A Poem on Healing

 A short version of my poem: “Little Joan of Arc with Red Lipstick, Pink Nail Polish and Orange Dress” is published on 10th Ward Lit, Healing issue.

A Trip to Italy

 A Trip to Italy is a new film video by Kian A. Adel, a 17 year old talented filmmaker. He gives a different perspective to a traveling experience. 

Today

Kian A. Adel, a 17 year old filmmaker, made this film based on one of my poems "Today". He also acted in it.

 

Camera: Amelia Winter

 

Kian Adel is a great talent!

When the Written Word Works - Bob Jenkins

 When the Written Word Works - 

By: Bob Jenkins 

"Speech is the tug of war that pulls us together. Against all odds, the often-ill-defined thoughts of one person are refined and understood by another. Those talking are together sharing context. Perhaps sharing family and home. Gestures and looks confirm understanding and misunderstanding. Questions, requests for clarification, and repeating what was heard perfect the communication. It mostly works whenever the speakers are face to face, in synchrony, committed to the goal of communicating. By contrast letters, memos, emails, texts are far less likely to succeed. Not surprising as they are asynchronous."

Read more....  

 

Mr. Thank You

 Mr. Thank You, a short story by Yasunari Kawabata

A film version is made by  Hiroshi Shimizu

A bus driver, nicknamed Mr. Thank You due to his expressions of gratitude to other road users who give way on the narrow mountain roads, drives from rural Izu to faraway Tokyo. The film portrays the passengers and their diverse reasons for travel, like a mother and her daughter who is destined to be sold in Tokyo, and the people they meet on the way, including a Korean working woman who makes funeral arrangements for her deceased father. In the end, Mr. Thank You marries the daughter to save her from her fate.  

Here is a film review.

And.... a 3 minute of the film....

"The Pomegranate," by Kawabata Yasunari

Kawabata Yasunari (1889-1972) was the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature. It was awarded in 1968, and coincided with the centennial celebration of the Meiji Restoration.

Japanese authors of the modern period have been well aware of both their own long, rich literary tradition and new ideas about content, form, and style available from the West. Kawabata was no exception; his work has been influenced by both traditions, and is widely read in the West as well as in Japan.

Kawabata is best known in the United States for novels such as Snow Country, A Thousand Cranes, and The Sound of the Mountain, but he also wrote many very short stories — a form he called tanagokoro no shôsetsu ( "palm-of-the-hand stories"). These short narratives are less concerned with plot, or story line, than with depicting momentary experiences and feelings that have wider meanings.

Read the short short story:

"The Pomegranate"  

 

مستند کوهدشت جامال کاری از بهمن ابراهیمی

 

مستند کوهدشت جامال  کاری از بهمن ابراهیمی

این مستند در سی و هفت دقیقه پیرامون جاذبه های طبیعی و تاریخی کوهدشت لرستان توسط بهمن ابراهیمی تهیه شده است.

مكرزنان

 

مكر-زنان

آورده اندكه مردي بودپيوسته تفتيش مكرزنان ميكردواومردي فاضل ودانشمندوجامع علوم بودهميشه احتياطازمكرزنان كرده وايشان رامحل اعتمادندانستي واعتمادبرقول ايشان ننمودي وگفتي زن چه وجودداردكه مكرش چه باشدوزنان ناقص عقلندوكتابي تمام كرده بودازمكرزنان وآنرا" حيله النساء"نام كرده بودهركجاازمكرزنان ديده ياشنيده بوددرآن كتاب جمع كرده وهميشه درجستجوي حيله زنان بودتاوقتيكه دراثناي سفربقبيله بني اسد رسيدوچون شب بودنزديك آن قبيله فرودآمدوبردرخانه يكي ازآنهارفت كه صاحب خانه درخانه نبودناگاه ازآنخانه زني بيرون آمددرغايت حسن وجمال و درنهايت غنج ودلال كه ازروي زيباي اوخورشيدرشك ميبردآن زن ديدجواني غريب بردرخانه اوفرودآمده پيش رفت وسلام كردآنمردجواب سلام اورابازداد مرحباگفت وچون زن رامثال گل شكفته ديدگفت ايزن مهمان دوست داري .

داستانی از مکر زنان

گویند نویسنده ای تصمیم گرفت داستانی در مورد مکر زنان بنویسد

وآنرا حلیه النساء نام گذارد . برای جمع آوری مطالب شروع به سیاحت وگردش در شهرها کرد واز هر مسافرتی مطلبی فراهم آورد.

  داستان کوتاه "زن و ببر" از کتاب چهل طوطی

 در دهکده «دوالاهیه - Devalahia» شاه‌زاده‌ای به نام «راجه سینهه - Raga sinha» می‌زیست. زنی داشت بسیار نام‌آور، اما بداخلاق و تند خشم.
روزی زن با شوهرش سخت مشاجره کرد و نتیجه آن شد که از خانه شوهر دل برکند و دو پسر خود را برداشت و به سوی خانه پدر خویش راه افتاد. از چندین دهکده و شهر گذشت و عاقبت به جنگل انبوهی رسید. نزدیکی‌های «مالایه». و در آن جنگل ببری دید. ببر هم او را دید. و دم جنبان به سوی او آمد. زن نخست ترسید. اما برفور رفتاری چون دلاوران به خود گرفت و چند بار پشت دست پسرها زد که:
«چرا بر سر خوردن این ببر با هم مشاجره می‌کنید؟ فعلاَ همین یکی را دو نفری بخورید، بعد یکی دیگر پیدا خواهیم کرد.»
ببر که این سخنان را شنید، با خود اندیشید که این زن حتماَ زنی دلاور است و از سر وحشت پا به دو گذاشت و گریخت.
در چنین حالی، شغالی، ببر را دید و گفت:
«عجب ببری که دارد از ترس می‌گریزد!»
ببر گفت:

 

E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to ....

 E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to a Man Who Had Lost Faith in Humanity

Dear Mr. Nadeau:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness. 

Read more.....

 

Unguided Tour, Susan Sontag’s fourth and final film

 Lost and Found

Jonathan Rosenbaum

"Unguided Tour, Susan Sontag’s fourth and final film, was based on her short story of the same title. Also known as “Letter from Venice,” the film features Lucinda Childs and Claudio Cassinelli and tells of a relationship that is fragmenting as they tour the decaying ruins of a hallucinatory Venice. "

"There’s always something ineffable

in the past."

Keeping a Diary

Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary

Reflections on the value of recording our inner lives from Woolf, Thoreau, Sontag, Emerson, Nin, Plath, and more.

 

A reading of My Name is Inanna at Krannert Art Museum Urbana, Champaign

 A reading of My Name is Inanna, a play by Ezzat Goushegir, the resident playwright of Chicago, performed by Maryam Abdi as part of the exhibition Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration. There was a Q & A after the show, moderated by Bob Jenkins. The audiences were very engaged.

 

A Conversation

A Conversation:

Nasrin Navab, artist and curator of Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration, spoke with Ezzat Goushegir about her play “My Name is Inanna” prior to its performance in the exhibition.

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign presents: 

 

"Join us for My Name is Inanna, a play by Ezzat Goushegir, the resident playwright of Chicago, performed by Maryam Abdi as part of the exhibition Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration. There will be a Q & A after the show, moderated by Bob Jenkins."

 

Double Standard of Aging

Double Standard of Aging

By Susan Sontag