Free University

In New York City’s Madison Square Park, hundreds of people attended a Free University "Free University" hosted by Occupy Wall Street, where professors gave free classes to May Day protesters. Activists said the event marked an alternative means of sharing knowledge outside the capitalist system. "This movement is all about building community and sharing and coming up with alternatives to the economic system that’s so pervasive in our lives in everything that we do," said Amin Husain, a key facilitator for the Occupy movement, who attended the event.

May Day

Yesterday, my friend, Mahasti Shahrokhi, a writer and poet  from Paris called me and with a certain exciting tone of voice said: "Happy Workers Day!"
-"Thank you, Same to you", I said.
-"Today is our day. The workers day! Aren't we workers without pay? We work so hard as writers...
-"...And we're being severely exploited as writers!" I continued.
-"France celebrates May Day beautifully and it's a public holiday in Europe. All the shops, offices, banks are  closed right now!"
And I thought to myself, May Day historically originated in Chicago in 1886, but American public doesn't know much about it!

"Outside the U.S., May 1 is International Workers' Day, observed with speeches, rallies, and demonstrations. Ironically, this celebration of working-class solidarity originated in the U.S labor movement in the United States and soon spread around the world, but it never earned official recognition in this country."

 “It was mostly immigrants who led the first May Day movement for the 8 hour day. Now a new generation of immigrant workers have revitalized and brought May Day back to life,” observed María Elena Durazo, the feisty head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor who enthusiastically embraced the Occupy movement in her city.

Watch or read the interviews on Occupy Everywhere in May Day in Democracy Now!
Watch another interview with Tariq Ali and Ann Wright in Democracy Now.
Some of the voices of of organized labor at the May Day rally in New York.

Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble

Big Money, Bid Media, Bid Trouble

How big money and big media have coupled to create a ‘Disney World’ of democracy.
Watch at Bill Moyers & Company.

And read "Media Fast"!

...And Because I Love You...(Viva Norwegian people)

Oslo, in April 26 2012, 40,000 people started to sing the song Anders Behring Breivik told in court that he despises the most.

The song is the Norwegian version of Pete Seeger's "My Rainbow Race", rewritten in Norwegian and released in the early 1970s by singer/songwriter Lillebjørn Nilsen who is the lead in this recording from the Norwegian Broadcasting corporation (NRK).

This extremely well known and popular song was sung by the crowd at the Youngstorget square before they all walked to the court building, still singing, laying down roses outside while court was still in session.

Italian author Antonio Tabucchi

"Italian author Antonio Tabucchi died on Sunday, March 25, in Lisbon, his second home for many years.
Born in Pisa in 1943, Tabucchi, the son of a horse trader, was one of the finest voices in the European literature. He was the author of novels, short stories, essays, and plays, as well as the renowned translator of FernandoPessoa."
Read more...
On September 2008, in  Chicago International Film Festival, I saw Requiem directed by Alain Tanner. Mesmerized by the  film I was drawn  to the mysterious poetic world of Fernando Pessoa, the Portuguese poet. A world I am enchanted by ever since...
Read a translation of his poem "Actor" from French into Persian by Mahasti Shahrokhi.

"My Name is Inanna" at Penghao Theater

Second Production of Chinese translation of my play "My Name is Inanna" is running at the Penghao Theater from April 18 to 29, 2012 in Beijing, China. director Hu Xiaoqing ,

Barren

Barren (Setarvan) is a collection of short stories in Persian by Iranian-American writer Shirindokht Nourmanesh, published in 2010 in Afra Publications in Canada. The collection contains nine short stories written in various forms and styles on the situation of different generations of women living in diaspora. As Shirindokht is also a painter, her stories are outstanding blends of striking colors, surrealistic images and various moods wrapped in original surroundings. In a narrative voice, with poetic internal dialogue, she describes women’s emotional pain, trauma, isolation and solitary, --those who are uprooted from their homeland and segregated from their proverbial environment.

A fiction writer, poet, and translator, Shirindokht Nourmanesh was born and raised in Tehran.
Her first collection of short stories and novellas, Domal, was published in the US, and her translations, stories, and memoirs have appeared in print and online publications such as Barresiyeh Ketab (Persian Book Review), Rozaneh Magazine, and Khavaran Independent.

کتاب "سترون" دومین مجموعه داستان نوشته شیرن دخت نورمنش است شامل نه داستان کوتاه که در نشر افرا در سال 2010 به چاپ رسیده است. دردهای عمیق زنان قصه ها که گویی لایه های متفاوت و متنوع یک شخصیت هستند بر خواننده بسیار اثر می گذارند.  شکل روایی و بیانی شخصیت های اصلی در قصه ها متنوع و گونه گون است. حس ها و فضاهای سوررئالیستی، شاعرانه بیان شده اند و تصویر سازی ها مثل تابلو های نقاشی رنگ آمیزی شده اند. نوع استفاده از رنگ به واژه ها  بیانی ویژه داده است وصمیمیت  زنان ساده دل چند قصه از جمله "دو استکان چای، هزاران هزار پروانه"  بدلیل نثر روان، سادگی های عاطفی کاراکتر ها و عشق در زمان سالمندی بسیار به دل می نشینند. .  قصه "سترون" سنگینی درد سترون بودن زن را به خوبی و با ریزه کاری بیان کرده است. در بسیاری موارد بعضی از نوشته ها بسیار با هستی نویسنده عجین هستندو بار تنهایی نفس گیر کاراکتر ها بازتابی است از تنهایی نسلی که مجبور بوده است یک تنه صلیب سرنوشتش را به دوش بکشد.