Asian Arts Initiative Hosts City of Pearls Book Release
Asian Arts Initiative (1219 Vine Street) will host City of Pearls Book Release with writer Sham-e-Ali Nayeem on April 23 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Special guest poets & artists to be announced.
In her debut book ”City of Pearls,” Sham-e-Ali Nayeem Nayeem’s poetry offers a meditation on healing from grief. The poems ask the reader, what happens when we lose our anchor? Weaving together memories of her late father and ancestral home of Hyderabad, Nayeem’s poems explore landscapes of loss. She writes from the perspective of an Indian Muslim American who draws from the languages of her life to compose a poetics of vulnerability and tenderness. Known as the “City of Pearls,” Hyderabad’s jewels become a metaphor for resilience and growth. Each poem gains their opulence from the transmutation of the grit of migration, displacement and loss.
Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is a poet and visual artist who was born in Hyderabad, India and raised in both the UK and the US. A former public interest lawyer supporting economic justice for survivors of family and intimate partner violence, she is the recipient of the Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship. Sham-e-Ali’s poetry has appeared in publications, such as Apiary, Dusie and Mizna, and can be found in anthologies, including Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (Olive Branch Press, 2005), Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press, 2005) and Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence (Seal Press, 2008).
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