The Second Floor welcomes new chairperson
Mahenaz Mahmud hands over reins to Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood
KARACHI:
In her Facebook post dated November 10, 2016, former The Second Floor (T2F) chairperson and mother of T2F founder Sabeen Mahmud Mahenaz Mahmud introduced the new chairperson, Khalid Mahmood. Khalid has been a long time benefactor of T2F.
In her post, Mahenaz said, “As many of you know, after Sabeen lost her lease on the first T2F space on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in 2010, a donor who believed in Sabeen offered her our current space (for Rs100 a year). He chose to remain anonymous - a testament to the depth of his character. I asked him to join the PeaceNiche Board last year, to which he graciously agreed, despite his extremely busy schedule as CEO for Getz Pharma, as well as serving on a slew of other boards.”
Khalid has taken over the ‘responsibility of converting Sabeen’s dream projects, PeaceNiche and T2F, to the next institutional level’.
“It’s a planned move. After Sabeen Mahmud’s death, her mother took over as chairperson of T2F but now she would like to pursue other projects,” explained Khalid. “Everything has a lot of potential for change and improvement. I just started to work here last Wednesday and the previous team brought a lot of excellence to their work.”
According to Khalid, seven new board members are going to join as members of the managing committee, which is the same as the board. “I will look into the affairs and, via the friends of T2F and the audience, draw up a strategy to expand it physically,” explained the new chairperson. So far, T2F is financially stable but, Khalid says, he foresees maintaining this to be challenge. “The previous board did a fairly good job raising funds for T2F,” he praised.
“The people who work at T2F are its core team; they should remain empowered. Secondly, to keep the doors open we should have programmes and activities [that] are more meaningful,” said Khalid on ways to ensure T2F stays open for the public.
“T2F and PeaceNiche have been a breath of fresh air for the city where issues that are important for the survival of the city are discussed and debated,” he explained. “Additionally, it is also a place for people to practise, perform and enjoy art, literature and music without expensive tickets. It has a space for people to teach and others to learn at a marginal cost.”
A message from the outgoing chairperson
“PeaceNiche and its flagship project, T2F, are Sabeen’s gifts to Karachi and to Pakistan,” said Mahenaz. “Inspired by T2F, others have already founded similar community spaces in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan. I hope to see many more T2Fs emerge and be successful in the years to come.”
She hopes T2F and PeaceNiche grow in order to facilitate future generations of emerging young talent. “Sabeen’s dream was for a community space [that] is powered by the community, so it is now time to hand it over to the community it seeks to serve,” she said. “My intention was never to be at the helm of PeaceNiche forever. Over these challenging last 20 months, I have come to understand that PeaceNiche and T2F need to be further institutionalised in order to survive long into the future.”
Speaking about the departure of T2F director Marvi Mazhar, Mahenaz said, “Marvi graciously offered to manage T2F for us at a very critical juncture and I am very grateful to her for that.” The architect had agreed to a one-year contract, which ended on December 31, 2016, and the position of director at T2F is currently vacant.
“All of us have to move on at some point and that is true for her and for me as well. PeaceNiche and T2F also have to move on without those of us who were very close to Sabeen. Our successful institution building will ensure that T2F can continue to be Sabeen’s gift to future generations.” Currently, the director’s position remains vacant.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2017.
In her Facebook post dated November 10, 2016, former The Second Floor (T2F) chairperson and mother of T2F founder Sabeen Mahmud Mahenaz Mahmud introduced the new chairperson, Khalid Mahmood. Khalid has been a long time benefactor of T2F.
In her post, Mahenaz said, “As many of you know, after Sabeen lost her lease on the first T2F space on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in 2010, a donor who believed in Sabeen offered her our current space (for Rs100 a year). He chose to remain anonymous - a testament to the depth of his character. I asked him to join the PeaceNiche Board last year, to which he graciously agreed, despite his extremely busy schedule as CEO for Getz Pharma, as well as serving on a slew of other boards.”
Khalid has taken over the ‘responsibility of converting Sabeen’s dream projects, PeaceNiche and T2F, to the next institutional level’.
“It’s a planned move. After Sabeen Mahmud’s death, her mother took over as chairperson of T2F but now she would like to pursue other projects,” explained Khalid. “Everything has a lot of potential for change and improvement. I just started to work here last Wednesday and the previous team brought a lot of excellence to their work.”
According to Khalid, seven new board members are going to join as members of the managing committee, which is the same as the board. “I will look into the affairs and, via the friends of T2F and the audience, draw up a strategy to expand it physically,” explained the new chairperson. So far, T2F is financially stable but, Khalid says, he foresees maintaining this to be challenge. “The previous board did a fairly good job raising funds for T2F,” he praised.
“The people who work at T2F are its core team; they should remain empowered. Secondly, to keep the doors open we should have programmes and activities [that] are more meaningful,” said Khalid on ways to ensure T2F stays open for the public.
“T2F and PeaceNiche have been a breath of fresh air for the city where issues that are important for the survival of the city are discussed and debated,” he explained. “Additionally, it is also a place for people to practise, perform and enjoy art, literature and music without expensive tickets. It has a space for people to teach and others to learn at a marginal cost.”
A message from the outgoing chairperson
“PeaceNiche and its flagship project, T2F, are Sabeen’s gifts to Karachi and to Pakistan,” said Mahenaz. “Inspired by T2F, others have already founded similar community spaces in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan. I hope to see many more T2Fs emerge and be successful in the years to come.”
She hopes T2F and PeaceNiche grow in order to facilitate future generations of emerging young talent. “Sabeen’s dream was for a community space [that] is powered by the community, so it is now time to hand it over to the community it seeks to serve,” she said. “My intention was never to be at the helm of PeaceNiche forever. Over these challenging last 20 months, I have come to understand that PeaceNiche and T2F need to be further institutionalised in order to survive long into the future.”
Speaking about the departure of T2F director Marvi Mazhar, Mahenaz said, “Marvi graciously offered to manage T2F for us at a very critical juncture and I am very grateful to her for that.” The architect had agreed to a one-year contract, which ended on December 31, 2016, and the position of director at T2F is currently vacant.
“All of us have to move on at some point and that is true for her and for me as well. PeaceNiche and T2F also have to move on without those of us who were very close to Sabeen. Our successful institution building will ensure that T2F can continue to be Sabeen’s gift to future generations.” Currently, the director’s position remains vacant.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2017.