***VIRTUAL EVENT***
THURSDAY MAY 28, 2020 | 7-8PM EST

Livestreamed on the Asian American Writers’ Facebook page.

Join the Asian American Writers’ Workshop for a virtual reading and fundraiser for Laal NYC, featuring Nadia Q. Ahmad, Tarfia Faizullah, and Samira Sadeque. These accomplished journalists and poets celebrate Bengali culture in NYC, explore immigration, gender, mental health, hate speech and find the poetic junctures where “brutality, desire and beauty combine.” We are honored to welcome them to our virtual stage alongside grassroots organization Laal NYC.

Laal NYC provides resources to Bengali women in the Bronx so that they can live healthy, engaged and joyful lives. Laal provides Bengali women in the community with a safe space where they can practice literacy and conversational skills as well as learn about health and wellness. Many of Laal’s community members have lost their jobs, are hospitalized, or are taking care of sick parents or grandparents, and are struggling to keep on top of their expenses.

In response to Covid-19, LAAL is partnering with Local Zakat, a collective that helps those at home, to create an emergency fund for those who need support with bills, medical expenses, groceries or any other covid-19 related expenses. Two-thirds of the proceeds will support our emergency fund. One-third of all proceeds will support the implementation of Laal’s Fall programs which include workshops on literacy, mental health, and nutrition for women.

Click here to donate to Laal’s Covid fund: http://bit.ly/laalrelieffund

NADIA Q. AHMAD is a poet, writer, and editor born and raised in New York and currently based in Queens. Her work has been published in The Shoreline Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, Newtown Literary, SpliceLit, AAWW Open City, and The Margins. She is a VONA/Voices and Kweli Journal workshop alum. Having been involved in various community initiatives in arts & culture in New York City, Nadia has worked as Program Associate at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) and as Editorial Fellow at Poets & Writers, and serves on the board of the Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts (BIPA). She also facilitates a variety of writing workshops in the NYC area.

TARFIA FAIZULLAH was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Bangladeshi immigrants and raised in Texas. Tarfia is the author of two poetry collections, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf, 2018) and Seam (SIU, 2014). Tarfia’s writing has appeared widely in the US and abroad.

SAMIRA SADEQUE is a Brooklyn-based Bangladeshi journalist and poet, writing on immigration, mental health, gender. Her poetry appears on Button Poetry (video), and in No, Dear Magazine; Black Horse Review; ActiveMuse, and In Full Color, among other publications. Currently, as a City Lore teaching artist, she teaches poetry for primary schoolers in Queens. Her poem “Fire” was nominated for a 2019 Best of the Net award. She is an alum of Winter Tangerine workshops, Thinking In Full Color, and the New York Foundation of the Arts immigrant artists mentorship program.