::VBB:: Press

Words for Peace 5: Condemn Invasion

Sunday, March 30, 7:00 pm
Diverse Works ArtSpace, 1117 East Freeway, Houston 77002
$5, no one will be turned away at the door

Houston, TX – At the end of this month, the five-year anniversary of the US occupation of Iraq, writers, musicians, cartoonists from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran will offer a window into their personal responses to war and invasion at Voices Breaking Boundaries’ annual event Words For Peace 5: Condemn Invasion. The organization will partner up with Words Without Borders to bring together world-renowned artists such as Iraqi writer Najem Wali who VBB is flying from Germany, alongside leading locally-based artists such as Farnoosh Moshiri, and new young artists from Lee High School. Sissy Farenthold, a veteran Texas lawyer and political figure, will be present to make opening remarks.

“Each year, VBB’s Words for Peace challenges the current world order,” says Sehba Sarwar, founding director of VBB. “By flying in an Iraqi writer from Berlin and presenting work by Lebanese and Iranian artists based in Houston, Words for Peace creates local and global links between major acts of violence that are happening—mostly conducted by the US—in the Middle East.”

Words For Peace 5 will offer Houstonians an opportunity to understand conflict and violence from the nuanced and complex work of diverse artists. VBB Arts Production Director Oskar Sonnen described the writing of Najem Wali who will read at the March event: “He writes about how to bring down a dictator like Saddam,” says Sonnen. “But he’s against war and invasion. So it’s a very difficult question, and for him it’s a very personal answer he comes to.”

The evening’s events include music, readings, food, and an exhibition of comics and other art. Community organizations will have tables at the event. Those include KPFT Pacifica Radio (90.1 FM), Artists Rescue Mission, Houston Palestine Film Festival, Peace Jam, and Words Without Borders, and Brazos Bookstore, which will be selling many books including A Mirror Garden and Literature from the Axis of Evil. Writers and musicians will be available to sign their work after the performance.

The artists performing or exhibiting their work at Words For Peace include:

Mazen Kerbaj creates art in diverse media, from paintings to political cartoons to performing in concerts. In 2000, he published Journal 1999 (a dairy composed of comics). Additionally, he has played the trumpet in concerts in Beirut, Paris, Berlin and other European cities.

Hayan Charara, the author of two poetry books, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and translated into French. He is also the editor of Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry.

Inaam Wali, an Iraqi-German musician, brings together classical Arabic music, European baroque sounds, and African American music in her songs.

Farnoosh Moshiri, an Iranian-born Houston resident, is the author of At the Wall of the Almighty, The Bathhouse, Against Gravity, and several short stories. She has earned several awards including the Barbara Deming Fiction Award for Peace and Social Justice.

Najem Wali, a novelist, was born in Iraq and lives with his wife Inaam in Germany. The author’s work includes The Journey to Tell al-Lahm and contributions to German-language newspapers.

Zara Houshmand, an Iranian American who lives in Austin, is an author and theater artist. She has co-written A Mirror Garden with Monir Farmanfarmaian.

The event is presented by Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB), a Houston non-profit arts organization that incites social activism and dialogue through the arts, and by Words Without Borders, an on-line arts organization that opens doors to international exchange through translation of the world’s best writing and publishes and promotes these works (or excerpts) on the web.

Voices Breaking Boundaries has been hosting “Words for Peace” for four years and has brought to Houston live readings by writers as renowned as Arundhati Roy and Naomi Shihab Nye, while giving voice to local youth, musicians and visual artists.

For more information contact Elia Arce at 713 524 7821, fax 713 526 1623 or email elia@vbbarts.org.

VBB celebrated its 10-Year Anniversary in 2009-10!
VBB is a multidisciplinary arts organization. Our mission is to
cross borders, sustain dialogue, and incite social justice through art.