COLLECTIVE READING OF IRANIAN POETRY WITH YEGANEH KHOIE, REYHAN REYHANI AND NAZGOL EMAMI
SAT 28.1, 19H ACUD Galerie
Reading in Farsi, German and English.

Since the state-perpetrated femicide of Jina Mahsa Amini, Iran has been experiencing a nationwide uprising marked by the slogan "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî". This slogan, which originated from the struggles of Kurdish women activists in Turkey and was later adopted by feminists in Rojava, has continued to be a rallying cry against the oppression of the Islamic regime in Iran.

The literature event on Saturday, January 28th, is part of the "Tracing Movement(s) in Uncertain Times" series at ACUD, which aims to shed light on various efforts of Iranians over decades to pave the way for freedom and equality. Our collective reading is a creative approach to the three aspects of the slogan Zan, Zendegi, Azadi - Woman, Life, Freedom - through different texts of our past or recent times and will offer a glimpse into a range of topics, including demonizing women in ancient texts and the challenges faced by Iranians on their path to achieve freedom.

Yeganeh Khoie, born 1980 in Tehran, studied materials science in Tehran and Stockholm. She has lived in Germany since 2007. She studied philosophy and German in Halle and Frankfurt. She is the author of analytical texts on the socio-political space of Iran and works, among other things, as a freelance integration course instructor in Frankfurt. She is concerned with the issues of discrimination against women, queers and other marginalised groups. It is of great importance to her to analyse the background of political uprisings in order to understand how political subjectivisations function. She also writes at the intersection of philosophy and literature.

Reyhan Reyhani is an Iranian poet born in Shiraz, Iran in 1983. She studied English literature at Tehran Markaz University and worked as an expert on contemporary Persian poetry at the Iranian Poets' Association from 2006 to 2013, where she organised and moderated numerous literary events, debates and workshops. She was a jury member for the Young Poets Book Prize (2007-2010) and for the "Motafavet" literary prize (2013-2014). In 2014, she starred in the film "Mehmankhandeh" (Step-Guest). Since 2015, Reyhan Reyhani has lived in Berlin, continues to write poetry and short stories and works as a school social worker and cultural interpreter.

Nazgol Emami, born in Tehran, lives and works as a filmmaker and video designer in Cologne. After receiving her diploma in visual communication from the University of Wuppertal, she went on to study media arts at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Her works move at the interface between film, theatre and visual arts and have already been evaluated at numerous international festivals and exhibitions. She directs for Mathink X and ZDF Magazin Royale, among others, where she meets heavyweights like Haftbefehl or an iguana on set. She also realises video productions for the House of World Cultures in Berlin and the Rautenstrauch Jost Museum in Cologne. She regularly works as a video designer and cinematographer at various theatres. In the Corona Lockdown of theatres, she was often promoted to digital officer and convinced theatre makers of the digital potential for the performing arts. She also leads workshops in the field of animated film and multimedia scenography.