Urban Iran at KGB in NYC: 2/17 @ 7pm
February 10, 2009
Join Urban Iran contributors Charlotte Noruzi and Sohrab Mohebbi at New York City’s finest literary bar, KGB, during a night of non-fiction readings about Iran. Other readers include Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, and Manijeh Nasrabadi.
The event is free, so come on out and get yourself a little attention from Homeland Security! More information about the readers below.
Sohrab Mohebbi is the author of “Hair is for Head-Banging” and a contributor to Urban Iran. A writer/art critic from Tehran, he is currently a student at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, and the founder of the 127 music ensemble.
Charlotte Noruzi was born in Tehran, moving to the U.S. in 1977. She is an author-illustrator-designer based in New York City. URBAN IRAN is a depiction of everyday life apart from international and diplomatic policies, giving voice to people living and working in Iran today while probing the complexities of contemporary Iran. Described and revealed by photographers, writers and visual artists, from street art to heavy metal bands and book publishing, Urban Iran documents how the Western media gaze influences how much of the world views Iran, but also how this gaze impacts how Iranians see themselves, especially in the realm of the creative arts.
Hooman Majd was born in Tehran, Iran in 1957. He worked at Island Records and Polygram Records for many years, with a diverse group of artists, and was head of film and music at Palm Pictures, where he produced The Cup and James Toback’s Black and White. He has written for GQ, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Observer, Interview, and Salon, and has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post from its inception. A contributing editor at Interview magazine, he lives in New York City and travels regularly back to Iran. His new book is THE AYATOLLAH BEGS TO DIFFER.
Manijeh Nasrabadi received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Hunter College. Her essay “Before I Knew Him” won the City University of New York Arts Gala Memoir Prize in 2005. She was a Hertog Fellow that same year and a 2008 recipient of a Hedgebrook writing residency. Carry the Sand Away from the Walls, her memoir-in-progress, is about the author’s relationship with her Iranian, Zoroastrian, communist father whose experiences of poverty and a coup d’état in Iran shaped him in ways that didn’t translate well in 1980s America.
