A Night of (Persian) Poetry

Payvand, Iran
Wednesday December 5, 2007

New York: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Persian Arts Festival (PAF) marks the revival of Shab-e She'r, A Night of (Persian) Poetry, at the Bowery Poetry Club (BPC) in New York City.

The program will continue every third Wednesday of the month through May 2008. PAFs first featured reader is well known Iranian-American novelist and memoirist, Nahid Rachlin.

An open mic follows Rachlin's reading, inviting everyone to read either his or her own poetry or works by other poets, in Persian or English, though we ask that the work connects to Iran or Iranian/Persian culture.

PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman, hosts the December launch of Shab-e She'r. Mr Newman is a poet, essayist and translator.

The author of The Silence Of Men (CavanKerry Press, 2006), a book of his own poetry, and two books of translations from classical Persian literature, Selections from Saadi's Gulistan and Selections from Saadi's Bustan (both from Global Scholarly Publications, 2004 and 2006 respectively), he is currently translating selections from the Shahnameh, the Persian national epic.

He collaborated with Professor John Moyne on a forthcoming Rumi anthology, A Bird in the Garden of Angels (Mazda Publishers).

In addition to serving as PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman sits on the advisory board of The Translation Project, is a speaker with the New York Council for the Humanities and Associate Professor at Nassau Community College, where he also leads its Creative Writing Project.

Persian Arts Festival, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to showcasing the magnificence and diversity of Persian art and culture through its voices, artists and visionaries.

PAF provides a truly unique opportunity for local and global communities to gather and explore one of the world's most ancient and rich civilizations.

Persian Arts Festival is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

BPC is located at 308 Bowery @ Bleecker in NYC
More information at http://www.persianartsfestival.org/