Iran All Night & Day - Second Annual ‘Iranian Literary Arts Festival’ February 5-6, 2009
Despite the characterization of Iran as a member of the axis of evil, a place ruled by a despot who harbors nuclear intentions, the appeal of its art, food, film and more simply, culture, seems to slice through all the scare tactics. The popularity of two recent works dealing with the Revolution, the film Persepolis and memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, is a testament to the West's fascination with that tumultuous transition.
Now the Translation Project and San Francisco International Poetry Festival mark the 30th Anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution by gathering diaspora poets from all over the world during the Second Annual ‘Iranian Literary Arts Festival’ February 5-6, 2009. It's a rare glimpse of the contemporary Iranian poetry scene.
Lit lovers on a budget will be glad to learn that all events are FREE and OPEN to the public.
Featuring Iranian poets Ziba Karbassi, Granaz Moussavi, Majid Naficy, Partow Nooriala, and Abbas Saffari, the festival opens on Thursday February 5 at 6:30 pm at Book Bay Fort Mason with a roundtable discussion entitled, "30 Years of Be-Longing." The hyphenated term evokes shades of the portuguese word, saudade, that singular expression of nostalgia for what has been lost.
The poets' works appear in the new anthology, BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books, August 2008) and the writers will discuss the future of diaspora literature. SF Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, that North Beach fixture extraordinaire, and Isabelle Thuy Pelaud professor of Asian American Studies at SFSU will also be a part of the roundtable. Moderated by Niloufar Talebi, editor and translator of BELONGING.
"Close to one million Iranians have left Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, including many artists. What we've done here at the Translation Project is gather the poetry created outside Iran in the Persian language and created the bilingual anthology, BELONGING, and then created collaborative videos and theater projects based on this exciting poetry. For example, ICARUS/RISE is a show we created to tell the 30-year story of this immigrant community, drawing on the Iranian theatrical spoken-word tradition of Naghali,” says Niloufar Talebi, founder of the Translation Project.
Quotes on BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World:
“Niloufar Talebi’s accomplishment in gathering the poetry of the Iranian Diaspora is unprecedented and breathtaking. It is as if she has, by force of commitment and vision, and by way of cultural hunger, bequeathed a new literary heritage to Iran and the world. Here is a lyric symphony of utterance in the voices of exiles, immigrants, refugees, and expatriates. That Talebi assembled such an extraordinary collection is impressive enough—that she translated most of these poems herself is nothing short of remarkable.”
—Carolyn Forché, editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness
“In Belonging, with literary skill and passion, Niloufar Talebi has made a major contribution to the recognition of contemporary Iranian literature in the West, to the appreciation of Diaspora poetry by Persian speakers everywhere, and to the important project of producing good translations from rich but underrepresented literary canons for the Anglophone reader.”
—Nahid Mozaffari, editor of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature
“Niloufar Talebi has accomplished the ultimate magic trick in her clean and modern translation. She has made the work of modern Persian poets read like original English ... an unparalled contribution.”
—Willis Barnstone, author of With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires
For additional information including registration, visit http://thetranslationproject.org
Now the Translation Project and San Francisco International Poetry Festival mark the 30th Anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution by gathering diaspora poets from all over the world during the Second Annual ‘Iranian Literary Arts Festival’ February 5-6, 2009. It's a rare glimpse of the contemporary Iranian poetry scene.
Lit lovers on a budget will be glad to learn that all events are FREE and OPEN to the public.
Featuring Iranian poets Ziba Karbassi, Granaz Moussavi, Majid Naficy, Partow Nooriala, and Abbas Saffari, the festival opens on Thursday February 5 at 6:30 pm at Book Bay Fort Mason with a roundtable discussion entitled, "30 Years of Be-Longing." The hyphenated term evokes shades of the portuguese word, saudade, that singular expression of nostalgia for what has been lost.
The poets' works appear in the new anthology, BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books, August 2008) and the writers will discuss the future of diaspora literature. SF Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, that North Beach fixture extraordinaire, and Isabelle Thuy Pelaud professor of Asian American Studies at SFSU will also be a part of the roundtable. Moderated by Niloufar Talebi, editor and translator of BELONGING.
"Close to one million Iranians have left Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, including many artists. What we've done here at the Translation Project is gather the poetry created outside Iran in the Persian language and created the bilingual anthology, BELONGING, and then created collaborative videos and theater projects based on this exciting poetry. For example, ICARUS/RISE is a show we created to tell the 30-year story of this immigrant community, drawing on the Iranian theatrical spoken-word tradition of Naghali,” says Niloufar Talebi, founder of the Translation Project.
Quotes on BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World:
“Niloufar Talebi’s accomplishment in gathering the poetry of the Iranian Diaspora is unprecedented and breathtaking. It is as if she has, by force of commitment and vision, and by way of cultural hunger, bequeathed a new literary heritage to Iran and the world. Here is a lyric symphony of utterance in the voices of exiles, immigrants, refugees, and expatriates. That Talebi assembled such an extraordinary collection is impressive enough—that she translated most of these poems herself is nothing short of remarkable.”
—Carolyn Forché, editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness
“In Belonging, with literary skill and passion, Niloufar Talebi has made a major contribution to the recognition of contemporary Iranian literature in the West, to the appreciation of Diaspora poetry by Persian speakers everywhere, and to the important project of producing good translations from rich but underrepresented literary canons for the Anglophone reader.”
—Nahid Mozaffari, editor of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature
“Niloufar Talebi has accomplished the ultimate magic trick in her clean and modern translation. She has made the work of modern Persian poets read like original English ... an unparalled contribution.”
—Willis Barnstone, author of With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires
For additional information including registration, visit http://thetranslationproject.org
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