Pars Arts

Pars Arts on KIRN 670 AM

I’ll be on LA’s Iranian radio station, KIRN 670 AM, on Tuesday, May 13, talking with Suzi Khatami during her live show at 8 pm PST, mostly about Pars Arts and maybe some other stuff. It’s my first time on radio!

You can listen live here. (Click the “Listen Live” link at the top of the page and make sure you enable pop-ups for that site.)

If you’re checking in to Pars Arts for the first time because you heard the show, use the links at right to browse the site, and use the search bar at the top right of the page if you are looking for something specific.

Pangea Day: Sili

Iranian actor and filmmaker Ehsan Amani had a funny short called Sili (The Slap) in yesterday’s worldwide filmfest Pangea Day – one of several dozen films and (I think) the only Iranian entry. Check out the rest of the day’s movies and more about Pangea Day here.

Arsham Parsi, Founder of IRQO, on Gay Life in Iran

Check out Arsham Parsi, founder of the Iranian Queer Organization, talking about gay life in Iran with Lindsay Campbell on MobLogic.TV and how Google helped him realize that being gay is normal and okay. He also addresses the sex change business in Iran. The video basically makes me want to give him a hug. He is awesome. Way to go, Arsham!

Pars Arts Twitters Irvine: the Iranian-American Writers Association

The Inauguration of the Association of Iranian-American Writers is happening at UC Irvine tomorrow, in a workshop format that will address issues of representation and etc. It’s hosted by UCI’s Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture and its director, Nasrin Rahimieh, as well as writer and professor Persis Karim and journalist Homa Sarshar. Here’s a press release on Payvand News, and here’s the full day’s schedule. It’s free and open to the public, so please come if you can.

The attendees include people like novelists Porochista Khakpour and Anita Amirrezvani. And I’ll be there to talk about the Internet and blogs and self-publishing and social media, on a panel with Jahanshah Javid of Iranian.com. My talk will probably be mostly focused on the benefits for writers in engaging with their readership online.

I may not have wireless access there, but I will be talking to people, taking pictures, possibly shooting some video, and updating microblog site Twitter constantly throughout the day via my cell phone. You can follow that “coverage” at twitter.com/parsarts.