Artists Unite Issue

The Poets in the Galleries series utilizes the Museum’s exhibition space as an invigorating site for exploration, interactive readings and discussions. Each Sunday in September, a different poet will conduct a lively presentation in response to the Museum’s current exhibition, Tarjama/Translation. These gifted participants, all distinguished and emerging voices in the local, national and international literary scene, have been asked to devise an original presentation in response to the works on view. The current exhibition lends itself especially well to the series, by creating an open-ended forum in which the poets and visitors alike can explore the related themes of how poetry is translated across languages and cultures. Join us for a cocktail hour followed by the interactive gallery tour & readings by a different poet each week. Participating poets include Amir Parsa, Ali Husain Mir, Ammiel Alcalay, and Sinan Antoon.

An internationally acclaimed writer and poet, Amir Parsa is the author of over ten literary books, including Kobolierrot, Tractatüus Philosophiká-Poeticüus, Feu L’encre - Fable, Divan, Drive-by Cannibalism in the Baroque Tradition, Erre and the multilingual L’opéra minora. An uncategorizable body of work, Mr. Parsa’s literary oeuvre - written in English, French and Persian - constitutes a radical polyphonic enterprise that puts into question national, cultural and aesthetic attachments and discourses while fashioning new genres, forms and even species of literary artifacts. His work has been read and debated in galleries and museums, in streets and on rooftops, in broad daylight and in hiding, and at various festivals, events and curated venues. Books and photographs have been exhibited in both group and solo shows, most recently at the Uncomun Festival ‘08 and Engendered Festival ‘09 in New York. He was included in the anthology of new French and Francophone poets (Ed. Huguet 2004). Born in Tehran, Mr. Parsa was educated at Princeton and Columbia universities. He is Lecturer, Educator and currently the Manager of the Alzheimer’s Project at the Museum of Modern Art, and teaches at Pratt Institute.

Tarjama / Translation
Reshuffling the pertinence of geographical boundaries through the multivalent practices of translation, this unprecedented exhibition features artists from the Middle East, Central Asia and its diasporas. The exhibition examines the different ways with which artists engage with people, objects, images, and ideas traveling across geographic spaces, media forms, histories, and personal contexts. Encompassing a variety of media and artistic strategies, Tarjama / Translation treats the multiple processes of translation as dynamic and complex, from linguistic and textual maneuvers, to the transformation of consciousness engendered by the increasingly globalized world.

The Queens Museum of Art

New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens NY 11368
Telephone: (718) 592-9700
info@queensmuseum.org

Subway

Via #7 Flushing IRT. Exit Willets Point/Shea Stadium and follow the yellow signs on a ten-minute walk through the park to the museum, which is located next to the Unisphere. Alternatively, exit at 111th Street Station. Walk south on 111th Street past the New York Hall of Science. Left on 49th Avenue into the Park. Continue past fountain over the Grand Central Parkway bridge. Museum is on right, next to Unisphere.
Please Note: If you plan on taking the subway to the museum during the weekend, check the MTA Service Advisory Postings before leaving home.
Bus

48 to Roosevelt Ave and 111th Street.
Walk south through park (toward Unisphere)

Q23, Q58 to Corona Ave and 51st Ave.
Walk east through park.
Car

From West and midtown Manhattan: Take the Midtown Tunnel to the Long Island Expressway. Use Exit 22B, Grand Central Parkway West toward the Triboro Bridge. Exit the Grand Central at the first exit, Tennis Center (9P), turn right and follow signs to Museum.

From Brooklyn: via Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) to LIE Eastbound, to exit 22B exit 22B (Grand Central Parkway/Triboro Bridge), then exit GCP at Tennis Center (9P) and turn right to the Museum.

From North and Triboro Bridge: via Grand Central Parkway, exit at 9E or 9W and follow signs to Museum.

From East and Long Island: via LIE to GCP West, exit GCP at Tennis Center (9P) and follow signs to Museum. Free parking.