The Oakland Asian Cultural Center Presents:
Poets of Existence
Deema K. Shehabi Persis Karim Shadab Zeest Hashmi
Friday, March 16, 2018
7- 9 pm
Coming from a multitude of experiences, these poets enrich our existence with the beauty of their words. Please join us for an evening of poetry and music.
Deema K. Shehabi is the author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon and co-editor with Beau Beausoleil of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here for which she won NCBR’s Book Recognition Award.
She’s also co-author with Marilyn Hacker of the renga sequence Diaspo/Renga.
Persis Karim is the Neda Nobari Chair of the newly-established Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies and a professor in the Comparative and World Literature department at San Francisco State University.
Shadab Zeest Hashmi is a poet and essayist. She is the winner of the San Diego Book Award and the Nazim Hikmet Prize. Her books include Ghazal Cosmopolitan, Kohl and Chalk and Baker of Tarifa.
Accompanied by Musical Guests:
Faraz Minooei is a composer and santur player. As a full-time musician, he is a performer, composer, ethno-musicologist and teacher. He has performed with noted ensembles in the United States, among which was his collaboration in 2009 with Yo Yo Ma and Kayhan Kalhor in the Silk Road Ensemble (for the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln Center).
Hossein Massoudi is a vocalist. Steeped in the folkloric Kurdish vocal tradition of his native Iran, he integrates his love of Persian classical music with his Kurdish roots, resulting in a musicality which is rarely heard.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center