The Work of Pooneh Maghazehe PAF Visual Art Director: Sego Art Center Presents Virtual Identities, Real Space
Paintings by Ali Banisadr - Exhibition Opening Reception Oct. 30th
 Prisoners of the Sun (TV), 2008. Oil on linen, 54 x 72 inches |
ALI BANISADRPaintingsOctober 30 – December 20Opening Reception: Oct. 30th 6-8pCatalog available535 West 22nd Street New York, N.Y. 10011 212 255 8450 |
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| Ali Banisadr’s first one-person exhibition features paintings in oil on canvas created during the past year. With lush applications of brilliant color, rendered in a semi-abstract style, they combine stylistic idioms from the history of western art with references to Persian miniature painting. Underlying the seductive beauty of Banisadr’s richly interwoven imagery is the apocalyptic nature of his subject matter. In these works, memory and history collide, inspired by his childhood recollections of the Iran-Iraq War.Ali Banisadr was born in Tehran in 1976. At the age of twelve his family left Iran, living briefly in Turkey before emigrating to California. As a teenager living in San Francisco, Banisadr was part of a well-known group of graffiti artists. After briefly studying psychology, he left the Bay Area to attend art school in New York, receiving a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2005 and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2007. He continues to live and work in New York.About two years ago Banisadr began to explore his vivid memories of the bombings that had regularly occurred throughout his childhood. Recalling the vibrations and shattering glass led him to the idea of translating sounds into images. At the same time, he researched the history of conspiracies and conflict in the Middle East dating back to ancient times.Two paintings in the exhibition incorporate the legends of Alamut, a remote mountain fortress in medieval Persia and the Hashashins, a warrior sect that occupied the fortress. The Hashashins were falsely alleged to have been killers, motivated by religious and political ideologies, who recruited converts by drugging young men and bringing them to a beautiful garden at Alamut. There they were supplied with wine and virgins and made to believe that they were in Paradise.Paintings by Ali Banisadr will be featured in the exhibition Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East at the Saatchi Gallery in London, opening in February of 2009.The gallery is located at 535 West 22nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
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Niloufar Talebi Featured Guest at November 19th PAF Shab-e She’r!
Persian Arts Festival’s Shab-e She’r – A Night of Poetry!
Wednesday, November 19th, 6 - 8pm
Every 3rd Wednesday of the month
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, between Houston and Bleecker (F train to 2nd Ave)
Cover: $6
Co-curated by PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman and Kaveh Bassiri, the event includes an open mic that is open to all who would like to read their favorite Iranian poetry or their own original work in Persian or English. To sign up to read before the event, email poetry@persianartsfestival.org.
November’s guest reader will be Award-winning translator, Niloufar Talebi. Niloufar is the editor/translator of BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books, August 2008). She founded The Translation Project www.thetranslationproject.org in 2003, an organization dedicated to bringing new Iranian literature to wide audiences with innovative book, multimedia and theater projects. She created Midnight Approaches, a DVD of short videos, and ICARUS/RISE, a multimedia theatrical piece, both based on the poetry in BELONGING.For more information, visit PAF online at www.persianartsfestival.org
PAF’s Persian Poetry Night Expands!
PAF has expanded the concept of Shab-e She’r (Night of Poetry) to incorporate the vast world of literature ranging from classical poetry to contemporary works by Persian authors or inspired by Persian culture.
The series occurs every 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Bowery Poetry Club, and now has a reduced admission price of $6! The schedule of special guests is as follows:
10/15/08 - Solmaz Sharif
11/19/08 - Niloufar Talebi
12/17/08 - Sara Goudarzi
1/21/09 - Nahid Mozaffari
2/18/09 - Taha Ebrahimi
3/18/09 - Iraj Anvar - a special PAF Norooz edition!
4/15/09 - Jawid Mojaddedi
5/20/09 - Katayoon Zandvakili
LA theatrical release of acclaimed documentary TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES
Followed by Q&A with Director Massoud Bakhshi
November 5 & 6 at the Landmark Cinema on Pico and Westwood
TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES (Tehran Anar Nadarad) is a post-modern feature documentary that uses style and sarcasm to capture the chaotic and paradoxical soul of the Iranian mega-city.
Director Massoud Bakhshi and crew are on a mission to make a film about their hometown, Tehran, but have hit a wall and must explain to their overseers at the Documentary Film Center why their project cannot be completed. They decide to investigate the city’s past in order to better understand the present. What follows is a sarcastic and comic narrative about Tehran’s transformation from a small village into a megapolis of increasing urban mess, pollution, inadequate housing, class gaps and the fatal destiny of its delicious pomegranates. Using an energetic mix of rare archival footage from the past 150 years, unconventional photography, mock interviews and a playful soundtrack, the aesthetic and cultural values of old and new Tehran are brought to life. In the process, director and crew embark on a self-discovery, realizing that while they belong to a drastically transformed Tehran, being a Tehrani is a timeless state of mind.
Official Selection HOTDOCS, IDFA, Full Frame, Rotterdam Film Festivals
Written and Directed by Massoud Bakhshi; Narrated by Nosrat Karimi; Music my Mohsen Namjoo
An imaginative and engaging history of Tehran that uses a petulant barbed humor to deliver a steady stream of irony about this drastically transformed society -Variety
Address: 10850 West Pico at Westwood Blvd.Directly next door to Barnes & Noble - Enter on Westwood Blvd. or Pico Showtimes: November 5 & 6 at 7 and 9 pm Call (310) 281-8233 for details or buy tickets up to two weeks in advance: https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Landmark.aspx?TheatreID=267
Khosro Berahmandi Presents Re-emerge Exhibition in Montreal
From October 3 to November 16, 2008, Khosro presents Re-emerge, an exhibition composed of a series of 38 paintings and 12 drawings, and invites the public to once again undertake forays into infinite, meticulous details that give rise to a personal, unique and captivating mythology.
The exhibition is composed of three “corridors”. The first two, Life of the Eye and Iris of Life display a series of diptychs and triptychs inhabited by mysterious creatures whose poetic gazes weave threads of love, conception, birth and death. Building upon the golden lines that frame the space of the canvas, under the circle of a red sun, or under a crescent moon, the artist’s brush suspends movement to allow life to flow once again with majesty and power. The third “corridor” reveals a series of paintings that served as an inspiration for the multidisciplinary show Nocturnal Flashes shown last spring as part of the Accs Asie festival. Sensual, delicate, and poetic, a universe opens up where dance, music, and color all whisper, command, and call out to our senses. For more information, go to www.khosro.info or www.mekic.ca
October 15th - Persian Arts Festival Literary Series
An evening of Persian Literature – classical, contemporary and beyond.
October 15th
Bowery Poetry Club - 308 Bowery (at Bleecker)
Now only $6!!!
6 – 8 pm
Co-curated by PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman and Kaveh Bassiri, the event includes an open mic that is open to all who would like to read their favorite Iranian poetry or their own original work in Persian or English. To sign up to read before the event, email poetry@persianartsfestival.org. This month’s guest reader will be Solmaz Sharif. Raised in exile, Solmaz completed degrees in Sociology and Women of Color Writers at U.C. Berkeley. While there, she studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. She is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at New York University, where she is a Goldwater Fellow and teaches undergraduate creative writing. Her first published poem, included in A World Between, was written at the age of 13. Since then, her work has appeared in Berkeley Poetry Review and numerous campus publications. Her readings include Bowery Poetry Club, Hunter College, and Pacifica Radio. She is now working on her first book, which responds to a dictionary of war with eyewitness testimony and the precision of poetry. We look forward to seeing you there. For more information, go to www.persianartsfestival.org.
NYC Shab-e She’r is back Wednesday, Sept. 17th!
Persian Arts Festival Shab-e She’r (Persian Poetry Night) is back!
Wednesday, September 17th, 6 - 8 pm
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (@ Bleecker)
$12 cover includes one drink!
Co-curated by PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman and Kaveh Bassiri, the event includes an open mic that is open to all who would like to read their favorite Iranian poetry or their own original work in Persian or English. To sign up to read before the event, email poetry@persianartsfestival.org.
This month’s guest reader will be Safa Samiezade=Yazd, an Iranian-American solo theatre artist who works to transform politics into poetics. As a citizen of both countries, Safa has always lived as “the other”, and does not try to change history or politics, but rather attempts to synthesize them into a new identity that other Iranian-Americans may be able to claim. Works include “Cover Girl,” “Are You My Father,” “Khomeini and Me,” and “Persian Princess Alchemy.”
For more information, visit PAF online at www.persianartsfestival.org .
Mehregan Festival Essay Contest
The Iranian community of Orange County hosts an annual Mehregan festival. This year it will take place the weekend of October 11 – 12, 2008 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. The festival features both traditional and modern Iranian culture – music, arts, food, film, and more. The overall theme is “Love, Knowledge, and Commitment.”Students throughout the county in grades 6 – 12 are invited to participate in an essay contest connected with the festival. The contest theme is PEACE. Participating students will write original essays that incorporate their thoughts on the importance of peace today. Students may include references to current events, peace efforts, and their thoughts about the value of peace.
CONTEST RULES AND DETAILS
Who: All students in grades 6 – 12. Sponsor: Mehregan Festival Orange County
What: Original essays on the topic of peace, no longer than 150 lines, word processed –standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, size 12)
When: Due October 1, 2008. Announcement of winners will be made by October 8th. Where: Submit Essays to: NIPOC 2082 Business Center Drive Suite 258 Irvine
How: One teacher per school collects all school entries and submits them in one envelope to the address above. Each entry includes the following information on the first page:Student Name Student Phone Number, School Grade, School Phone Number, English Teacher’s Name, School Address. Entries must be received by October 1, 2008 to be considered. An impartial panel convened by Mehregan Festival will judge the entries.
Why: Relevant learning opportunity: connect current world issues with student learning in language arts and social studies. Participants receive free admission to MehreganFestival. Winners at the Honorable Mention level through 1st Place receive certificatesof commendation. Winners receive gift certificates and free admission to the festival.Prize details: Gift certificates in the amounts of $150 – 1st place; $100 – 2nd place, and $50 – 3rd place.
Questions? Contact Shoja Adel, Mehregan Festival Essay Contest Director at 949.851-3993, or Deborah Granger, Coordinator, History-Social Science, OCDE at 714.966-4447 or dgranger@ocde.us.
Fall Memoir Workshop with Manijeh Nasrabadi
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Creating a Mosaic: Personal Histories from the Middle Eastern Diaspora
Instructor: Manijeh Nasrabadi
Tuesdays, 7–9 pm, October 7–November 25
8 sessions
Registration is on a first come, first serve basis and enrollment is limited to eight.
Fee: $250; ArteEast members $225
Make checks payable to ArteEast and send to:
Arte East 1178 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001
Are there memories, moments, that shimmer in your mind’s eye, that cry out for attention in the middle of your busy life? Is there a family story or a personal story that you’ve wanted to write down, to sift, to savor or to salvage?
So much is being written about people of Middle Eastern heritage these days, much of it full of stereotypes and misinformation. This workshop is a chance for us to speak for ourselves, to tell our own stories in all of their complexity, with all of the quirky, tragic, terrifying and beautiful details that often reveal more universal themes.
People of all levels of experience are welcome to help create what we hope will become a community of writers whose work may include overlapping interests stemming from the diverse experiences of the Middle Eastern diaspora (e.g., migration and cultural hybridity; assimilation, racism and loss; ancestral ties; historical and political legacies; and engagement with mainstream media/literary representations).
Each week, we will discuss examples of published memoirs and essays, as well as each other’s work, and go through the steps of the writing process together⎯from free writing, to outlining, to creating a first, second and third draft. Each class member will finish the course with a piece that, sometimes with a little more revision, could be sent out to journals or expanded into a larger work. Selected essays will be published on the ArteEast and Association of Iranian American Writers web sites. Reading materials will be provided.
BIO: Manijeh Nasrabadi was born in Washington, DC, graduated from Brown University and received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Hunter College where she was privileged to study with Eva Hoffman, Kathryn Harrison, Nuala O’Faolain and Louise DeSalvo. She received the City University of New York Arts Gala Memoir Prize in 2005, a Hertog fellowship that same year, and a Hedgebrook writing residency for 2008. Her essay Souvenir appears in About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror, published by Seal Press in June 2008, and her essay Forest Fire will be published in the anthology Love and Pomegranates. She is co-director of the Association of Iranian-American Writers, a growing professional network (iranianamericanwriters.org). In May 2008, she was a featured panelist at the emerging voices workshop at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Conference on Asian-American Women. She has been a featured reader at KGB and at the Persian Arts Festival’s Shab-e Sher at Bowery Poetry Club. Her current project is a collection of personal essays and poems titled Carry the Sand Away from the Walls about her experiences with her families in America and in Iran. She teaches creative writing at Hunter College and travels annually to Iran. manijehnasrabadi.com
ArteEast is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization.
All contributions are tax deductible to US taxpayers.