Telegraph Hill Books: Hair on Fire: Afghan Women Poets

Sponsored by Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press

A part of Words Around the World

In Hair on Fire, five female Afghan poets wield language to combat the loneliness, absurdity, and claustrophobia of life in a war-torn country and its diaspora. There are long hypnotic beards tangled with mass extinctions; hateful men burning grapevines; black blindfolds; jinn in chadors; and condoms advertised every eight minutes on TV. Interspersing these are tender moments: one poet describes brushing her daughter’s hair, while another imagines a tree growing at the center of a room, undisturbed by the bombs outside. In the wake of the Taliban’s escalating war on Afghan women’s rights, Hair on Fire is a blazing tribute to a group of exceptional poetesses and a reminder of what we lose when voices are silenced. Diana Arterian, Samantha Cosentino, Armen Davoudian, Sabrina Nouri-Moosa, and Marina Omar read from their translations of poetry by Nadia Anjuman, Mahbouba Ibrahimi, Mariam Meetra, and Karima Shabrang. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation