KGB Non-Fiction Presents Iran Night

Come on out and get yourself a little attention from Homeland Security.

Sohrab Mohebbi is the author of “Hair is for Head-Banging” and a
contributor to Urban Iran. A writer/art critic from Tehran, he is
currently a student at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College,
New York, and the founder of the 127 music ensemble.

Charlotte Noruzi was born in Tehran, moving to the U.S. in 1977.
She is an author-illustrator-designer based in New York City. URBAN
IRAN is a depiction of everyday life apart from international and
diplomatic policies, giving voice to people living and working in Iran
today while probing the complexities of contemporary Iran. Described
and revealed by photographers, writers and visual artists, from street
art to heavy metal bands and book publishing, Urban Iran documents how
the Western media gaze influences how much of the world views Iran, but
also how this gaze impacts how Iranians see themselves, especially in
the realm of the creative arts.

Hooman Majd was born in Tehran, Iran in 1957. He worked at
Island Records and Polygram Records for many years, with a diverse
group of artists, and was head of film and music at Palm Pictures,
where he produced The Cup and James Toback’s Black and White. He has
written for GQ, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York
Observer, Interview, and Salon, and has been a regular contributor to
The Huffington Post from its inception. A contributing editor at
Interview magazine, he lives in New York City and travels regularly
back to Iran.

Manijeh Nasrabadi received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from
Hunter College. Her essay “Before I Knew Him” won the City University
of New York Arts Gala Memoir Prize in 2005. She was a Hertog Fellow
that same year and a 2008 recipient of a Hedgebrook writing residency.
Carry the Sand Away from the Walls, her memoir-in-progress, is about
the author’s relationship with her Iranian, Zoroastrian, communist
father whose experiences of poverty and a coup d’état in Iran shaped
him in ways that didn’t translate well in 1980s America.