Week-long Iraj Khademi Residency in Persian literature

Three exciting individuals will be in residence at the University of Washington between November 11-15, 2024.

• Mohammad Asef Soltanzadeh, award-winning Afghan novelist and short story writer, based in Denmark

• Shahzoda Nazarova Samarqandi, Tajik novelist, journalist, and activist from Uzbekistan, based in the Netherlands  

• Laura Yasmine Catterson, doctoral candidate in comparative literature at the University of California, Davis, who works on Iranian and Iraqi poetry

"Impasse" a long awaited documentary on the "Woman Life Freedom" movement in Iran , written and produced by Bahman Kiarostami and Rahmaneh Rabani. The film depicts 52 Days of Rahmaneh’s life in the beginning days of the Woman Life Freedom movement after Mahsa Jina Amini's death. English subtitled. Rahmaneh spent her first two decades fully veiled, like her mother Elaheh, as part of a deeply religious family. Now 37, she is at the forefront of Iran’s protest movement and at odds with her father and the culture he created.

Event made possible by a grant from the City of Bellevue

Layla Ramezan is one of the most creative and talented artists of our time. She will be performing her magnificent project "Horizons", the musical intersection of the Orient and the Occident followed by a lecture on the richness of Persian Piano Music, and the strong connection between the Eastern and Western worlds, their mutual attraction and fascination, which has produced extraordinary music over a period of more than 100 years.

Special thanks to Early Music Seattle and Babak Khiavchi for their collaboration.

California-based, Iranian American artist, Yasmeen Abedifard, speaks about her her newly published comic collection "When to Pick a Pomegranate" (pub. Silver Sprocket 2024)

Hosted by Peyvand partist, Amelia Ossorio and University of Washington's Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. Sponsored by Peyvand Nonprofit Organization