June 16, 2010 6pm-7:30pm
PAF presents: Shab-e She’r feat. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet!
Bowery Poetry Club / 308 Bowery / NYC 10012 / Subway to 2nd Avenue F train
Our June 16th Shab-e She’r series will feature Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet! Professor Kashani-Sabet teaches Middle Eastern history and directs the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and completed her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in history at Yale University. This event will celebrate the recent publication of her first novel, Martyrdom Street, published by Syracuse University Press. She has started a second novel and hopes to complete a series of children’s books in the future.
Her book, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 (Princeton University Press, 1999) looks at the significance of land and border disputes in Iranian nationalism, with attention to Iran’s shared boundaries with the Ottoman Empire (and later Iraq and Turkey), Russia, Afghanistan and the Gulf states. Frontier Fictions is currently being translated into Persian by Kitabsara Press, Iran.
Professor Kashani-Sabet has also finished a book entitled, Conceiving Citizens: Women, Sexuality, and Religion in Modern Iran (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2010). She is also completing a book on America’s historical relationship with Iran and the Islamic world entitled, The Making of the ‘Great Satan’: A History of US – Iranian Relations (under contract with Princeton University Press). In addition to pursuing her academic work, Professor Kashani-Sabet spends time writing fiction.
An open mic will follow the reading, inviting everyone to read either his or her own poetry or works by other poets, in Persian or English, bearing some connection to Iran or Iranian/Persian culture. To sign up to read, please email poetry@persianartsfestival.org.
This event will be streamed LIVE at http://www.bowerypoetry.com!
Persian Arts Festival (PAF) revived Shab-e She’r, A Night of (Persian) Poetry, at the Bowery Poetry Club (BPC) but with a modern spin. Our program expands what tends to be a very classical Persian tradition to feature modern works of literature, ranging from fictional novels to memoirs. PAF and BPC continue to host readings of well-established and emerging authors who are of Persian descent or specialize in Persian literature. Readers have included Nahid Rachlin, Manijeh Nasrabadi and Joe Martin to name a few.
Tags: bowery poetry club, Eastern, Events, Iran, Iranian, lower east side, New York, new york city, Persian, Persian Arts Festival, persian poetry, poetry, shabesher
Aida Shahghasemi, currently a graduate student in Art and Public Policy at NYU, was born in Iran and moved to the States in July of 2000. She is thankful to her teacher, Amir Samadi, one of the late Mirza Agha Ghowsi’s pupils for learning to play Daf, a traditional Kurdish instrument. Aida has also had the privilege of studying the Iranian Classical vocal repertoire with Parissa by traveling back and forth between Iran and U.S. She has worked with a number of different ensembles over the past five years and is one of the founders of Iran’s House of Art student organization at the University of Minnesota where she completed her bachelors degree in Psychology and Anthropology. She is currently working with the Simorq foundation (please check out at 
Shabnam Piryaei was born in Iran and raised in the U.S. Her work has been published in several journals including The Florida Review, Runes: A Review of Poetry, Flashquake, and The Furnace Review. She has been awarded the Poets & Writers Amy Award for poetry, as well as the Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Her collection of writing entitled “Ode to Fragile” is forthcoming. Currently she is developing three short films based on material from the book.
This month’s Shab-e She’r series will feature Hossein Kamaly on November 18th, 6 – 7:30 pm. Hossein Kamaly is the Assistant Professor in the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department and specializes in Middle Eastern history and Islamic Studies. After years of working as an electrical engineer, computer programmer, mathematical analyst, and simultaneous interpreter, he obtained a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 2004. His research interests focus on intellectual history, and the broad field of Perso-Islamic studies. He is committed to close reading of classical texts, and teaches courses in which important themes are traced across texts and societies. Hossein will also speak about music and rhythm found in Persian poetry.