Events
The Ghazal from Rumi to Bollywood: A Writing Workshop with Zack Rogow & Anshuman Chandra
Apr 24 2010
EVENT DETAILS
Saturday, April 24
10:00AM - 3:00PM
CIIS Minna Street Center
$65
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
This is a writing workshop on the wonderful ghazal form. The ghazal began in Arabic and flourished in Persian poetry at the time of Rumi. Today the ghazal is enormously popular in South Asia, where there are American Idol-style TV shows on the ghazal, and Bollywood songs in the ghazal form. Recently U.S. poets have begun writing ghazals in English.
In this workshop you will learn about the history of the ghazal and see and hear examples of the form. Then you will write your own ghazal, and learn to sing it as well.
The ghazal is ancient, but also surprisingly contemporary. It can weave together topics as diverse as love, spirituality, and politics. It also refers back to the poet. The ghazal's rhyme scheme is reminiscent of the wittiest lyrics. Previous experience writing poetry or singing is a plus, but not a requirement.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Zack Rogow is a poet and translator. His sixth book of poems is The Number Before Infinity. He edited an anthology of U.S. poetry, The Face of Poetry, and teaches in the MFA writing programs at California College of the Arts and the University of Alaska, Anchorage.
Anshuman Chandra has performed ghazals and other poems in Urdu at the Indian Cultural Center in Milpitas and the Pakistan American Cultural Center. He composes and performs his own melodies for ghazals and is currently working on a CD of ghazals by early twentieth-century poets. Born in India, he lives in Mountain View.
