If you thought Persepolis was the only work of Iranian culture to make waves in recent years, Emruz Festival is hoping to change that. Happening over two long weekends, April 19-21 and 26-28, at the Spectrum performance space in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, the inaugural festival will consist of musical performances, theater productions, and short films by independent Iranian artists living inside and outside of the United States.

Emruz means “today” in Farsi, and the festival’s organizers are interested in asking “What are we today, right now?” and “What is happening with us as immigrants in this country?” said theater director/choreographer Shadi Ghaheri. She and Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh wanted to interrogate the role of the artist in addressing these contemporary issues of identity.

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Suchitra Mattai, “The Great Escape,” 2019.

Definitions around gender have shifted dramatically in recent years. Grammar aficionados have duked it out over the singular they and dictionaries have made space for words like “trans*” and “Mx.”

“Women’s Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century,” which opens this Wednesday at Pen + Brush, takes the idea of definitions as a starting place, but goes much further.

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A good poem is a small slice of life. Loud music, a gentle gaze, raucous laughter, a brisk winter breeze. Poetry moves sensation to the page by transforming texture and temperature into text.

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The Society of Illustrators expects to draw crowds to Hudson Yards this weekend for the annual MoCCA Arts Festival. Hundreds of New York- and Brooklyn-based cartoonists, publishers, and other artists will turn out for Manhattan’s largest independent comics, cartoon, and animation festival. This year’s installment pushes beyond the boroughs of New York, though, with a special emphasis on breaking down borders.

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Aside from being April Fool’s, today was also the first day of National Poetry Month. If you forgot, that’s all right. There are plenty of poetry events happening around town this month to make up for it. Here’s where we’ll be heading to listen to beloved and undiscovered poems alike.

Você
April 1, Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, East Village
The Bowery Poetry Club is kicking off National Poetry Month in collaboration with the poetry agency Ars Poetica. Tonight, the club hosts a NYC/Amazon break-up themed dialogue and poetry reading called “Você.” Come to debate corporate tax incentives, stay for the music, comedy, and verse. Comedy Central’s Yedoye Travis, Brown Girls singer-songwriter Ashni, New School economist Richard McGahey, Make the Road NYC’s Deborah Axt/Angeles Solis, and poet ELÆ (aka Lynne DeSilva-Johnson) will get down for some “real talk,” as the Você slogan goes.

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