Gaza City
This weekend I'm off to the Arizona desert for photography, work, and fun. Later next week I will be at the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona.
On Thursday, March 12 at 6:30, The University of Arizona's Center for Middle East Studies and the U.A. School of Journalism are co-sponsoring my book slideshow/talk. Learn more at www.cmes.arizona.edu/calendar.
And I'll do it again in slightly different form for the Festival at the University of Arizona Bookstore on Saturday, March 14 at 2:30 pm, where I will also be signing books. Learn more at www.uofabookstores.com/uaz/TFOB/default.asp.
Well, Chicago was wonderful. On February 19, I gave my brand new Windows of the Soul slide show/talk for a sensitive and deep audience of art and book lovers and others at FLATFILEgalleries. I showed 70 slides and told some of the edgiest and most compelling stories from my book in a personal tour of Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World.
Susan Aurinko, the gallery owner/director, photographer and poet also read two beautiful poems by Nadia Anjoman, the late Afghan poet. Please read them here on the UniVerse website: www.universeofpoetry.org/Afghanistan.shtml.
Richard Fammeree and Francesco Levato of UniVerse read poems that night. Francesco's was harrowing: an unrelenting, personal view of war that doesn't let you off the hook and as it shouldn't. (War Rug: www.francescolevato.com). Fammeree's poetry had a gentler view with visions of ancient world and the differences and similarities between us.
Also on February 19, I sat for an in-depth interview about my book and life on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview with the excellent host Jerome McDonnell. You can listen to the interview here.
Will write to you again after Arizona!
