Ashraf Fayadh, a 35 year-old Palestinian poet and art
curator who lives in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to death by a Saudi court
on November 17, 2015 for the crime of apostasy and promoting atheism
in his 2008 book of poems, Instruction Within. Under the
auspices of the International Literature Festival Berlin’s worldwide appeal, New York-based writers participate in a reading of selected
poems and other texts in support of Ashraf Fayadh, on Thursday, January 14th,
2016 at 7pm at Terraza 7 Café in Queens. The reading has
been organized by Rattapallax magazine and the First Tuesdays reading
series in collaboration with Terraza 7 Café.
Participating artists include Michael Cirelli, Kia Corthron, Ram Devineni,
Catherine Fletcher, Mohamad Hodeib, Bob Holman, Kewulay Kamara,
Maria Lisella, Vikas Menon, Meera Nair, Idra Novey, Richard J.
Newman, Amir Parsa, Roger Sedarat, K.C. Trommer, Vaughn Watson.
Participants express solidarity with Mr. Fayadh, hoping to increase support for
the poet as well as pressure to release him. Can't attend the
event? Please consider signing a petition at either of these links: http://www.pen.org/Obama-Saudi-Arabia and https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Amnesty_international_Save_the_palestinian_poet_and_artist_Ashraf_Fayadh/?pv=1.
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