Inprint and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, present a reading and discussion featuring four Arab American poets including Honors College adjunct faculty member Hayan Charara. The poets reading at the event, Elmaz Abinader, Kazim Ali, Hayan Charara, and Eliot Khalil Wilson, are contributors to Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, edited by Charara. In addition to reading their poetry, poets will discuss their work in a Q&A session moderated by UH Associate Professor of English Hosam Aboul-Ela.

Earlier this year, Charara was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship for $25,000. He wrote 2001's "The Alchemist's Diary" and 2006's "The Sadness of Others." Common themes and topics presented in his works focus on Arab American culture, family relationships and loss of loved ones.

Event Details:

Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.

Free, with general museum admission

A reception and book signing follow
Featuring readings by poets Elmaz Abinader, Kazim Ali, Hayan Charara, and Eliot Khalil Wilson

From Inprint's description of the event:

At no other time in American history has our imagination been so engrossed with the Arab experience. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Inprint present a reading and discussion featuring four of today´s foremost Arab American poets. While the work of these poets varies, both in form and subject matter, their experiences as Arab Americans and as artists bring them together. These poets, all contributors to Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry, help to shape our understanding of our diverse national identity. They do so with an astonishing array of poetic sensibilities, engaging culture, politics, loss, art, and language itself. Presented in conjunction with the MFAH´s recently created permanent gallery, Arts of the Islamic World, this reading will provide an opportunity to participate in a dialogue that is enlightening, original, and heartening.