A Bridge of Voices: A Reading by Arab and Jewish Poets

In this reading, Arab and Jewish poets living in Chicago come together to read original work.

This thought provoking evening unites two communities and highlights the range and diversity within each group. Rosellen Brown is the author of four novels, including Before and After, which was recently made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson,and Civl Wars, which won the Janet Kafka Prize for the best novel by an American woman in 1984. she has been the recipient of an award in literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and fellowshipps, three collections of poetry.

Mary Abowd is an associate editor at Chicago magazine. Her articles have appeared in the Sun Times, The Chicago Reporter, The Progressive and other publications. She is a board member of the Arab-American Action Network, and organization serving Arab immigrants on Chicago?s Southwest side, and is a longtime advocate.

Melysha Sargis is a published poet and writer who has read her works on WBEZ public radio. She is the Program Director at the Arab American Network and teaches creative writing workshops to young people. She instructs a course on original curriculum utilizing the arts to overcome violence.

Jeremy LaHoud is a published poet and writer who appeared in the ?Chi Town Lowdown? and various other publications. He is a Youth Empowerment Organizer at the Southwest Collaborative where he has lead visual arts projects, poetry workshops, and theater performances. He currently co-leads a workshop on the importance of hiphop music and the arts. Julie Parson-Nesbitt, author of Finers, is a past winner of the Gwendolyn Brooks Award and teaches poetry in Chicago public schools.

Phil Klukoff is the associate provost at Columbia College. His Yiddish translations have appeared in The Jewish Spectator and Foreword. His work has been published in New American Writing, and Ontario Review.>

Judy Belsky is a psychologist and the author of several children?s books and an adult non-fiction book A Thread of Blue.

Helen Degan Cohen, a writer of poetry, fiction, and plays, has twice received the Illinois Arts Council?s Literary Award and has been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. She is widely published nationwide, in literary magazines, including The Partisan Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Spoon River Quarterly, among others. She is also a recipient of a NEA Fellowship in Poetry.