Novelist Porochista Khakpour's family moved to Los Angeles after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, giving up their successes only to be greeted by an alienating culture. Growing up as an immigrant in America means that one has to make one's way through a confusing tangle of conflicting cultures and expectations. And Porochista is pulled between the glitzy culture of Tehrangeles, an enclave of wealthy Iranians and Persians in LA, her own family's modest life and culture, and becoming an assimilated American. Porochista rebels--she bleaches her hair and flees to the East Coast, where she finds her community: other people writing and thinking at the fringes. But, 9/11 happens and with horror, Porochista watches from her apartment window as the towers fall. Extremism and fear of the Middle East rises in the aftermath and then again with the election of Donald Trump. Porochista is forced to finally grapple with what it means to be Middle-Eastern and Iranian, an immigrant, and a refugee in our country today.
Brown Album is a stirring collection of essays, at times humorous and at times profound, drawn from more than a decade of Porochista's work and with new material included. Altogether, it reveals the tolls that immigrant life in this country can take on a person and the joys that life can give.
Khakpour is in conversation with Myriam Gurba, a writer, spoken-word artist, and visual artist.
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Produced by Maddie Gobbo & Michael Kowaleski
Theme: "I Love All My Friends," a new, unreleased demo by Fragile Gang.
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Angel Dominguez, ”DESGRACIADO” w/ Sesshu Foster
SKYLIT: Naheed Phiroze Patel, ”MIRROR MADE OF RAIN” w/ Vikram Chandra
SKYLIT: Suchin Pak & Michelle Sugihara, ”MY LIFE: GROWING UP ASIAN IN AMERICA”
SKYLIT: Sonora Reyes, ”THE LESBIANA’S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL”
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Julio Anta, ”HOME” w/ Pornsak Pichetshote
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Catriona Ward, ”SUNDIAL” w/ Caroline Kepnes
ARTS ANNEX: Shala Miller, ”TENDER NOTED”
SKYLIT: Jarred McGinnis, ”THE COWARD”
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Sara Gran, ”THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE” w/ Liberty Hardy
SKYLIT: Kelly Barnhill, ”WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Kelly
SKYLIT: Claire Kohda, ”WOMAN, EATING”
SKYLIT: Adam Frost, ”THE DAMNED LOVELY”
SKYLIT: Fernanda Melchor, ”PARADAIS” w/ Sophie Hughes
SKYLIT: Gregory D. Smithers, ”RECLAIMING TWO SPIRITS” w/ Raven E. Heavy Runner
SKYLIT: Summer Michaud-Skog, ”FAT GIRLS HIKING”
SKYLIT: Sanaa Seif + Sharif abdel Kouddous, ”YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN DEFEATED”
SKYLIT: Antone Dolezal & Lara Shipley, ”DEVIL’S PROMENADE”
SKYLIT: Alexander Monea, ”THE DIGITAL CLOSET”
SKYLIT: Oliver Milman, ”THE INSECT CRISIS”
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