One of our Favorite Poets: Mercedes Roffe Reading this Thursday!

McNally Jackson Bookstore
GRINNELL / ROFFÉ / YANKELEVICH

POETRY READING


Thursday, October 23 2008, 7:00pm - 8:00pm


at McNALLY JACKSON Bookstore

52 Prince St.
(b/t Lafayette & Mulberry)
New York, NY 10012
212.274.1160



E. TRACY GRINNELL is the author of Some Clear Souvenir (O Books 2006) and Music or Forgetting (O Books 2001), as well as the limited edition chapbooks Quadriga, a collaboration with Paul Foster Johnson (gong chapbooks, 2006), Of the Frame (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2004), and Harmonics (Melodeon Poetry Systems, 2000). The chapbooks Leukadia (Trafficker Press), Humoresque (Dusie Press), and Helen (Belladonna) are all forthcoming this fall. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she teaches writing and edits Litmus Press and Aufgabe, an annual journal of poetry and translations.



Argentine poet MERCEDES ROFFÉ is the author of several poetry collections –the most recent of them, Las linternas flotantes (The Floating Lanterns), forthcoming in Buenos Aires in 2009. Among other distinctions, she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry (2001).
In 1998 she founded Ediciones Pen Press, a New York based small press devoted to the publication of contemporary poetry. Her work has been translated into French (Définitions mayas et autres poèmes, Montréal, 2004), Italian (L’algebra oscura, S. Marco in Lamis, 2004), and Romanian (Teoria culorilor, Bucharest, 2006). In English translation, she has published the chapbook Theory of Colors (Belladonna, 2005), and the book-length collection, Like the Rains Come. Selected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2008). MARGARET CARSON will be reading her recent translations from Roffé’s Ghost Opera (2006).



MATVEI YANKELEVICH is a founding editor of Ugly Duckling Presse, where he designs books, co-edits 6x6, and edits thPe Eastern European Poets Series.

Matvei edited and translated Today I Wrote Nothing:The selected writings of daniil kharms (Overlook, 2007). He is a co-translator of Oberiu: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism (Northwestern, 2006). His translation of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" is included in Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008).

He is the author of a long poem, The Present Work (Palm Press, 2006). His writing has appeared in various small and tiny literary journals and on-line publications. From 1999-2001 he co-edited The Emergency Gazette of theater matters, with Yelena Gluzman. His essays on Russian-American poets appear in Octopus Magazine (on-line). Matvei teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in NYC.

Born Palestinian, Born Black

(Suheir Hammad at PEN American Center)

UpSet Press is proud to be re-releasing Suheir Hammad's first book of poetry: Born Black, Born Palestinian in Spring 2009. UpSet Press and Suheir Hammad's relationship has a long long history. It began with Zohra tugging at her skirt while she was on a platform rallying a student protest when both were in college. Suheir was part of SLAM at Hunter College. The friendship has continued through the years, through letters, through emails, and through teaching her work. UpSet Press wants to share her latest project: Salt of the Sea, a film by Annemarie Jacir.


(L-R: Danny Glover, Annemarie Jacir, Saleh Bakri, and Suheir Hammad)

Synopsis:

A woman confronts the realities of life in the occupied Palestinian territories in this drama. While she was born and raised in New York, Soraya (Suheir Hammad) is of Palestinian heritage and has long dreamed of returning to the land of her ancestors. When Soraya learns that her grandfather bequeathed her a bit more than $15,000 he left in a bank account in Ramallah, she decides it's time to make a pilgrimage, especially since the inheritance can pay for a long stay in the country. However, Soraya arrives in Israel to find that immigration personnel and border guards are not helpful to tourists of Palestinian blood, and it takes no small amount of determination before she arrives in Ramallah. There, Soraya meets Emad (Saleh Bakri), a handsome Palestinian student who has a scholarship waiting for him at a university in Canada, but Israeli immigration authorities refuse to grant him a visa. Soraya and Emad bond over their frustrations at the injustice they see around them, and when she learns that the money in her grandfather's account (and all other Palestinian accounts at the bank) was forfeited after the establishment of the nation of Israel, they decide to take action. Soraya, Emad and his friend Marwan (Riyad Ideis) plan to stage a bank robbery, in which they'll take only the amount deposited by her grandfather as a protest against the discriminatory policies that have become a part of daily life under occupation. Milh Hadha Al-Bahr (aka Salt Of This Sea) was the first feature film from writer and director Annemarie Jacir. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?

Moustafa Bayoumi read from his new book: How Does it Feel to be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in American (Penguin 2008) at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts sponsored by ArteEast
Yasmin Dwedar joined the reading to share her story. Zohra Saed moderated the panel. Livia Alexander, Executive Director of ArteEast and Michelle Levy, Program Director of EFA Project Space coordinated the event.

The book has received fantastic reviews and its only been out a month! UpSet Press encourages you to read this book and share it with your friends. It is one of the most sensitively written books about the Arab American experience in Brooklyn. We love it so much, we teach it in our classrooms! And our students loved it enough to come out and show their support.

Here are some photos from the event:

Moustafa Bayoumi reading at the beautiful EFA Gallery

Zohra, Moustafa and Yasmin

Yasmin says "Its creepy how exact his description of my high school experience was in the book. It was as if he was sitting on my shoulder witnessing everything I went through at the time."

Post reading schmoozing:

Yasmin speaks to students from Hunter College who came out to support.

Moustafa and the line of admirers.

Notice the Constitutional Law book on the chair! Yasmin is in her first year of Law School, continuing to sharpen the skills she developed in High School fighting for her rights in New York's Public School system.

Livia Alexander, Executive Director/Co-Founder of ArteEast and friends. (Livia is in blue)

Here is a photo of some of the members who make up the stories in Moustafa Bayoumi's book.

(Photos by Zohra Saed)

Moustafa Bayoumi at the Park Slope branch of Barnes & Noble (August 20th Book Release Reading)

Rain Date: Video Poem by Cihan Kaan

Here is a lovely video poem in honor of rain in Brooklyn.


Rain Date Act II from Landbridge Massive on Vimeo.

Rain Date I

August Class Trip: Chanika Svetvilas at Brooklyn Public Library

In August, Zohra took her Asian Americans in the U.S. class to visit Chanika Svetvilas' Journeys exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library (Grand Army Plaza) on August 20th.

Chanika Svetvilas shares the interactive portions of her exhibit with the students.




Tara Bhattacharya-Moore takes notes in front of the suitcase that said My Side and then flipped to be Your Side


In the pockets of the suitcases Chanika had taken apart to sew onto the walls were notes that held visitors wishes and aspirations. Nia Taylor reads one wish out loud:



Hazem and Gigi listen to Chanika explain this piece The Grass is Greener on the Other Side


Exxon origami flowers...


Jean Singh poses with the Exxon flowers.


Class Photo: We are all in a suitcase, get it?


Thank you Chanika!

August UpSet Press Poetry Group Meeting

Denise Galang and Sean Ohanlon hosted the August 2008 Poetry Group Meeting at their beautiful home in Brooklyn. After a lovely Vegetarian BBQ, the group settled in for some indepth reading and critique of each other's work. We are lucky at UpSet to have this family atmosphere to nourish our poetry manuscripts. This group has been meeting for the past three years.

Poets: Jenny Husk, Sean O'Hanlon and Denise Galang

Poet: Nicholas Powers, author of Theater of War (UpSet Press 2006)

Poet: Robert Booras, Founding Editor of UpSet Press

Poet: Denise Galang checks up a word in the dictionary

Poets: Nicholas Powers and Jenny Husk look over a prose-poem

Bringing Who We Love into the Classroom!

Zohra Saed, editor at Up-Set Press, has been introducing her students to some lovely people.

Viamoana Niumeitolu of Mahina Movement visited her Asian American Literature and Postcolonial Literature courses at Hunter College in July 2008:


Moana wakes up the 10am class




Student Amani was so moved by Moana's talk and performance that she said she wished her friends in Kuwait could see Moana's performance


Moana talks about what makes her work postcolonial in the next class


Thank you Moana!

This visit was after the students had seen her one woman show: Tongue In Paint
(which was absolutely riveting)