A reading & performance with Ghayath Almadhoun, Sarah Rosenthal, Brenda Iijima, & Eric Sneathan
GHAYATH ALMADOUN is a Palestinian poet born in Damascus in 1979. He has lived in Stockholm since 2008. Almadhoun has published four collections of poetry, the latest “Adrenaline” in Milano 2017. In Sweden he has been translated and published in two collections: Asylansökan (Ersatz, 2010), which was awarded the Klas de Vylders stipendiefond for immigrant writers. He also authored Till Damaskus (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2014) together with the Swedish poet Marie Silkeberg. which was included in “Dagens Nyheter” (the largest Swedish newspaper) literary critic list for Best New Books and converted to a Radio Play for Swedish National Radio. With Silkeberg, Almadhoun has also made several poetry films. His work has been translated into Swedish, German, Greek, Slovenian, Italian, English, Dutch, French, Danish, Spanish, Czech, Croatian, Albanian and Chinese. The Dutch translation of Almadhon’s poems, Weg van Damascus, (Uitgeverij Jurgen Maas) Amsterdam 2014, was one of the top 10 selling poetry books in Belgium for several weeks in 2015.
With renowned American artist Jenny Holzer Six poems by Almadhoun has been projected from 25th February – 6th March on the façade of Aarhus Theatre as part of “For Aarhus” a new work in celebration of Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017.
And from 28th May 2017, four poems by Almadhoun will be projected by Holzer on MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, USA Also Three poems by Almadhoun will be projected by Holzer on the night of June 15th 2017, on in the city of Florence as a collaboration with the city of Florence, between Holzer and the talented and artistic American fashion designer based in Milan Virgil Abloh. Virgil will debut his fall/winter 2017/2018 collection, with an elaborately orchestrated outdoor event in the courtyard of the Pitti Palace. Lately he had published together with the Dutch poet Anne Vegter, the poetry collection “ik hier jij daar” (Uitgeverij Jurgen Maas) Amsterdam 2017.
SARAH ROSENTHAL is the author of Lizard (Chax, 2016) and Manhatten (Spuyten Duyvil, 2009) as well as numerous chapbooks including Estelle Meaning Star (above/ground, 2014), disperse (Dusie, 2014), and The Animal (in collaboration with artist Amy Fung-yi Lee, Dusie, 2011). She edited A Community Writing Itself: Conversations with Vanguard Poets of the Bay Area (Dalkey Archive, 2010). Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has appeared in numerous journals and is anthologized in Kindergarde: Avant-garde Poems, Plays, and Stories for Children (Black Radish, 2013), Building is a Process / Light is an Element: essays and excursions for Myung Mi Kim (P-Queue, 2008), Bay Poetics (Faux, 2006), The Other Side of the Postcard (City Lights, 2004), and hinge (Crack, 2002). Sarah is the recipient of the Leo Litwak Fiction Award, a Creative Capacity Innovation Grant, a San Francisco Education Fund Grant, and grant-supported writing residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Soul Mountain, Ragdale, New York Mills, and Hambridge. From 2009–2011 she was an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts. She lives in San Francisco where she works as a Life & Professional Coach and serves on the California Book Awards poetry jury. More at sarahrosenthal.net and sculptingmylife.com.
BRENDA IIJIMA involvements occur at the intersections and mutations of poetry, research movement, animal studies, visual representation, ecological sociology and submerged histories. She is the author of seven full-length collections of poetry and numerous chapbooks and artist’s books. Her most recent book, Remembering Animals was published by Nightboat Books in 2016. She is also the editor of the eco language reader. She is the editor of Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, located in Brooklyn, NY (http://yoyolabs.com/).
ERIC SNEATHAN splits his time between Oakland and UC Santa Cruz, where he is a PhD student in Literature. His poetry has been published by Mondo Bummer, Faggot Journal, Elderly, and P-Queue, and his first collection, Snail Poems, was published by Krupskaya. He edits a number of local publishing projects, including Macaroni Necklace, HEATHENS, and Gossip & Scandal, a chapbook series featuring interviews and new work by Bay Area writers. With Daniel Benjamin he co-edited The Bigness of Things: New Narrative and Visual Culture.
