apple Chime Toy, wobble, rolly, pulley toy. I got this at a garage sale for 50 cents and it was a church sale. And I sold it for $15.40 plus shipping and it sold fast. This little guy came out of a mystery plush lot that I picked up from Donna Telebotelino, but I didn't pick it up. Noelle Farm Girl Scavenger picked it up and had Donna send it to me as a gift.  But Noelle and I unboxed this box together. If you guys wanna see what else I got in the box, I sold one of the plush in the box. I think it was, nope, that was a different one. That was a different one. That was another plush lot that I got from Donna. It was in a recent, or not really recent, another video I did against the rubble reseller and plush lots. So the plush lots were $50 free shipping at this time with shipping rates going up and everything. I think she just did a batch not too long ago for $60 free shipping and she puts them in a big, huge bag and wraps them all up tight and ships them out to you. So $60 free shipping, not too shabby for a big ball of plush. Check out those videos that I have. It probably says like plush unboxing. One will say Farm Girl Scavenger in the title and one will say the rubble reseller. And if you check those out, you'll see what types of things you get in the mystery plush lots. They are complete mystery. You don't know what you're getting. So thank you guys so much for being here. I will link Donna Telebotelino and Auctions for you down below if you're looking for inventory. It's a great way to source on YouTube. And I have bought from them a whole lot and I highly recommend them. I mean, they have been, I've always had great stuff. So check them out. Oh yeah, we were gonna look at what I sold. Let's see. I sold because we got a chiching during the video. So let's see what it is. I got it at a garage sale for a buck. I think this was in one of my videos. Yeah. And I parted it out, but this is a Geotrax Yellow Grand Central Station train remote control only. And I sold that for $11.70 plus shipping. So nice little bread and butter volo there for you guys. Okay. Thank you for being here. There's gonna be some videos popping up here and here, a subscribe and another video down below. Check out one of those videos. Thank you again so much. I appreciate you. Leave me an emoji of something in the comments. Thanks for watching.