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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: richard@persianartsfestival.org
PERSIAN ARTS FESTIVAL REVIVES SHAB-E SHE'R
POETRY NIGHT AT BOWERY POETRY CLUB
NEW YORK, November 12, 2007 -- 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). 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, reading from her recent memoir, Persian Girls. 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. Poet,
essayist, translator and PAF Literary Arts Director, Richard Jeffrey Newman, hosts the December launch of
Shab-e She’r. To sign up for the open mic email richard@persianartsfestival.org. Shab-e She’r at the Bowery
Poetry Club will run from 6-8 PM every third Wednesday of the month. $12 cover includes one drink.
BPC is located at 308 Bowery @ Bleecker in NYC. Please visit PAF online for more information at
www.persianartsfestival.org.
A long-standing and well-loved tradition, BPCs original Shab-e She'r brought together poets, scholars, and
other members of the Iranian community in the New York metropolitan area to celebrate their shared literary
heritage. Poets, young and old, would read their own work, in Persian and in English; others would recite, and
sometimes sing, poems by Rumi, Sa'di, Hafez and more; issues were discussed and debated. The evening, in
other words, provided a place in New York City where the living literary tradition of Iran could lay down roots
and flourish. When the original Shab-e She'r was discontinued, it left a gap in the cultural life of New York that
has not been filled until now. In keeping with its mission to "highlight the magnificence and diversity of Persian
art and cultur