View from the Grad Center library
There is so much to update via publications, awards, projects and short vids of my students. However, all that must wait until I finish writing… this is the tower I’m locked up in these days: The CUNY Grad Center library! Great view of 5th Avenue!
Jennifer Hayashida, director of the Asian American Studies Program and Lawrence-Minh Bui-Davis, editor of Asian American Literary Review
March 13: This day marks my return to lovely Hunter College to perform with Kundiman friends the most timely Together We Are New York show. I practically grew up as an educator and scholar at Hunter College. It was an institution that began my teaching career and although, now I teach ancient literature, teaching Arab American and West Asian American Literature in a post-9/11 NYC was an interesting epic adventure of its own.
On this evening, at the Roosevelt House (a very fancy most un-Hunter-like building!) we performed for an audience of mostly Hunter College students.
A view from above: Purvi Shah, Eugenia Leigh, Marlon Esguerra and April Naoko Heck at Roosevelt House.
The best part of this evening, besides performing, was listening to the stories and experiences that contributors to the special issue of the Asian American Literary Review that commemorated the decade after September 11th. Sonny Singh and Cynthia OuYang, activists and writers gave beautiful readings and testimonies of the backlash. As a contributor to this special issue, I want to say how important it was for me to have compassionate editors like Parag Khandhar (not present at Hunter but there in spirit) and Lawrence-Minh Bui-Davis.
Lawrence-Minh Bui-Davis chatting with Sonny Singh before the event
The lovely Purvi Shah
The sweet Eugenia Leigh pre-show
Lawrence, Sonny and Cynthia
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The impact on Asian American communities in the decade since 9/11 has taken many visible and invisible forms: detention and deportation, displaced Chinatown workers and residents, racial profiling and the “war on terror,” yet Asian Americans are frequently left out of public discussions surrounding the ten years since 9/11. Please join us for a program featuring KUNDIMAN and THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW, two Asian American arts and literature organizations that have responded to this living history by producing projects that bring attention to Asian American experiences in the decade since 9/11.
TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012, FROM 6 – 8 PM
AALR Editor-in-Chief Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis will be on hand with contributors to the AALR Special Issue:
Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of Sept. 11, featuring testimonies, essays, and dialogues by Asian American scholars, educators, activists, artists, and poets on the before and after of the decade since 9/11.
Poets April Heck, Eugenia Leigh, Marlon Esguerra, Zohra Saed, and Purvi Shah will perform and discuss work from Together We Are New York:
Asian Americans Remember & Re-vision 9/11, a unique community history and public remembrance arts project produced by KUNDIMAN, the country’s leading organization for Asian American poetry and poets. The show combines poems based on interviews with Asian American community members about 9/11 and the decade since with audio clips from the interviews.
Co-Sponsored by the Human Rights Program, The Public Policy Program and the Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College, CUNY.
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Spent this past Friday and Saturday in DC at the Split this Rock Poetry Festival. I’m not sure if it was knowingly timed with the cherry blossom season in DC but it was a lovely surprise to find so much pink beauty in the streets (despite the later rain).
I had the good fortune of presenting on a panel with Purvi Shah and April Naoko Heck. We did another excerpted version of the Together We Are New York in Revisioning 9/11 a panel at the festival. I met some lovely poets and reconnected with old friend Kazim Ali.
Purvi Shah, artistic director of Together We Are New York
Here is Purvi setting up the space before people joined us.
Poets who joined our reading.
I learned something wonderful on this day of poetry and community, poets have made listening an art. Thank you festival organizers for such a wonderful experience!
Writers are for the most part lone wolfs, notorious for hibernating in order to release the “jinns” inside them via writing. However, this year, I found myself more than ever involved in collaborations that expanded my community of Asian American and Central Asian American authors, performers and intellectuals. Since I was bedazzled by the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone, I fortunately documented these moments of collaborations, both formal and informal (almost always informal with a generous dosage of laughter). I am blessed and honored to be part of this community.
Here is my tribute to a growing community:
The inimitable Cihan Kaan, author of Halal Pork & Other Stories whose book happily almost sold out 9 months after release (UpSet Press: Spring 2011)
Amir Parsa, genius poet, and Robert Booras, editor of UpSet Press drawing up a contract for 2013 and beyond with a cool $20 on the table.
Purvi Shah, director of KAVAD programs, Kundiman. Fearless leader of the Together We Are New York, a Post 9/11 Community Voices and Poetry Series.
These photos are a series of collaborative meetings poets: Hossannah Asuncion, Tamiko Beyer, Marlon Esguerra, April Naoko Heck, Eugenia Leigh, Bushra Rehman, Zohra Saed, Purvi Shah, and R.A. Villanueva had while putting together the Together We Are New York performance in NYC.
April Naoko Heck, poet/beauty/blogger
Tamiko Beyer, poet with the most joyous laughter, Together We Are New York (Kundiman)
Bushra Rehman, comedian meets poet meets novelist, Together We Are New York (Kundiman)
Marlon Esguerra, poet extraordinare, listening and editing the voices for Together We Are New York (Kundiman)
Hossannah Asuncion, poet and human vitamin C, bringing the good cheer at a Together We Are New York meeting.
R.A. Villanueva and Tamiko Beyer in the midst of editing at Together We Are New York meeting (Fast editing creates visual blurs — aka Poets at Work defy still photos).
Eugenia Leigh, pushcart winner for her poetry! Here gathering the yellow candles we decorated the stage with at Fordham University.
My perspective… don
Nisa, the young future scientist interviewed by Tamiko Beyer. Tamiko
Sahar Muradi, poet/actress/co-editor, during a session to organize the first Afghan American artists and writers commemoration of the 10 years of war in Afghanistan.
Wazhmah Osman, Filmmaker/Scholar/Activist, at organization meeting for Afghan Americans Ten Years Later event.
Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) L-R: Sahar Muradi, moi, Naheed Elyasi, and Najila Naderi. The organization is now growing with members and events.
Bushra Aryan, PhD in Education, writes excellent probing work on Afghan American women in higher education.
Shehnaz Khan, community activist and author of
Veil matches iPhone. Madonna meets Hijabi Fashionista.
Shehnaz Khan, truly rocking that veil!
Winter Wonderland with Najila Naderi, Afghan American fiction writer.
Here is my pictorial formula to further increase my writing productivity 2012:
Some people see Jesus shapes on frosted windows — I see the Buddha of Bamiyan on a tree in Midwood, Brooklyn.
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Ezra Pound
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My Turbano Totem: Found in a Chinatown Souvenir Shop on Doyer Street.
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A Smiley Zohra
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Wish me luck for the New Year! And thank you for all of your support! Happy writing, performing, creating and reading to you as well!
On November 8th, Wazhmah Osman and I were the two Afghans in the audience of this wonderful play: “Infinite Incompleteness”
Hadi Marifat, writes, “The voices are now raised, but is anybody ready to listen?” in one of his papers on the Theater of Justice that his NGO The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO) has implemented as a tool for change in Afghanistan. This play was most certainly an important performance of multiple voices, both the voices of the actors on stage, sometimes overlapping and at other times solitary heartbroken, or angry and seeking justice, and the text that was on display (translations in English of the performance, which was a layer of Dari and Pashto).
Hadi Marifat, Director of AHRDO
Infinite Completeness was an interweaving of multiple life history accounts of the 30+ years of war in Afghanistan. The repetitive acts of building/destroying, burying/excavating, collecting/scattering, and counting endlessly spoke profoundly the story of Afghanistan and the effects of decades of war.
Zahra Hosseini, actor and activist.
Prayer, Thoughtfulness, and Behind Both a Map of Afghanistan
Sayed Mohammad Javid, actor and activist.
Zaman Khoshnam, actor and activist was the Pashto voice in this.
And here is a lovely photo of the Afghan performers and us two Afghan Americans (Wazhmah Osman 3rd person from Left) after the show:
Post Show
I was fortunate to spend 11.11.11 with this group at Le Pain Quoditien in SoHo talking about the possible connections between our gang, Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) and AHRDO. Let’s keep our fingers crescented about any future collaborations. It was a great honor to meet them and to speak with them (and they were extremely patient with my Dari/English with some occasional Uzbek terms popping in like an uninvited guest into my sentences).
Z Cubed: Zahra and Zaman on stage with Zohra taking photo...
Hipstamatic photos from my iPhone in homage of autumn, my favorite month in NYC:
Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge, a glimpse of laundry
Commuter Pigeon on Q line
Commuter Pigeon realizing she has wings...
Autumn is always Conference Season
Daddy jan making turshi (pickles) to mark the beginning of autumn.
Autumn is a pile of stringbeans (from Ginger restaurant)
Autumn is leafless tree with apples still clinging on.
Thanks to David Henderson and Chris Brandt for a lovely and meaningful event on a warm Sunday afternoon in October for the Howl Festival:
Sara Goudarzi
The lovely poet, Sara Goudarzi. Everyone came out with these fantastic glowing faces as if illuminated features were quite average things for poets and musicians these days.
Sahar Muradi
Poet and actress, Sahar Muradi in her fantastic shoes.
Yusuf Misdaq
Yusuf not only read his poetry but also performed on the harmonium!
David Henderson
David doing his magic on stage.
The Mast
The afternoon closed with the angelic voice of Haale, lead singer of The Mast.
Poets for Renewable Energy and Peace (PREP) at Howl Festival (NYC)
When: Sunday, October 23
Time: 1-4pm
Where: Theater 80 on 80 St. Marks Place (East 8th St. & 1st Avenue) in Manhattan.
Who: Sahar Muradi, Zohra Saed, Anne Waldman, The Mast (featuring Haale Gafori and Matt Kilmer), Sara Goudarzi, Bob Rosenthal, Papoleto Melendez, Yusuf Misdaq, Tahani Salah, Jackie Sheeler, Chris Brandt, David Henderson, Eliot Katz, and surprise special guests.
About: The event is being organized in conjunction with the Howl Festival, which is putting on a series of October events at Theater 80 to raise money for the Howl HELP Fund, which will provide emergency assistance to help community artists with emergency healthcare, housing, and social service needs.
There is so much to say about the event on Oct. 7th — a reunion of artist friends, a meeting of new friends, and a commemoration. Yellow candles lit the Mandragoras Gallery where Afghan Americans and an Afghan Brit came together to share the process of art-making and self-making during these years of war in Afghanistan, life post-9/11 for Afghans in the diaspora.
The evening was presented in three rooms.
Room 1: Video Art by Mariam Ghani, Gazelle Samizay and Yusuf Misdaq on loop. Then a screening of Wazhmah Osman’s Postcards from Tora Bora, which also features clips from super 8 family films from Afghanistan in the 1960s and 70s. It was priceless.
Wazhmah Osman's Postcards from Tora Bora
Wazhmah Osman's Postcards from Tora Bora
The gallery:
Naheed Elyasi setting up the delicious spread for the evening.
Mandragoras Gallery
Readings:
Niro Sherzad warms up the stage and continued to steal the show!
Najila Naderi reads excerpts from her powerful short story.
Yusuf Misdaq performs his dynamic poetry. (In Afghan chapan (robe) with a Colorado T-shirt)
Helena Zewari discusses the aesthetics & politics of Afghan diaspora art-making/self-making.
Room 3: Zakarya Sherzad (on Cello) performs with Sinan (on Oud) as a video art piece juxtaposing the mountains of Afghanistan and the catastrophe of the World Trade Centers in his haunting and powerful poetry on being split yet connected by the catastrophes of both places.
Sinan and Zakarya
Audience listening... Sahar by the window in red dress.
Sahar Muradi’s performance of Questions & Answers that Afghan Americans deal with:
(Right) Sahar: "Then you must speak Pashtu?" (Left) Guest: "I don't even know what that means."
Thank you for the 150 friends and family who came to the event!
Found Spot: 4th Ave Park Slope (June, 2011)
