“Parsipur navigates skillfully between the extremes of mainstream discourse and overt opposition.” World Literature Today

“[Hammad] is the embodiment of the global reach of feminism,” Gloria Steinem, New York Magazine

Two courageous authors have fiercely insisted on voicing consciousness and social criticism: novelist Shahrnush Parsipur and poet Suheir Hammad. Joined by editor and scholar Persis Karim, who moderates this evening, Parsipur and Hammad discuss creative conviction linking nations, genres, and generations. Banned in her native Iran, Parsipur’s most famous works, Touba and the Meaning of Night and Women without Men use fabulism and history to portray women’s sexual and intellectual agency. Women without Men was recently adapted into an award-winning film by renowned Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. Hammad, a Palestinian born in Jordan, emerged in the ’90s on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. The author of the collections Breaking Poems and Born Palestinian, Born Black, she is known for her impassioned lyricism and commitment to social justice.

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