How can poetry generate processes to find paths to resistance and create new forms of life in common, here and now? The evening hosted by literary magazine Kontur starts with a Q&A by scholar and activist Olivia Maury, followed by readings by Athena Farrokhzad.
The night continues with LIT Night club hosted by Ruskeat Tytöt at about 8 pm. At the club we’ll hear texts from Koko Hubara and RT LIT AKATEMIA writing school students as well as dance to the beats of DJ Wekesa – read more about the club here!
Athena Farrokhzad, born 1983 in Teheran, lives in Stockholm. Her debut collection of poetry titled “Vitsvit” (White Blight) was published in 2013 and centers around the topics of language, desire and heritage within a context of revolution, war, migration and racism. It has been translated into many languages and staged several times as a play. Her second book, Trado, published in 2016, is a collaboration with the Romanian poet Svetlana Cârstean. Farrokhzad is also a literary critic, playwright and teacher of creative writing. She has translated writers such at Marguerite Duras, Nicole Brossard, Jacqueline Woodson and Adrienne Rich to Swedish.
Farrokhzad is invited to Helsinki by theatre group Blaue Frau and she will also be hosting a workshop, where possibilities of transforming the subject and society through writing is explored. The workshop is fully booked.
Kontur is a Helsinki-based magazine, a collective, and a laboratory, mapping the potential of living and writing together. Kontur is published four times a year.
The reading is funded by Kone Foundation, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, and the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation.