RUMI - WATER with Haleh Liza Gafori, and special guest Erik Lawrence and Tatjana Chamis
Wed, May 14th, 2025 at 7:30 - 9:30 PM EDT
james simon sculpture studios, Pittsburgh, PA
Event Details
Hi All! Join us for an uplifting and transportive evening of music and recitation. Acclaimed translator, performance artist, and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori will immerse us in the images, rhythms, and liberating messages that pulse through the poetry of the beloved mystic and poet Rumi. Multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Erik Lawrence will accompany her.
At my Sculpture Studio 305 Gist Street $20. BYOB
Tonight we will celebrate the release of Haleh's 2nd volume of translations, entitled WATER.
"Water [Gafori's new translation of Rumi] is immediate and timeless. These poems imprint on the heart. To read these verses is to enter mystery and paradox, to be burnished by the sacred fire and broken open by the holiest dance.” – Suleika Jaouad
"Haleh Liza Gafori's pitch-perfect translation of Rumi updates and amplifies his mindful, muscular soul. Music, wit, and empathy color her lens. What a sweeping, invigorating read." – Terrance Hayes
Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on her translations and has presented her work via performances, lectures, and workshops, at institutions such as Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, Stanford University, Le Poisson Rouge, the Academy of American Poets, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bradford Literary Fest. Her work have been published by Columbia University Press, Paris Review, Harvard Review
and others, and her first book of translations Gold has been incorporated in the curricula of universities across the country.
Erik Lawrence: has toured the world as a saxophonist, flutist and composer. Erik has often been found support of a wide variety of legendary artists, counting his time with masters from many genres as part of his foundation, among them: American music masters: Levon Helm, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Miles, David Amram, Henry Butler; from the Spiritual music world Yungchen Lamo, Nawhang Khechog, Gabrielle Roth. He has gratitude for a more than 20 year association with modern jazz master Steven Bernstein and has played and recorded with Spin Doctors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Aaron Neville, Big Chief Russell Moore, The Levin Brothers (Tony Levin and Pete Levin), and with the Jose Limon Dance Company. In addition Erik has worked with tea masters playing Tea Ceremony meditation music.
The son of a renowned jazz saxophonist and educator, Arnie Lawrence, Erik began playing saxophone at the age of five. Since he has studied composition, music from around the world and has collected and dedicated himself to the study of flutes he has found in his travels to 41 states and 27 countries.
Tatjana Chamis - one of the great violists of the Pittsburgh Symphony will open the show for us! Violist Tatjana Mead Chamis has distinguished her career with successes as a principal violist, chamber musician, soloist, Latin Grammy-nominated recording artist, teacher and lecturer, as well as advocating for underheard or suppressed music and experimenting with new music.