Queens authors, dancers in Oct. 11 translation performance

Quill is a forum for writers in the Queens borough

Queens in Love with Literature – or Quill — presents a creative translation event featuring performances by members of the Quill Artist Advisor Committee in collaboration with local choreographers at Green Space Studio in Long Island City on October 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Featured author/translators, including FilAm writer Luis Francia, Panagiota Lilikaki and Richard Jeffrey Newman, will present works alongside choreographers Jocelyn Alter, Mariana Bekerman and Keomi Tarver in a multidisciplinary conversation on the nature of translation, as well as the dynamic relationship between words and flesh.

Luis H. Francia is a poet, journalist, nonfiction writer, and professor. His semiautobiographical account of growing up in the Philippines, “Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago,” won both the 2002 PEN Open Book and the 2002 Asian American Writers literary awards. His poetry books include “The Beauty of Ghosts,” “The Arctic Archipelago” and “Museum of Absences.” He is the author of “Memories of Overdevelopment,” a collection of essays, and “A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos.” He edited “Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English” and co-edited “Flippin’’: Filipinos on America,” and “Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999.” He is included in the Library of America’s Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing, and the poetry anthology “Language for a New Century.”

Jocelyn Alter is an emerging choreographer, dancer and book artist. In 2007, Jocelyn graduated from SUNY Brockport, and has also studied in Cortona, Italy. In early 2008, she founded Jostle, a Queens-based collaborative dance company.

Mariana Bekerman was born in the Ukraine and emigrated with her family to NYC in 1979. After graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, she received her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1996. In 2000 she founded Mariana Bekerman Dance Company.

Panagiota Lilikaki is a native of Greece, where she was born and raised in the island of Crete. She earned her AA at LaGuardia Community College and her BA in English and secondary education at Queens College where she is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting and Translation.

Richard Jeffrey Newman’s works include “The Silence Of Men” (CavanKerry Press, 2006), a book of his own poems, and the recently published “The Teller of Tales” (Junction Press 2011), a translation of selected stories from the Shahnameh, the Iranian national epic. He is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York.

Keomi Tarver began her training at the age of 12 based in lyrical, modern, West African, hip hop, ballet and improvisational dance. Throughout the last decade Keomi has showcased her work at various venues such as San Diego State University, Yale University and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Quill is a forum for Queens writers who are committed to developing and defining the creative field of translation, and offers audiences in Queens the opportunity not only to hear from authors working in their own neighborhood, but also perhaps in their own language. It is funded by New York State Council on the Arts.



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