Captive: Forough Farrokhzad Book Launch & Talk with Farzaneh Milani

Event Details: Tickets Friday, October 19, 2018, 8:00 pm

Join us for the launch of Asir (Captive), a newly published facsimile of Iranian poet and film director Forough Farrokzhad’s first collection of poems, originally published in Iran in 1955. Translator Farzaneh Milani will present a talk on the work of Forugh Farrokzhad on this occasion, followed by a conversation with Farnoosh Fathi.

Rhombus Press (established in 2016) is a growing platform and initiative by Shahrzad Kamel that acts as an extension of her artistic practice in order to work on collaborative projects with like-minded individuals. Rhombus Press is primarily a publishing press, but also occasionally organizes film screenings and public talks. Collaboration is by invitation and is not medium specific. Rhombus Press works on contemporary as well as historical projects. www.rhombuspress.com

Collaboratively curated, the Friday night series brings writers, artists, critics, performers, and audiences together in an uncontainable assembly. We host readers from here and elsewhere to invite resonances across practices, open and press urgent dialogues, and build a space for shared struggles. We’re holding out for writing which has the potential to make things otherwise.

Online tickets are available at the link above until an hour before this event. Unless otherwise noted, tickets will continue to be available at the door.

Farzaneh Milani

Farzaneh Milani is Raymond J. Nelson Professor and Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures. Former Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Virginia, she has published several books, most recently The Literary Biography of Forugh Farrokhzad with Unpublished Letters (in Persian) and Words, not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement; as well as over one hundred articles, epilogues, forewords, and afterwords in both Persian and English. She has served as the guest editor for special issues of Nimeye-Digar, IranNameh and Iranian Studies. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Ms. Magazine, Reader’s Digest, USA Today, among others, and contributed to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She has presented 240 lectures nationally and internationally. A past president of the Association of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies in America and a Carnegie Fellow, Milani was the recipient of the All University Teaching Award as well as the Zintl Leadership Award (2015).

Farnoosh Fathi

Farnoosh Fathi is the author of Great Guns (Canarium, 2013), editor of Joan Murray: Drafts, Fragments, and Poems (NYRB Poets, 2017) and founder of the Young Artists Language and Devotion Alliance (YALDA). She lives and teaches in New York City, most recently at The Poetry Project, Poets House and Columbia University.