Shab-e She'r - Poetry Month Celebration

Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night) LXII

Poetry Month Celebration

Toronto’s most diverse poetry reading and open mic series

At Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night) we don’t just wait for diversity to happen: we actively invite it.

Please spread the word through social media and any other way you know. Let our event become as diverse as we are.

Featured poets: Sozan Jamil and Spencer Gordon

Host: Bänoo Zan

Time: Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Place: Church of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, 365 College St, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2N8

Doors open 6:15 p.m.

Open-mic sign-up 6:30 p.m.

Show 7 p.m.

Admission: $5

Spencer Gordon is the author of three chapbooks and two critically acclaimed books: the short story collection Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012) and the new poetry collection Cruise Missile Liberals (Nightwood Editions, Fall 2017). He co-founded and edited The Puritan, the online literary journal, for ten years. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He lives in Toronto where he works at an environmental not-for-profit. Find him online at spencer-gordon.com.

Sozan Jamil was born in a Zakho- Iraq, but grew up in Baghdad and Mosul. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from Mosul University in Iraq, then worked as a high school teacher of physics, chemistry, and math from 1991 to 1998 in Zakho.

In Canada, Ms Jamil volunteered at elementary schools as teacher assistant for five years, and attained a Diploma in CCP at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Canada in 2008. She has worked as an on-call interpreter and translator in three languages—Arabic, Kurdish, and English—with SISO in Hamilton until 2010, then with Interpreting and Translating Services Company in Hamilton until November 2012. She now is a partner in Managing Oma Gate Publishing and Translation.

Ms Jamil is a member of Iraqi Writers Union in Iraq and a member of the Canadian-Iraqi Association in Toronto. Sozan is also a member of Hate Crimes Prevention Program and Victim Advocacy Network in Hamilton.

“I write poetry, short stories, and articles in Arabic and English, which are my second and third languages, and I published two poetry books in Arabic—the first one was (Swirls of the Rainy Honey) in 2011 in Baghdad, and the other was (Two Hymns of One Exile) in 2012 in Lebanon.” She said.

She has translated a Kurdish novel (Groans) into Arabic for the National Translating Center in Cairo, Egypt, in 2012, and participated in translating an Arabic novel into English called (Uproar) for Oma Gate Publishing and Translation. Sozan has also self-published a poetry book in English; it was In the Shade, in the United States. In addition, she published a short story collection in Arabic, called Leads to Insanity, in 2014 in Iraq.

She volunteers to write in many Arabic magazines in Ontario and in numerous websites.

“My short story (The Devil’s wedding) won the third prize in a Literature Festival in Baghdad in 2010, and I was chosen as the best Iraqi poet and short-story writer of the year in Egypt in August 2011. I won the third prize for my short story (When the Palm Tree Sings) in a literature competition in Baghdad on Feb. 2014. I won a prize for being active in promoting the arts from Iraqi-Canadian association in Toronto in May 2014 and in May 2016.” She said.

Ms Sozan Jamil also founded Dijla Writers Association in 2010 in Hamilton, and ran an Arabic literature festival in October of the same year. She ran an evening of poetry event in April of the next year 2011, also in Hamilton.

Sozan has participated in many Arabic and English literature Festivals and evenings in Canada, USA, Europe, Egypt and Iraq.

Both Shab-e She’r and St-Stephen-in-the Fields strongly support freedom of expression and encourage our features and open-mic’ers to use any language they wish.

This event is partially sponsored by St-Stephen-in-the Fields Church.

St-Stephen-in-the Fields accessibility information:

The venue has a wheelchair ramp entrance and is all on one level; however, the wheelchair ramp door does not yet have a pushbutton, so someone needs to hold the door open. There is one fully barrier-free washroom.

All washrooms are gender-neutral.

Twitter: @BanooZan & @ShabeSherTO

Instagram: @banoo.zan