Hello all,
I will be reading at the Book Corner next Saturday, November 5th at 4pm. I hope to see you there!
“Hear Philadelphia's sharpest new voices reading from their latest work, this month featuring Arlene Bernstein, Alexandria Levin and Ashraf Osman.”
Emerging Writers Series
Saturday, November 5th at 4pm
The Book Corner
Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
http://www.libraryfriends.info/cgi-bin/index.pl?item=book_corner
3 comments:
wish we were there too. If we were present, we'd cheer for you in a way that will makes Arlene and Alexandria jealous :) Good luck, Ashraf.
Good luck.
Hey Dear,
It really has been some time, has it not?
Well, do not be too happy, for I have no time to write you in a prolonged form. I am just writing to let you know of my suggestions for your reading on Saturday (good luck).
Before that, I just want to tell you something that I did not have the chance to complete when we talked on Sunday, which is that your poetry has ameliorated not as did Salam's cooking, but as in it yet shall ripen, take a mature form, which ought to come as no surprise to you as you are only twenty-seven and as you have been writing fervently for a mere two years now.
Anyway, your must-haves (always in my opinion) are:
- Exit (August 2004)
- Ghosts (June 2004)
- Piece of Damascus (April 2003)
- Iodine (March 2003; but PLEASE take off the weakening "hush, don't tell me" at the end)
- I Write (October 2003; but read it later on. People would tend to perceive your poetry as "homosexual" poetry rather than "just" poetry if they knew that you are homosexual from the beginning. I know that you have seriously despised what I have just said, but it is not a homophobic or homoanything viewpoint, mine. It is just a human tendency, regardless of how open one's audience is, to put one and one's work/art into categories, hence "feminine literature" and "ethnic music" and "homosexual history." These notions, which come to think of it are Revisionist fruit, did not shatter the Canon or expand it as much as they created new niches for non-white-dead-male works, and I think of them as harmful precisely because of that; because they give way to the audience to perceive the opus in homosexual/feminine/black light rather than "objectively;" "I simply like that" starts to give way to "this is highly significant in its feminine context." My suggestion is that you force your audience into confronting their free appreciation for your poetry before they are confronted with the fact that you are homosexual, a point where it would be too late for them to interpret you poetry otherwise. I know that you have something to say here, and I am waiting for your mail.)
If your audience is not too well-acquainted with Life On a Beautiful Day (April 2003), include that as well.
Other poetry you might want to include:
- Jellyfish (September 2004)
- Anymore (August 2004)
- Life (July 2004; You might want to change the title as it is too familiar to the ear)
- Revelations (April 2005)
- Either Home (June 2005) or Unsinkable (June 2005). Do not use them together. I personally prefer Unsinkable
- Eclipse (June 2005). You Obe poems are generally nice
Best of luck. How is your thesis thing going?
Bises,
Ton frère
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