Gold: Rumi, Poetry & Music with Haleh Liza Gafori & Special Guests

This event will be held at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), 7th Floor Event Space. End times are approximate. Events may end early or late and are subject to change or cancellation. Patrons are strongly encouraged to wear a mask at NYPL in-person events. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.

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Haleh Liza Gafori is a poet, vocalist, and translator born in New York City of Iranian descent. Her book entitled GOLD, featuring her translations of poetry by the sage and mystic Rumi was released in 2022 by New York Review Books Classics/Penguin Random House. Presenting poetry, translations, story, and song, Gafori has performed at universities and festivals around the country, including Stanford University, Swarthmore College, and Lincoln Center. Her own poetry has been published by Columbia University Press, and her essays and translations by Literary Hub, Hyperallergic, and The Markaz Review. Maria Popova from The Marginalian named GOLD one of her favorite books of 2022.

Sabrina Hayeem-Ladani is a poet, multi-genre performer, and native New Yorker of Mizrahi-Jewish descent. She is a founding member of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of more than 60 women, and non-binary singers, who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance and to uplift and center women’s voices. Sabrina has performed her work globally, and her poems can be seen in various publications such as in the anthology So Much Things To Say: One Hundred Poems of Calabash (Akashic Books), and The Wide Shore, a journal of global women's poetry. She currently resides in Brooklyn.

Trina Basu is a violinist, improviser, composer, and teacher based in New York City of Indian and Canadian descent. Her musical voice explores contemporary and traditional worlds inspired by Indian classical ragas, chamber music, American folk, and improvised music. Basu co-leads Karavika, a chamber quartet that draws from South Asian repertoire, and has a duo project with violinist Arun Ramamurthy that works within frameworks of Carnatic ragas, creative improvisation, and western counterpoint. Her ensemble Karavika has two self-released albums, Sunrise and Of Earth and Sky. They have been praised by All About Jazz as "a dynamic sonic blend of uncommon mesmeric beauty". Basu has performed on stages with esteemed artists like Mos Def, Urban Bush Women, Gil Scott Heron, Ed Sheeran, and others, and on the award-winning Broadway musical Hadestown. Basu is a recipient of the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute Artist-Fellowship (2007), Brooklyn Arts Council (2022), and Jubilation Foundation (2022). She is a co-founder of the non-profit musicians collective Brooklyn Raga Massive.

Sivan Arbel is a critically acclaimed vocalist, composer, and arranger of Israeli descent, a worldwide performer, and an effervescent talent on the international jazz scene. Some of her recent performances have taken place at the Minsk Jazz
Festival, Bratislava Jazz Days Festival, Lincoln Center in NYC, Boston Jazz Festival, and 4020 Festival in Austria, to name a few. Since moving to NYC in 2014, Sivan has put out two albums: “Broken Lines” (2016) and “Change of Light” (2019), which was selected by Jazz2K as Best Vocal Disc of 2019. Sivan has collaborated with a wide array of musicians such as Japanese band Ichimujin, Pandero player Tuliio Araujo, Groove it Forward Project pianist Guy Mintus, as well as several dance projects.

Marika Hughes is a cellist, singer, songwriter, and native New Yorker from a musical family. Her grandfather was the great cellist Emanuel Feuermann and her parents owned a neighborhood jazz club, Burgundy. Marika holds dual degrees in Political Science and Cello Performance from Barnard College and the Juilliard School, respectively. She's been a storyteller on The Moth Radio Hour and has worked with Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Anthony Braxton, David Byrne, Adele, D’Angelo, Idina Menzel, Taylor Mac, Nels Cline, and Henry Threadgill, among many others. Marika has self-released three albums: The Simplest Thing (2011), Afterlife Music Radio (2011), and New York Nostalgia (2016). She leads the bands Bottom Heavy and The New String Quartet and is the Founder of Looking Glass Arts, an artist-led retreat and recording space in Upstate New York that offers fully funded and sliding-scale residencies to record in the non-profit's 100-year-old rustic barn studio. Looking Glass Arts prioritizes Black and Brown artists; democratizing access to space, time, and natural beauty critical to artistic growth.

Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

Assistive listening devices available

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

This program is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and a grant from the New York State Council of the Arts

Image credit: Haleh Liza Gafori_Woodward Theater

Event Venue

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 5th Avenue, New York, United States

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